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Are you nostalgic?

Mia

Well-Known Member
V.I.P Member
It's various definitions describe:
  • A feeling of pleasure and/or sadness when you think about things that happened in the past.
  • A sentimentality for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations.
  • Recalling the past in a rosy, positive light, even though the true past is more complicated. It’s a sentimental or wishful emotion that makes us reminisce, or recall past times.
Do you think the past is better than the present? I am sometimes reminded of the past with a scent, say of apples or smell of long grass in the sun. A time when there were few responsibilities and a different sort of freedom.

I've noticed that some like to collect items such as trains, dolls, seashells, toys and games to mention a few. Are these collections related to nostalgia about childhood? Is this hearkening back to the past a way to remember it or celebrate it or both?

Because really when you consider life in general, it's about loss. Loss of childhood, home, place, innocence, people you knew. So maybe that's why nostalgia exists in the first place, as life is all about change. And change is difficult for people with autism.
 
Considering i'm hyped for tony hawk's pro skater 1/2 (ps1 games getting) remastered on ps4 in september.........
Yeeeehs! :p
 
@Mia
With increasing age- l reminisce about many great things l enjoyed. Many fantastic times. My memories take me to delicious food, interesting people, and breath taking scenery. People become upset because l don't want to meet, or go places. I feel like l have lived a very satisfying life. I don't think l can top it. Don't see it as so much as loss, it would be a loss to have never experienced it.
 
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I'm not sure there's enough money in the world to pay me to 'go back'

I much prefer it where I am, now :)

To state I don't get nostalgic wouldn't be accurate.
I don't feel nostalgic that often.

I can reminisce about places I've worked if something about the job relates to a present conversation.

I can remember experiences, again if they're the topic of present conversation.

I don't daydream, lost in memories of days gone by, longing for the simpler, care free times,
because they never were.

That time is now. Not simpler or care free,
but certainly easier :)

Smells and tastes conjure up pictures in my memory. Like one seconds worth of film playing.
A certain cookie brings up the image of a junior school dinner lady telling me I didn't HAVE to stay at the table till I'd eaten all of my school dinner.
(I couldn't eat it and worried about having to sleep at school because I couldn't eat it)
These days that cookie reminds me of relief... that kind of reminiscing. :)

(she took my untouched school dinner away, handed me the cookie smiling kindly, gave me permission to leave the table)
 
Recalling the past in a rosy, positive light, even though the true past is more complicated. It’s a sentimental or wishful emotion that makes us reminisce, or recall past times.

My reminisces are usually painful. Any positive moments from childhood have drowned in a swamp of unhappiness, misery and depravation.

Do you think the past is better than the present?

No.

I've noticed that some like to collect items such as trains, dolls, seashells, toys and games to mention a few. Are these collections related to nostalgia about childhood? Is this hearkening back to the past a way to remember it or celebrate it or both?

I have collections now, as an adult. I love antique and vintage items and have random collections of things that appeal to me. None are related to my childhood though.

I also have a large amount of shoes and coats. I believe this is due to not having a coat between the ages of 11 to 16; I used to have to walk miles to and from school with no outer clothing for protection or warmth, just a shirt and school jumper. And shoes - one pair purchased per year, probably at the start of the school year. Now though, I'm spoilt for choice with footwear and outer wear.

Loss of childhood, home, place, innocence, people you knew.

I didn't really have a 'childhood' to lose. Mine was not one of innocence and an absence of worry/concerns. It was fraught with emotional and physical abuse, neglect, ridicule and bullying.

I feel a level of envy for people who can look back at their earlier life with a sense of contentment, security and love. I would love to feel that. Sadly, I wasn't born to parents who deserved the privilege of having children.
 
No, not really, though certain smells or songs can trigger really powerful images in my mind - some pleasant, others not so. I can feel notstalgic for music - another thread here mentions watching movies over and over again and that was never something I did, I suppose because I didn't have a video recorder and videos as a child, but music - that's a different matter. I used to listen to the same song or album over and over again, endlessly, and even now, that song will bring me nostalgic feelings of comfort.
 
Yes. I like to think of things in the past or tell stories about certain things.
But, it does not make me feel better because I DO miss it is why I talk about it.
Nothing in my life today can compare to the carefree, happy feelings of my younger life.
Now I feel alone. I like some alone, but, not loneliness.
 
I prefer moving forward, always the next big hairy thing. Just turned 40, I am eager to live the 2nd half, feels like a brand new experience.

My problem with past is the vividness. Sometimes i am sucked into the past like a time loop or rarely two memories overlap with actual moment like multi-layered reality, messes my mind and heart.
 
Like the others here; childhood memories are missing. Because of the painful, insecure, hurtful feelings that come up. So you just block everything. In fact it just turns into a blur. Maybe that's why l lived in beautiful places to overlap those feelings and memories. To finely forget.
 
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Hmmm, I like collecting for the sake of collecting. The patterns and shapes I can find are so unique it seems to scratch some kind of itch in my brain.

Nostalgia... Sometimes, yes, although for me it's more of the wishful thinking kind where I just keep wondering about 'what ifs'. It turns to regret or bitter resignation too often for me to truly enjoy it. Not to say that I have no good memories from my childhood or outside of it... But every single one seems to be tinged with an inevitable negative feeling, sometimes sadness, sometimes hurt or fear. I think often of the past and of the choices I could have made that maybe would turn everything around but, at the end of the day, I wouldn't come back if I had the choice. I did the best I could with the resources I had in the circumstances I experienced.

More often than nostalgia I feel other emotions. Shock and confusion about how I even survived some things. Loneliness, bitterness and envy concerning things I was never given and of these that were taken from me, even with how little I had. Regret or shame concerning choices I made and chances I wasted. Pride for each step I've taken, because I survived to tell the tale.

Although, I suppose, they could all, in a way, be simply called a part of being nostalgic.
 
Maybe life is more about gain than loss. Gaining experiences and knowledge.
I easily feel nostalgia, mostly over the days my kids were growing up. My childhood was not very pleasant but I remember it. I usually take those memories and figure things out about myself or life in general, but there are few pleasant memories from childhood.

Funny, I was trying to think of a good memory (there are some) from my childhood and the first that came to mind was hiding in a pup tent, petting and singing to my dog. Only interrupted by my sister outside the tent hurting the dog with a stick through the tent and the dog biting me. What might I take from that? That I enjoyed peace and there was always someone that took that away from me. :)
But I can say that (except my kids and grandkids) my nostalgic moments always came from times I was alone, enjoying nature in some form.
 
I also have a large amount of shoes and coats. I believe this is due to not having a coat between the ages of 11 to 16; I used to have to walk miles to and from school with no outer clothing for protection or warmth, just a shirt and school jumper. And shoes - one pair purchased per year, probably at the start of the school year. Now though, I'm spoilt for choice with footwear and outer wear.

So do I:)Often had hand-me downs, and one pair of shoes and a pair of winter boots. I have so many coats and jackets for the variable kind of climate I live in now and I love it. Same with boots and shoes now. I feel so fortunate, and the footwear actually fits me.
 
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Nostalgia is very painful. No, thank you. :eek:

Yeah, same here. Well, to a degree.

I have a hard time dealing with things like old memories, or thoughts of stuff that arent around or that I cant do anymore. Heck, just this morning I had a dream... just as bloody surreal and nonsensical as usual, but among the twisted weirdness were some very, very familiar elements.... reminders of a certain something that I cannot any longer access. I did not take to this well, and woke up in a state of blazing rage. Which, I gotta say, is not the ideal way to start your day. There's already the perpetual "WHERES MY CAFFEINE" anger to deal with, after all.

And other stuff is just kinda depressing. Christmas in particular hits hard. Seeing all the decorations, particularly tinsel, and the overall smell of those trees (the real ones), stuff like that... I have a ton of great memories of Christmas as a kid. But Christmas as an ADULT is bloody stupid (the "parties" specifically.... holy thundering boredom, Batman!) Yet I still like the atmosphere and all the lights and all that stuff. So I'm both drawn to and repulsed by it, every year. It's more than a little irritating.


On the other hand though, there are some things that I'm not so affected by.

Like, alot of people get nostalgic for childhood stuff because they're now "too old for that crap", or something like that. Whereas I, on the other hand, could not give less of a fart about that. I dont care if what I'm doing is super childish... I'll do it anyway, dagnabit. If I wanted to sit here and play with Legos, I'd just freaking do it, no hesitation.

But also, my main hobby even as a kid was video games, and all of those are now accessible via emulators. Which I can do in full VR. There's nothing missing from THAT experience. Those ancient Atari games (or whatever) are accessible to me at any time... even if the controller is a little weird and I can phase my whole head right through the TV. Heck, it's what I got this entire PC for.
 
Not really. Not in my OCD world where I have a tendency to purge the old from the new. Though in the course of purging older belongings, there is usually some amount of lamentation that goes with it. Otherwise I live in a very sterile, modern environment.

I suppose the only real connection I have with nostalgia is being in possession of all my family's photographs. Having a visual guide to what life was like in a very different era, and even beyond when I came into this world.

As far as merely reminiscing about the past, for me it is more a matter of pain than pleasure. Whatever good memories I have tend to be crowded out by so many bad memories.

Though for what it's worth, I do fondly remember the early days of personal computing with DOS 5.0 and Windows 3.1. Happily spending so much time in software stores that no longer exist. Fun times for me. That's probably about as nostalgic as I get. :oops:
 
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my nostalgic moments always came from times I was alone, enjoying nature in some form.

Mine as well, I have images in my mind of myself sitting in a tree on a sunny day watching a lynx in another tree and a mother bear below with her cub eating blackberries. Both of us treed by the bear. As we stared at one another. It's one of my best memories.
 
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Because really when you consider life in general, it's about loss. Loss of childhood, home, place, innocence, people you knew.
I disagree. I'd say that life is about gain. We all began as amateur babies, without the knowledge of how to walk or talk or affect our environment in any way; our only means of getting food OR protection OR warmth OR anything else, really, was to cry and call for help from the incomprehensible giants who surrounded us. They may give help; they may not, but we were completely reliant on them for absolutely everything. Many people look on this time as idyllic; I see it more as a horror story. All of us struggle to get out of it; would that more of us remembered that.

Do we lose childhood? Parts of it, certainly. Some are going to be lost no matter what you do; people move in, in one way and another. But most you can hold to; chocolate milk isn't any less tasty now than it was when you were six. Dinosaurs are still awesome. Yes, you move out of the home you grew up in, but then you build another; one that you grow up in. And innocence... innocence is only lost when you gain guilt. Not knowledge. Innocent and ignorant are two different things.

To answer the question more broadly: have you ever given blood? Have you ever donated plasma? Here in the US, you're not allowed to sell body parts, but plasma donation takes so long, they give you some money "to compensate you for your time". I've done both; plasma in the bad times, whole blood in the good. Much of the experience is the same; wait, recline, get stuck, etc. The big difference (aside from the time factor) is in how you're treated: when you're giving blood, you're a hero; when you're giving plasma, you're livestock. Sometimes they stick you wrong, and you wind up with a bruise that lasts two weeks and until it heals, you can't donate. Oh, this was your only source of income? Too bad; see you in two weeks- next!

I've been there- out late at night, wandering through the streets in search of dandelions, as they were the only source of calories I'd have that day. Learning to identify the various herbicides people used by the residual flavors that never quite washed off. Fantasizing about gaining enough political power to make growing the useless weed we call "grass" illegal. Reflecting on all the stories I'd heard of famines, of bodies found with grass stains around their mouths, of people who'd died knowing there was no nutrition in this plant, but it'd at least quite their bellies for a while. Knowing that even in my desperate poverty, there were parts of the world where'd I be rich as a king, since I at least had a roof over my head. Back then, would I have traded lives with my six-year-old self? Would I have gone back? Not a chance.
 
I remember taking a very skinny dangerous road on one of the Hawaii islands. Parking and jumping into the ocean, just beautiful. In Hilo, a local took me to a hot springs that only locals knew off. My local host needed to unwind , he was being pushed into a illegal occupation he didn't want to be a part off. I windsurfed off a black sand beach that lava wiped out in Hilo. That's a very demanding sport. I night dived once (scuba) in my lifetime. I just waited for a giant shark to attack me. The complete pitch darkness is very scary. Then a couple of giant eels opening and closing jaws was like being in a haunted house. Then my two diving pals split, but then they came back into view. I remember my very first flight to Hawaii, my female friend told me on the plane, she had 17 pakalolo cigs. (She suffered from anxiety). I nearly had passed out right then and there. We vacationed then we flew back to the mainland. Packed up our stuff and moved to Hawaii because it wasn't too crowded at that point.

Memories. I have a few......Hawaii now has too many cars, too many people. Taxes are too high. The first little hut we stayed in at the beach is now gone, with a giant hotel in it's place.
 
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