What gives you Nostalgia?

[D'Andre]

Neon lights remind me of the mall in the 80s
Christopher Crosse and Toto Music (pretty much all 80's music)
The Goonies is my ultimate Nostagic movie
nachos....i ate them at the skating rink as a kid
Kids incorporated
Dreary days (lots of field trips and Mom trips on rainy afternoons)
Sunsets
summer breeze (sitting in Aunt's brown truck)
Human Nature by MJ
Free Willy
backstreet boys, Nsync, 98 degrees, and BBMak lol
Cassettes
Super Mario Brothers
comet (i used to sneak and play with comet and water as a kid) it's a wonder i'm not some mutant hero by now.
pencils, erasers, and stickers (my first collections in school)

 

[Judge]

The Beatles, Dave Clark Five, rare but high humidity, Beeman's chewing gum, seeing very old cars from my childhood. And perhaps most of all, recalling DOS 5.0 with Windows 3.1 and the inevitable visit to the local Egghead Store. And thoughts of my first online social media...a DOS version of Prodigy.

 

[Rodafina]

@Judge, Immediate nostalgia reading about Egghead Store – I used to rock this t-shirt. Of course, I got made fun of for it, but that’s one way to learn how to survive on the playground.

And, @D’Andre, the skating rink for me, too. The last skating rink in my area was turned into a liquor warehouse 25 years ago.

Also, these plastic charm necklaces:

 

[Swansong]

Internet forums.

When I was younger and the Internet was starting to take off but the era of social media still hadn't begun it was a time where there was a huge forum for just about anything and you could just go anywhere, join, have discussions and even someone like myself could eventually make some friends.

Those were fun times.

 

[QueenOfFrance87]

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Sweet Pickles books
Beanie Babies
Sesame Street
Nicktoons/Nickelodeon game shows/Nick Jr.
Dunkaroos
Classic rock music
Hot Wheels
Disney
Video cassettes and Blockbusters
Pokemon (1st generation)
Teletubbies
Beavis and Butthead
Squeezits
The Simpsons (first nine seasons)
Bart Simpson Butterfingers commercials
Polly Pocket
Peanuts and Garfield
Arthur books and TV series
Fox Kids
Cartoon Network (Cartoon Cartoons)
Lisa Frank products
NES
SNES
Sega Genesis
Lamb Chop
Wonderball
McDonald's Happy Meals
Lite Brite
Berenstain Bears
ALF

 

[Au Naturel]

Neon lights remind me of the mall in the 80s
Christopher Crosse and Toto Music (pretty much all 80's music)
The Goonies is my ultimate Nostagic movie
nachos....i ate them at the skating rink as a kid
Kids incorporated
Dreary days (lots of field trips and Mom trips on rainy afternoons)
Sunsets
summer breeze (sitting in Aunt's brown truck)
Human Nature by MJ
Free Willy
backstreet boys, Nsync, 98 degrees, and BBMak lol
Cassettes
Super Mario Brothers
comet (i used to sneak and play with comet and water as a kid) it's a wonder i'm not some mutant hero by now.
pencils, erasers, and stickers (my first collections in school)

Forests and fields and gently rolling hills and rivers and lakes thick with trees. Small rural towns. 1960s television. Movies from original Star Wars and earlier, all the way back to the '30s.

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

rawhide, hoes, bob war, dogs running off leash, red earth, dusty bluejeans, prairie bonnets, kerosene lamps, a warm hearth, holiday meals, eucalyptus, oak, rose tobacco, sunrise, fog, hot air balloons, vineyards, tomata vines, little girls running barefoot on dry earth

 

[Tom]

If I have too many eggs it can trigger it.

 

[Qoyote]

Internet forums.

When I was younger and the Internet was starting to take off but the era of social media still hadn't begun it was a time where there was a huge forum for just about anything and you could just go anywhere, join, have discussions and even someone like myself could eventually make some friends.

Those were fun times.

The only websites where I feel like I'm part of the group are here and a small RPG forum I'm on. No one knows each other on Reddit or Discord, people just come and go constantly and they encourage very short posts so you can't make connections or talk about anything real. I think it's part of why everyone's so lonely.

Pop punk (even new stuff).
Emo (the fashion) kids.
Childlike people/people who never forgot how to play (this is a HUGE one that can get obsessive if I'm not careful).
Old Taylor Swift (country).
Old Lapfox Trax albums (don't ask).
PS2 games.
Flash, especially Homestar Runner.

 

[Au Naturel]

The smells of a barnyard.

 

[Slime_Punk]

Oddly, nothing. Maybe my sense of nostalgia has been exploited or revisited too many times, but there's just nothing there. Sometimes I don't even feel like the same person I was just a few years ago, almost like I was thrust into this life way more recently than I was. I like to call it 'alien syndrome' but I seriously don't understand it.

 

[Au Naturel]

noun
noun: nostalgia; plural noun: nostalgias

1. a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations.
   
   
   So when I get a whiff of horse manure, it reminds me of the time as a child when I had a horse. Cow manure reminds me of my cousin's farm and its animals. Old television reminds me of staying up late to watch "Tales of Science Fiction" or "Theatre of Thrills" (Christopher Coffin hosted, 1961!) or old B&W TV shows very late at night on weekends. These things gave me pleasure even though the rest of my life sucked.
   
   Not to be confused with euphoric recall, a state in which you remember the past with “rose-colored glasses” and pretend the bad stuff didn't happen. There are days when I wish I could get me some of that euphoric recall stuff.
   
   
   
   

 

[Au Naturel]

The Beatles, Dave Clark Five, rare but high humidity, Beeman's chewing gum, seeing very old cars from my childhood. And perhaps most of all, recalling DOS 5.0 with Windows 3.1 and the inevitable visit to the local Egghead Store. And thoughts of my first online social media...a DOS version of Prodigy.

I got my start with DOS 3.0 with a CGI graphics card and remember my time with Prodigy and a local store that carried shareware on 5.25-inch floppy disks. They are still in business today selling gaming systems, almost 40 years later.

 

[Sherlock77]

This photo I took this week... It's a 1982 Pontiac J2000 coupe... But I owned a virtually identical 1987 Chev Cavalier coupe for ten years, actually the first car I ever owned... I often pass by this warehouse on the way home from work and see that car... It definitely brings back nostalgia for me, and great memories...

 

[Sherlock77]

And... This car... A 1977/79 Chev station wagon, I took this photo in 2017, but identical to the one my dad owned for most of my growing up, this is the only one I've ever seen - as a station wagon - since then...

 

[Neonatal RRT]

Oddly, nothing. Maybe my sense of nostalgia has been exploited or revisited too many times, but there's just nothing there. Sometimes I don't even feel like the same person I was just a few years ago, almost like I was thrust into this life way more recently than I was. I like to call it 'alien syndrome' but I seriously don't understand it.

Aptly put. I like to separate my life into different phases, characterized by different ages, life events, special interests, knowledge, and physical and mental well-being. I am not the same person I was yesterday, let alone a year ago, and certainly not 10 years ago. I think there are some core personality traits, but my entire way of going through life, the way I think, my self awareness, how I communicate,...different. Even posts I made 2 years ago on this very forum, I would have posted something different today. No one could ever claim that I am "stuck in my ways",...I don't know how my wife and children adapted to my ever changing ways,...I certainly am not the person my wife married in 1987.

To look at something with some nostalgia,...I might not have the same feelings for it now as I once did. For example,...I was really into my 1989 Mustang, I bought it purposely to turn it into a race car, and did. I had a blast out on the track with it for about 5 years. Then, life happened, new house, kids grew up, different priorities, different financial situation,...after 20 years of sitting in the garage,...reminding me every day that I should be working on it,...or selling it,...I finally got it ready to sell this past Spring. I took it out for a test drive,...it just wasn't the same. It just felt old and noisy, clunky and mechanical. I just wanted it out of my garage. The same with old movies I loved when they were new,...view them again,..."Why did I like this movie?"

I have almost a photographic memory,...very few things I don't remember,...and I know this, there really isn't anything from the past that I really long for or want to experience again. People, places, things, feelings, experiences,...water under the bridge. Eyes forward. I find that looking forward towards something,...hoping,...dreaming,...life goals,...the future is far more mentally stimulating to me.

 

[Aspychata]

Sour candy. The smells of school, binders, erasers, ripping off plastic, my extreme horror of gym clothes. The sound bouncing off my tile bathroom high school walls. Knowing my skates would set me free from my house. Then it turned into skateboard.

Feeling okay about being loner but then l freaked my mother out. Those days when it was safe to be a kid, bullies existed but not on the grand level they do today. I miss the world feeling safer. You could be odd, but nobody cared. You could talk to anyone, and that was okay too. I miss the days people were civil and not so fake. Now it's different.

 

[Progster]

Certain songs from childhood.

 

[SusanLR]

TV series I watched growing up and into the 80's.
Cassette tapes with music from the 80's and before.
Seeing how movie stars and singers I liked look now. Takes me back.
Going through boxes of old photos I've kept through the years.
Going through boxes of Birthday, Valentines, and Christmas cards I've also kept.
Desert photos. Feels like home, since I was born in Arizona.

 

[Owliet]

Jelly shoes. I was obsessed as a little kid.

and apparently they’re back:

https://www.vogue.com/article/jelly-sandals
but I haven’t seen them here....although granted I don’t often go shoe shopping because I hate it.