OCTOBER 29, 1971
Reminiscing As Pastime
"Long Ago and Far Away," the words of a song by James Taylor, sum up how people are thinking today. People everywhere are turning back and remembering the good old days with nostalgia.
What is nostalgia? It's a yearning or wishing for something in the past. It's remembering only the pleasant and happy things and leaving out the things that turned out wrong or bad. Nostalgia is just the things you will want to remember for the rest of your life and that will give you a smile.
Everyone and everything is turning back. In styles, for instance, look at the mid-length skirts, wedgy shoes, and floppy brimmed hats that are coming back. And for men there are the double-breasted, wide lapel suits. Radio stations are playing old radio shows and on Broadway one of the biggest hits is a revived musical called "No, No, Nanette."
Old Mickey Mouse watches and Edsel cars are now prized possessions. W. C. Fields and the Marx Brothers are drawing crowds as large as when they first started.
those things. What do we have to be nostalgic about? How about remembering the first topless bathing suits, or having milk and cookies at school, and the original New York Mets?
Why this turn to the past? Most people do it as an escape from today's complex and troubled life - to get away and remember just the pleasant things when there were no pressing problems or pressures.
There is also such a thing as false nostalgia. If you go to a store and buy a midi, or for boys a double-breasted suit, you may find it "cool," but your parents remember when they first came out. They can find true nostalgia in it.
Secondhand nostalgia can be just as much fun, though. For example, 110,000 copies of 1897 Sears and Roebuck catalogs were sold. No one buying them could remember when they first came out, but it was still enjoyable and fun to look at.
Whether it's firsthand or secondhand nostalgia, when did it start? Probably back in the year 2, when people would remember "the good old days" in the year 1. People have always turned back for pleasant memories.
And what will we be nostalgic about 25 years from now?