Do you ever go through a period of feeling nostalgic?

Yup, being a big daft kid still, memories of childhood larking about just feels like yesterday.

I’m often envious of folks who have the sense of nostalgia that you describe, Mama Cakes. I think my nostalgia bone broke early in my life – while I certainly have many fond memories of childhood, I have viewed each stage of my life as progressively better than the one before. You could say I have “future-nostalgia.”

There are times I wish I could roll back the clock/calendar on consumer technology, though. I do miss a quieter space that is free of cell phones, televisions on every wall of a restaurant and the 24-hour news cycle.

Genealogists do that all the time in there researching.
I am an amateur genealogist.
Always comparing the way we grew up with the past generations, in awe of their resilience.

Not much, I am a very present moment type, however….I HAVE been having some bittersweet memories arise lately after having to leave my home of 7 years in late March and re-homing my beloved 15 yr. old pair of chinese geese, “Marwyn & Sonora.”
Last night as I was falling asleep old memories arose. Happy summer nights on the deck with the geezers and Marwyn swimming in the hot tub with me and having his nightly salad bar and bowl of ice water on the deck while I dined and sipped on a few Coronas. lol

I miss them terribly and the serenity of my old life that is now but a memory.

@Coloma I hope that you’re adjusting okay where you are now.

It happens to me frequently when I look at pictures of my children and grandchildren. I miss my babies and toddlers.

Nostalgic feelings usually mean that one wants to have those feelings again.
It is the feelings that one has a need to reexperience.
Here is a website devoted to Nostalgic stories/forum:
http://www.reddit.com/r/nostalgia

Appreciate the present times as in the future you will feel nostalgic for this time too.

Yes, sometimes I do.

If you had a good childhood it’s just natural to be drawn back to those memories. I do it all the time. Life was a heck of a lot simpler back then for me. We had a set routine and we all worked together. I had a lot of fun growing up.

@Mama_Cakes It’s okay, but just okay, not joyous as it was. Oh well..adapt or die. ;-p

Ask me if I ever go through a period of not feeling nostalgic.

To choose an image, it seems as if there were a steady current running from the present into the past, a sort of mental-emotional extension cord, that causes various areas of the past to light up according to which buttons I touch in the present—even if I just brush against them accidentally. There is always something lit up.

I’m not sure this is just a symptom of my senior status, either. I think those connections have always been strong to me, even when I was quite young. To me they’re all tied up with identity and the feeling that your history is your anchor in time and place.

This doesn’t mean that I’m absent in the present moment but only that I’m very aware of connections, correlations, and continuities. I don’t think I’ll ever be the Zen frog on a lily pad.

@Mama_Cakes, are you by any chance approaching a milestone birthday or some sort of life transition?

Yes, but nostalgia isn’t what it used to be.

@Jeruba Yes…milestone moments can recall nostalgic memory moments. I know I was triggered last night with Marwyn’s 15 th birthday in July. July 9th, 1998, the day he was brought to me as a week old gosling.

I swear….I never think about any dead relatives, my ex husband, divorce, but that damn goose, he is the love of my life, seriously. lol

I often find myself feeling nostalgic – and not just because I’m older; I’ve experienced it all my life. And that bitter-sweet feeling can be set off by so many things: a song, photo, dream, the death of an actor or singer I grew up with, reminiscing with old friends, ad of course those endless emails from the high school reunion committee.

”@Mama_Cakes, are you by any chance approaching a milestone birthday or some sort of life transition?”

Career change.

Yes, for two distinct times in my life: My teenage years and the years when my kids were little girls. Looking through my high school yearbooks and our photo albums let me enjoy the past for a little while. I really need to start printing pictures again…looking at ‘em on a computer screen just isn’t the same. Milestones tend to do it for me, too.

Yes, many times

I’ve spent the last week watching Courage the Cowardly Dog and Dexter’s Lab….

@Mama_Cakes , a “yes” here. I feel sad sometimes about the time that has passed, and wish I could go back and do it all over again. Oh, the changes I would make!

I feel nostalgic for the times @bob_ used to post here more often.

Anyway, I was in my neighbor’s apartment today. Which looked a lot like my old apartment which I dearly loved and I left 4 years ago.

Which reminds me of my old girlfriend who I left, too. I wouldn’t take her back for a million dollars, but wow, we had some great times.

Sigh.