Outside the Beltway

The More Things Change…

Nostalgia is not new.

Steven L. Taylor
15

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I was doing some archival research for a project and came across this on the op/ed page of the Kittanning Leader-Times newspaper from April 3, 1961. It reminds me of Facebook posts I see bemoaning how kids these days don’t have it like we did back in the 1970s and 1980s.

It is ever thus (and reminds me of some of the conversation in the comment section of Matt Bernius’ post on crime rates). The past is very frequently seen through the eyes of our childhood, which is rather distorting, to be sure.

While there are always things about the past that may well have been better, the notion that this generation (whatever generation that may be) is the deprived one is evergreen (and also ever false). It is one of the reasons why I am not a fan of bemoaning “kids these days.” This is not to say that there aren’t new problems that have to be addressed, but nostalgia is a distorting force.

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15 responses to “The More Things Change…”

  1. Argon Avatar
    Argon

    Nostalgia is a gateway drug.

    Just say no.

    5
  2. Kathy Avatar
    Kathy

    Back in the 70s lots of suburban residential areas were in development. In Mexico the usual way this goes is you buy a lot, then build your house on it*. So there were many empty lots for children to play in. Traffic was rather light, too, so boys like to play soccer on the street rather than in the backyard.

    Gradually lots were sold and houses went up, and traffic increased, and the children had to find other places to play in or things to do. Also the wild rodent population decreased.

    *There are some gated developments with built houses and common areas, but these were far less common in the 70s.

    1
  3. just nutha Avatar
    just nutha

    (H/t to the late George Poindexter)
    It’s not like it was in the old days; course it wasn’t like that then, either.

    (And while I’m here, I was 9 in 1961 and didn’t have an empty lot to dig in. Something about trespassing laws…)

    1
  4. Mimai Avatar
    Mimai

    The past is very frequently seen through the eyes of our childhood, which is rather distorting, to be sure.

    Indeed. And constructed through the brain of our now.

    A related phenomenon is chronocentrism. Of course, and I’m sure most around here would agree with me, the current times ARE indeed the most monumental. Thus confirming the bias.

  5. Jay L Gischer Avatar
    Jay L Gischer

    Nostalgia is about loss. We cannot go through life without experiencing loss, and its weight gets heavier as we age. There are other things going on, too, though. I like to look for them.

    Just this summer, I went back to Birch Bay (WA), where I grew up. It is so very different now, most of the buildings and businesses I remember and spent time at are gone. Even the road is different, with the old concrete/riprap seawall along one section replaced with some sort of “berm” system for keeping the winter storms from washing out the road.

    Many of these changes have happened because they put in a sewer system, and in consequence, mult-story, multi-unit residences or summer residences could be built and maintained. So that’s what happened, all the folks I remember living there (and whose families had lived there multiple generations) sold out and the condos were built.

    None of this asked my permission. It’s a little sad. It is a reminder of my own mortality.

    But then, when we sat there one evening, looking out over the water as the sun set over the place where my parents ashes lie, I connected with how unchanged the whole thing was. The buildings were just the cosmetics, the makeup, a superficial adornment. Nothing had changed, nothing will change, at least not on any human time scale.

    It was a beautiful moment.

    7
  6. Rick DeMent Avatar
    Rick DeMent

    I read a graphic novel a while back about a drug that places the user in a nostalgic hallucination (or takes them back in time “readers call”) It was called “An Interesting Drug”.

    I’m sure if there was such a thing it would become quite popular on the street.

    2
  7. Grumpy realist Avatar
    Grumpy realist

    Most of us have nostalgia for the times of our childhood not because it was in fact all that great, but because we didn’t have to deal with the responsibilities of adults. It was our parents who were worrying about making sure there was a roof over our heads, food on the table, and so forth. Most parents, unless they are mentally ill or otherwise abusive, try to provide a safe environment for the kiddos.

    This is why I have so much contempt for Americans moaning about How It Would Be So Great if we went back to the 1950s. You were a kid back then, idiot.

    11
  8. gVOR10 Avatar
    gVOR10

    I recall being surprised at friends mentioning playing catch with their kid or arranging play dates. I grew up wandering around the neighborhood to see if anyone had a game going in a vacant lot. I also remember my brother and I sharing an odd .410 bolt action shotgun and a .22. My 12 year old friend and I would wander in farm fields, plinking, firing .22 shorts we bought ourselves at the hardware store. A small town in rural ND in the 50s was a very different place than an urban area in the 21st century. And mostly this is better.

    3
  9. Scott Avatar
    Scott

    We ran through the neighborhood playing cops and robbers with our cap guns. Can’t do that now. Thanks, NRA, for ruining childhood.

    4
  10. Kevin Avatar
    Kevin

    Socrates complained about how the kids in his day were reading their philosophy, not learning it on the street like he did (paraphrasing a little). Much like “people these days don’t want to work”, it’s a timeless complaint.

    5
  11. Joe Avatar
    Joe

    @just nutha: I was 1 in 1961 and I had vacant lots to play in within the small city I was born into. Since I live again in the city where I grew up, I occasionally pass a particular lot that has had a house on it since at least 1975, but I still remember stalking garter snakes in that vacant lot in the ’60s. I rarely pass that house/lot without thinking about that. (It’s not a very interesting house.)

    2
  12. Kathy Avatar
    Kathy

    I wonder overall whether those who engage more in nostalgia, and complain about youngsters these days, and yearn to turn back the clock, had happier childhoods.

    There are a few things I miss from the past, but I wouldn’t want to return to it (travelling back in time and changing my timeline is another matter). About the only period I miss is the early 90s. The USSR was freshly fallen, the cold war ended, and real freedom seemed to be spreading all over. But there’s no getting back to that, and in any case many mistakes were made then that have netted us our turbulent present.

    @Kevin:

    Socrates never wrote anything down. Most of what we know about him and his works is what Plato wrote after his teacher was executed. A Great Courses lecture series on The Republic considers Socrates a character in Plato’s worldview and philosophy.

    I’ve read here and there of other Greeks bemoaning the loss of oral traditions. As though memorizing the Iliad is some kind of virtue.

    1
  13. Mimai Avatar
    Mimai

    anemoia – n. nostalgia for a time you’ve never known

    From a lovely book: The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows.

    5
  14. JohnSF Avatar
    JohnSF

    Nostalgia these days is just not as good as it used to be.

    5
  15. DrDaveT Avatar
    DrDaveT

    @JohnSF:

    Nostalgia these days is just not as good as it used to be.

    Damn, you beat me to it.

    3

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