tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14874528.post3393199708263352888..comments2024-03-27T13:32:06.780-02:30Comments on The Other Side of Eighty: NostalgiqueWisewebwomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15281689872840844191noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14874528.post-2915461246385825562014-04-27T09:49:06.511-02:302014-04-27T09:49:06.511-02:30Your path and mine seem to be running on parallel ...Your path and mine seem to be running on parallel tracks. I have been on a roller coaster nostalgia trip the whole week culminating yesterday with a movie and to find this morning with a message from a voice from a very distant past wanting to reestablish contact.<br /><br />No, the nostalgia has not been for things but for people and institutions but poignant nevertheless.Rummuserhttp://www.rummuser.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14874528.post-81376314095714150432014-04-23T15:56:47.530-02:302014-04-23T15:56:47.530-02:30Yes, the French language does lend itself to a cer...Yes, the French language does lend itself to a certain je ne sais quoi. Though when they sing opera you wish you were in Italy, or Germany.<br /><br />Were times simpler, WWW? In many ways yes, in others no. I'd say: At best different.<br /><br />As to your friend Mike: It's difficult when we find out that someone was/is not quite the person we thought.I suppose we are best advised to take away the good of a person/memory. I went through one hell of a wringer some years ago. On so many fronts. I spent about three years flooded. Sometimes wondering "What would I actually ponder on/think about if xyz hadn't happened?". I was consumed with grief. And then it abated. The ashes I am left with so cooling. A lot of good memories of some people who left my life of their own volition. Who feel so guilty and full of remorse they can't bring themselves to talk to me. Crazy, don't you think? These last five years have taught me about life, condensed a life time.<br /><br />Nostalgia? Sentimental? Moi? Oui. And glad of it.<br /><br />UUrsulahttp://bitchontheblog.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14874528.post-72329528275011317052014-04-23T10:50:04.436-02:302014-04-23T10:50:04.436-02:30I've been reading a lot of memoirs lately, and...I've been reading a lot of memoirs lately, and what I note is that there were certain freedoms that no longer exist, but we were too often conditioned not to take advantage of them, girls and women especially. <br />I think everyone should write a memoir and intend to make that a project for the next year or so. Hattiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02621439195920479957noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14874528.post-49967217388088066292014-04-23T04:57:41.183-02:302014-04-23T04:57:41.183-02:30It's tempting to look back at the past very se...It's tempting to look back at the past very selectively and imagine it was so much better than today, but of course it wasn't, it was just different. Some good things, some bad things, the same as now. I certainly wouldn't like to be back in the days of typewriters, no central heating, no fridges and teachers who gave you six of the best.<br /><br />As you say, it's a shock when someone who's cultivated a very likeable public image turns out to have a rather less likeable private self. I'm wary of all glossy public images, especially of people I've never met and know only through the media.nickhttp://nickhereandnow.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14874528.post-87972441516963215772014-04-22T20:01:03.636-02:302014-04-22T20:01:03.636-02:30I don't suffer from many feelings of nostalgia...I don't suffer from many feelings of nostalgia at all, although I may sometimes sound like I do. I definitely do not think the good old days were better and I am glad that I am alive now, although I would like to be a young person and be alive now. <br /><br />There are also not many people I look up to and that are a great example to me (except you). I have become much too cynical for that. The ones that shout the loudest, are usually the biggest offenders. Irenehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05043376053971475659noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14874528.post-65054833099215756342014-04-22T14:01:34.126-02:302014-04-22T14:01:34.126-02:30I'm not familiar with the Mike you mention, bu...I'm not familiar with the Mike you mention, but the image Mike projected must have been the one he wanted to project, perhaps desperately wanted to be.<br /><br />My mother-in-law has fallen into a paranoia in which she's convinced that the world is so much more dangerous than it has ever been. I'm of the opinion that people are people: fallible and glorious, greedy and altruistic, and everything in between. My mother-in-law was marrying and having her first children after having grown up during the Great Depression, having siblings and others wounded in WWII, and learning of the atrocities that occurred during that war. She was marrying into a family in which she was to learn that her mother-in-law was being abused. That was not a better world, just one during which she was younger and more resilient. Linda P.noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14874528.post-19654649371752874242014-04-22T13:53:50.286-02:302014-04-22T13:53:50.286-02:30SAW:
I agree, my own heart pounds when I think of...SAW:<br /><br />I agree, my own heart pounds when I think of the chances I took as a child that my parents didn't know about. Scary stuff.<br /><br />XO<br />WWWWisewebwomanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15281689872840844191noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14874528.post-78371238722841778892014-04-22T13:52:37.912-02:302014-04-22T13:52:37.912-02:30Marc:
You made me laugh. I made such a comment on...Marc:<br /><br />You made me laugh. I made such a comment on one of the old pics of my home city, I remarked on the trailing dresses gathering up gawd knows what off the muddy roads :)<br /><br />XO<br />WWW<br />Wisewebwomanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15281689872840844191noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14874528.post-1132394565180296112014-04-22T11:55:20.490-02:302014-04-22T11:55:20.490-02:30GM:
Agreed - and we colour it too brightly at time...GM:<br />Agreed - and we colour it too brightly at times.<br />XO<br />WWWWisewebwomanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15281689872840844191noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14874528.post-15597824307854065902014-04-22T11:54:55.089-02:302014-04-22T11:54:55.089-02:30Sharon:
I think Mike's death really blew the ...Sharon:<br /><br />I think Mike's death really blew the lid off for me. I had him fairly pedestalized - not too much, I'm not like that, but it got me reflecting on delusional nostalgia - as many of his acolytes are inflicting on themselves.<br /><br />XO<br />WWWWisewebwomanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15281689872840844191noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14874528.post-49280234535808514012014-04-22T08:36:25.424-02:302014-04-22T08:36:25.424-02:30One of my aunts recently posted this thing about h...One of my aunts recently posted this thing about how much better life used to be when kids were fine without bike helmets or seatbelts and so on. And as much as I love and respect her, I had to call bullshit on that sort of nostalgia. There were a lot more unnecessary cases of traumatic brain injury and death before safety laws were tightened up. I remember some of my own past with some fondness but also very aware of the parts that were no so good. Or downright horrible. I prefer to have am more balanced view.Secret Agent Womanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07564690116156754219noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14874528.post-85937457939850872292014-04-22T05:52:40.116-02:302014-04-22T05:52:40.116-02:30Years ago, Helen Hayes was interviewed by a young ...Years ago, Helen Hayes was interviewed by a young reporter who asked her if she was ever nostalgic about the "good old days."<br /><br />Hayes' response:<br /><br />"The good old days? When people were still riding in carriages, and you had to walk across Broadway with your eyes on the ground to avoid stepping in the horseshit?<br /><br />Not really."Marc Leavitthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12400805396776788101noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14874528.post-69539231500131450762014-04-22T04:33:41.651-02:302014-04-22T04:33:41.651-02:30Nostalgique is fine for a short swift visit, but l...Nostalgique is fine for a short swift visit, but like blistering sunshine, not a place to dally for too long.Grannymarhttp://grannymar.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14874528.post-78723883371669239042014-04-22T00:58:54.218-02:302014-04-22T00:58:54.218-02:30Amazing what we learn about people after the fact,...Amazing what we learn about people after the fact, our opinions colored by what little we know first-hand or what the person chose to share with us while they were alive. This is a fine piece of writing that does justice to waxing nostalgic, which sometimes isn't a bad place to go~ Sharonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01448211798237937246noreply@blogger.com