Nostalgia Ad Nauseum

Not necessarily true about has beens. I will grant you that someone who lives their entire life in the past isn't living. But it's normal to look back to see where you've been and how far we've come.

Remember the moon landing? They flew there with an onboard computer that was equal to a 286. If you don't know what that means, the computer you're using now is at least 1000 times faster with at least 300 times more memory. Everytime I look back at that it makes the feat even more amazing. However, I look forward to computers running with light instead of electricity. They will be faster and cooler.

Sometimes we look back and don't like where we've gone to. Two fifteen year old boys sat in prison charged with felonies for slapping a girl's butt..... who by the way admitted to slapping boy's butts. In the past that would never have happened. It should never happen again.

And... sometimes it's just fun. They don't make cartoons like the old Bugs Bunny / Daffy Duck that had humor for both children and adults. I got to laugh at them twice! There's nothing like that now.

Looking again at your post I see mentions of TV, music and toys. Not all boring to me, but I was out playing in the neighborhood, or riding my bike. Not much has changed here except I traded my transistor radio for an mp3 player....

I hope when I get old I don't sit around thinkin' about it, but I probably will.

I don't know, some things about yesteryear suck. A few things that come to mind: those pointless excercise machines where a person wrapped that band across their ass, pressed a button and presto, they'd be jiggled senseless, and what about the first pop cans, you had to locate a can opener and puncture two sides before you could even take a sip, nobody talks about how dangerous the old baby equipment was, even cribs could kill, my mother had to push her heavy dishwasher clear across the kitchen floor over to the faucet to hook up all these hoses and the ordeal barely seemed worth the effort. But come on, some things were just better, like: Cracker Jacks, traffic, fish devoid of mercury poisoning, rock'n'roll, actresses like Audrey Hepburn and Natalie Wood, The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson, and that's just to name a few.

I agree with "foneman"--if we LIVE our present lives in the PAST, we are not living; however, I have wonderful memories of the past and will gladly chat about them with someone who I know enjoys talking about memories. I know someone who talks about the past with her family while I am present and brings up old names and places about which I have no clue--this is not fun! But, if I'm talking with my sister or brother or one of my parents (yes, they're both alive and sort of kicking at age 87), memories can be fun and even therapeutic (esp for Mom and Dad).

I see nothing wrong with visiting Memory Lane, but one has to be sure that all the travelers there WANT to be there. We can pick up the good things and laugh and we can recognize the bad things and cringe, but all of these are our own memories and are the things that brought us to the place we are today.

Learn from the past; live in the present; prepare for the future. And enjoy your life as it is-- Have a great day!