I have no project involved that requires knowing this. But hey, I'm snoopy, and I figure we're all pretty much guinea pigs for each other anyway.
So, my question is: What single thing will most reliably cause you to feel nostalgic?
Is it perhaps a chocolate cake? An episode of I love Lucy? The smell of perfume or something cooking?
Mine is a horse drawn sleigh ride. What's yours?
Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :
For me, it would depend on what it was making me nostalgic for.
Certain Christmas songs (there are three kinds, you know? 1--religious, 2--secular, and 3--winter songs that have nothing to do with Christmas but are only sung at Christmas time) make me nostalgic for my childhood.
Bagpipe music makes me nostalgic for my heritage.
In fact, the more I think about it, the more I think music in some form or another is what is most likely to make me nostalgic for any of the things I get nostalgic about.
Smells are supposed to trigger memories, but I can't think of any at the moment that make me nostalgic.
<shrug>
Posted by Magic Beans (Member # 2183) on :
The screams of the dying...
Just kidding.
The scent of dill makes me nostalgic for my grandmother's house, actually.
Posted by djvdakota (Member # 2002) on :
The smell of rain in summer, and the smell of the desert.
Posted by Phanto (Member # 1619) on :
djv: You must be from the Middle East?
Myself, anything makes nostalgic. I'm nostalgic to a fault ^^.
Posted by J (Member # 2197) on :
The heft of an eight pound sledgehammer
The smell of chorinated water
Bullfrog symphonies (anyone who has never experienced this should go hang out at night near a small freshwater lake).
Posted by wetwilly (Member # 1818) on :
Hearing the song "self-esteem" by the Offspring. German Christmas songs and the smell of the Christmas Market in Germany. Hoagies from Wawa.
Posted by rickfisher (Member # 1214) on :
The smell of old paperbook books. Reminds me of the days when books were really good.
Posted by Tess (Member # 2199) on :
Funny you should post this. A wave of nostalgia caught me off guard just yesterday. For me, the thing that causes this feeling most reliably is an event that highlights how time has influenced the people I care most about. Seems you prompted me to write a piece of flash fiction.
Eric
Yesterday morning I was watching a high school football game, the last one of the season for the freshman team. Our team was undefeated for the season, and the game was close. My son, on the second string offensive line, spent the first three quarters on the sidelines.
You have to understand, I’m not a big football fan. If my son hadn’t been out there, I would rather have watched paint dry than stand outside for over an hour on a chilly New England November morning. After a bad call from the referee, in which our team was cheated out of a fourth down, and a few of the dads harassed the referees, the coach barked “blue line.” My son sprang onto the field.
He assumed the position he’s played for five years, all through his Pop Warner career, since he was 9. He sprinted out, yelled “huddle” in such an aggressive football voice it belonged in the movies, and his team mates closed around him. A tangle of white jerseys and gold helmets fluttered for a few tense seconds, and then broke. Eric jogged towards the opposing team with the ball. He assumed the three point stance that signaled the team’s readiness to start the next play.
And then it hit me, and it wasn’t overly sentimental. My husband felt it at the same time and commented. Five short years ago we laughed at him, the way he yelled “huddle” and tried with all his might to make his high pitched voice sound masculine. I found it both satisfying and a scary, to think of him as a young man.
Posted by mikemunsil (Member # 2109) on :
The smell of suntan lotion on warm skin.
Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :
I never need a cause to feel nostalgic. I constantly wish to return to my homeland, far away, long ago, and much happier than anything I've yet encountered here.
Posted by Balthasar (Member # 5399) on :
Certain songs will always do it, of course. But what really really does it for me is a cool afternoon when the sun gives everything that golden hue. On those days I long to be a kid again.
Posted by Keeley (Member # 2088) on :
Overcast days when the clouds are particularly dark and menacing and the smell of rain is in the air.
Posted by hoptoad (Member # 2145) on :
What is patriotism but the love of the food one ate as a child? ~Lin Yutang
Same with nostalgia for me.
Posted by ChrisOwens (Member # 1955) on :
Roy's Big Burger.
Posted by NewsBys (Member # 1950) on :
I second Roy's and add the Plaza Drive-in. What could be better than bugs biting me, while I'm drinking Orange Crush and watching a movie outside? Seriously - I really miss it. I'd like to get a DVD of those old intermission commercials.
Posted by Whitney (Member # 2176) on :
The movies Mame and Star Wars, and the recent rush of toys from the 80s flooding children's toy shelves this year (ie Cabbage Patch Kids, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turles, He-Man, Easy Bake Ovens) are the things that have been making me nostalgic lately.
Posted by Pyre Dynasty (Member # 1947) on :
The legend of Zelda 2, the origins of my Video game obsession.
Also every time I burn myself it takes me back to my old boy scout days, when sitting too close to the campfire meant something.
But what really brings me back is reading the beginning of My current WIP, what was I thinking back then.