Nostalgia?

[Lucky13]

...a wishful desire to return in thought or in fact to a former time in one's life, to one's home or homeland, or to one's family and friends; a sentimental yearning for the happiness of a former place or time."

What is it then, if the time and place is before you were born and to places that you never been?

 

[pbehn]

This is an age old question, like Marie Antoinette wishing to live like a peasant girl, people tend to hark back to a mythical time when things were "better". I would say that WW2 was Britain's finest hour but there is no way I would swap my life unless I am guaranteed a spitfire in the BoB (which wouldn't happen). Last year there were a lot of services and ceremonies to commemorate the outbreak of the Great war. Many of the early volunteers from Britain volunteered simply because it was different and exciting, that is a mark of how mind crushing life for many people was in 1914.
Karl Marx made a reputation writing about the exploitation of mill workers in Manchester, the plonker never ventured out into the countryside where he would have found things much worse, I think we manufacture an "ideal" time to live, usually not this one, if we arnt happy with what we have.

 

[Airframes]

Nostalgia ain't what it used to be .....................

 

[bobbysocks]

wow this thread takes me back....

 

[GrauGeist]

There are certain aspects to Nostalgia that fall into the realm of "Romanticism" more than reality.

I would have loved to have been in Rome during it's peak of glory, but the hard reality of that is that a citizen could run afoul of the law simply on the word of an angry neighbor, ending up in a copper or salt mine for life. If a person accidently fell down a flight of stairs, they didn't have a nearby ER (or even a hospital) for treatment and ran the risk of infection and/or death.

The Romantic view says "wow, look at all these buildings, the interesting people, the artwork, the legions marching down the avenue". On the otherhand, life there would have been pretty much no different than today: politics, economy, putting food on the table, need a new pair of shoes - day to day life.

 

[pbehn]

The Romantic view says "wow, look at all these buildings, the interesting people, the artwork, the legions marching down the avenue". On the otherhand, life there would have been pretty much no different than today: politics, economy, putting food on the table, need a new pair of shoes - day to day life.

I remember seeing an artists impression of Durham Cathedral when it was built, surrounded by wattle a daub huts. It is only one hundred years ago that a bad scratch on a thorn could and did kill.
My grandmother could remember the days on her farm waking before sunrise and doing everything by hand with no electricity running water and cooking on a range. She was a great lover of her bungalow with electric lights refrigerator washing machine gas cooker and vacuum cleaner.

 

[GrauGeist]

I certainly wouldn't mind being a "visitor" to several time periods in the past, but quite honestly, I wouldn't want to live in any of them...I like being a 21st century citizen...even with all the crap and terrible things that exist in this day and age, the amenities far outweigh the negatives.

 

[vikingBerserker]

I myself would love to have my childhood back for a couple of days. No worries, just play play play.

 

[Lucky13]

I certainly wouldn't mind being a "visitor" to several time periods in the past, but quite honestly, I wouldn't want to live in any of them...I like being a 21st century citizen...even with all the crap and terrible things that exist in this day and age, the amenities far outweigh the negatives.

Don't forget to bring a camera and a video camera....

 

[Capt. Vick]

I really can't add anything to this thread that you all haven't said. Wish I had gotten in earlier. To see Roman at it's zenith, the D-Day Landing, Pickett's Charge... But to leave my current comfortable life for that? Hmmmm....

I guess I do have something to add: Nostalgia for a dip and a look around the Baths of Carracalla or to have seen the Gold Coast Mansions or Long Island in their heyday with so much open land. The juxtaposition with today can almost crush the soul if you let it.

 

[Airframes]

Wasn't Nostalgia that guy who predicted the future? Or is it that itchy feeling in the nostrils?
I've go me coat and I'm running ....................

 

[fubar57]

What a coincidence. I just finished reading this....10 Reasons The Past Was Way More Disgusting Than You Realized - Listverse

Geo

 

[pbehn]

What a coincidence. I just finished reading this....10 Reasons The Past Was Way More Disgusting Than You Realized - Listverse

Geo

What was recorded about London went for almost every medieval city in Europe, a "finkle" was an open sewer and almost every riverside town has a "finkle street" running to the river. Londons problems lasted longer resulting in the "Great Stink" 1859-1875. We are now replacing the system built then, they were certainly built to last.


Great Stink - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[GrauGeist]

The chamber pots had to be dumped somewhere...

And people think that flowerboxes in the windows were to brighten things up...they were actually there to help block the stench...

 

[pbehn]

My Grandmothers house had chamber pots, they were emptied in the toilet at the top of the garden. In Newcastle they used to collect all the pee for the tanning and dying industries, people say you cant take the piss out of newcastle but we have done it for generations.

quote
Urine used to be Newcastle's third biggest export after coal and beer, with some reports suggest it was even the first.

It was used for a variety of things at different times throughout Newcastle's history – ballast in ships, a stripping agent to turn wool into wearable clothes and in the tanneries to remove hair and guts from animal hides.

The urine was collected from public urinals or barrels in the city, but people who worked in this urine industry weren't too keen on others knowing.
unquote
Possible origin of the phrase "taking the piss"

 

[meatloaf109]

No one believes me, but I was born around the year 1060CE. It is hard to remember now. An alchemist promised me eternal life in exchange for my "soul-essence". I didn't think that it would really happen, but here I am nearly a thousand years later, still here. The last 100 years have been a problem, mainly because of data sharing. It is difficult now to "blend-in" to the wood work. Now I fear I am at the end, and the world will discover and destroy me.
Other than that, I remember my 97th wife, she was hot!

 

[syscom3]

I would have liked to graduate from high school in 1950 and then move west to Southern California afterwards. Go to work in one of the big aerospace firms. Aside from the smog, SCAL was a magical place for a few decades.

 

[Capt. Vick]

Oh and Dinosaurs! I want to go back and see dinosaurs.

 

[Airframes]

Just come to my town then Jim - they walk around freely, normally pushing a baby in front of them, whilst drinking a can of Coke and talking on their 'phones !

 

[bobbysocks]

My Grandmothers house had chamber pots, they were emptied in the toilet at the top of the garden. In Newcastle they used to collect all the pee for the tanning and dying industries, people say you cant take the piss out of newcastle but we have done it for generations.

quote
Urine used to be Newcastle's third biggest export after coal and beer, with some reports suggest it was even the first.

It was used for a variety of things at different times throughout Newcastle's history – ballast in ships, a stripping agent to turn wool into wearable clothes and in the tanneries to remove hair and guts from animal hides.

The urine was collected from public urinals or barrels in the city, but people who worked in this urine industry weren't too keen on others knowing.
unquote
Possible origin of the phrase "taking the piss"

people had pots that they would save thieir urine in and would sell it to tannereries for cash. people who existed mainly by doing this were "piss poor". and you know you were extremely poor if " you didnt (even ) have a pot to piss in". life was very tough back then.