Nostalgia – Perception vs Reality


Nostalgia can take many forms and can manifest itself on many different levels. Sometimes we experience nostalgia singularly. Sometimes we experience it on a group level. Sometimes it can be a fond memory of someone we once knew, events we lived through or places we visited. By definition, it is a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, typically a period or place with happy personal associations. But, that is too simple. It’s more complex and can be something different to each of us. It can also be deceiving. We tend to block out the monotonous events involved in our nostalgic thinking. We forget the results and repercussions of some of the events. We turn a blind eye to the negative. If you really stop and process your history, it’s quite fascinating.

Rather than get into some deep philosophical ramblings, which would be easy on this topic, I think I’ll convey my point through a personal trip through some of my more vivid memories. It’s not meant to rain on the parade of nostalgia because anyone familiar with this blog understands that I look favorably on the past. We all think “our time” was the greatest. Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millennials. They all have upsides and downsides but you typically find more upsides with your generation than outsiders do. I was born in 1977 so I am Gen X. I grew up in the 80’s/early 90’s, which according to multiple TV shows on VH1 Classic, was the greatest time to be alive. Granted, there were some major positives from the time but I imagine the Baby Boomers think the same about their time. I think we can all agree that millennials are pretty weak when they try to compare their generation to ours. 

To simply list cultural references of the 80’s and 90’s would be too easy. It’s more about what the cultural references meant to us individually. While I was watching Transformers, another person may have been watching Jem. My He-Man was another man’s G-I Joe. But regardless, we are generally very protective of our childhood. This was most recently brought to the surface with the release of the Ghostbusters remake. There were people my age that simply refused to go see it because it could not possibly be as good as the original. No Bill Murray, No Dan Akroyd, No Sigourney Weaver? Worthless. Yet, a 19 year old can watch our Ghostbusters from the 80’s and think it’s the dumbest thing ever written. To wit, I say bologna!

 Which brings us to the first topic: 

• In general, are the remakes really worse than the originals? My answer has to be yes. I’ll take the original Halloween, Friday the 13th, RoboCop, Transformers, Ghostbusters and Texas Chainsaw Massacre any day. First and foremost, a remake just seems lazy. Sure, there are new special effects and the story can advance sometimes but your over arching script has already been written. Did the Dukes of Hazzard really need a redux? I believe that some of the most groundbreaking films came from the late 70’s through the end of the 80’s. Think about some of the prominent films from that time; Star Wars, ET, Aliens, Indiana Jones, Terminator, Caddyshack, Vacation. Those are some really good movies. Some of them hold up and some of them don’t but they were original films in their day and have been the basis for multiple spinoffs and copycats. Everything today seems like a spin off of one of the great 80’s movies. There are some great filmmakers today but a lot of them are also from the 80’s and are using some of those films as references. Think Kevin Smith, Quentin Tarantino, John Singleton and Spike Jonze.

• Was 80’s music really good or just memorable? This one is tougher. Music has been around a lot longer than movies so each decade has had its own unique sound. I will submit that 70’s Disco was the worst until 2010’s Country/Pop/Rap came along. My personal favorite was 90’s alternative rock. This view is not shared by Alicia. I love Smashing Pumpkins, Sublime, Everclear, The Cranberries, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Alice in Chains…..really all of it. I can still listen to Lithium on XM and enjoy the music and sing along. So, I think 90’s alternative music was really good and is more than nostalgia. However, the music from the 80’s, while toe-tapping and classic in one sense, was not really that good. Unless of course you are talking Hair Metal or Rock.  Don’t get me wrong, I really love 80’s music but I can understand when someone says that 80’s music stinks. The synthesizers, the electric drums, the weird dancing, all bad. When it comes on, I will sing my heart out to Safety Dance but think about it – this was a group of guys with planter pots on their heads wearing matching outfits doing a very poor rendition of the robot. “I come from a land down under? Vegamite sandwich?” Not the best from a talent perspective. There are some absolute icons that were playing music in the 80’s but they continued to refine their sound and survived the 80’s. Again, I am a fan but a lot of it is bad. I think we all enjoy it because it takes us back to those days. Der Kommisar is an abysmal song but when I hear it, I think about the Pelham Skating Rink so it has very positive feelings associated with it. It is also when music videos were popular so we all saw something cool visually with it. So, in this case, the nostalgia places the true opinion of the music somewhere between perception and reality.  

 • How about some TV? This one sort of goes back to the movie section for my generation. Originality drives a lot of the popularity of these shows. Because once again, and just being brutally honest, the product is not good anymore. I have watched Full House and Saved By The Bell very recently and the jokes are just simple and poor. But America almost flipped her lid when Full House was announced as coming back less than a year ago. Today’s desire to watch the comeback was based purely on our nostalgic view. Back then, we just didn’t know any better. Everybody wanted to be Zack Morris and wanted to date Kelly Kapowski, or vice versa. In today’s world, Screech would be the popular hipster and Zack would be the mean pretty boy. One of the key issues with TV then and TV now is/was our expectations. When “Saved by the Bell” or “90210” or “A Different World” came on, they were dealing with hard hitting issues like drugs and alcohol and teen pregnancy. For the time, those were taboo issues. Now look at this comparison. In one episode of SBTB, Jessie struggled with speed pills because she wanted to stay awake and study and meet all of the demands of being a top student. That was a deep, dramatic episode. You should remember, “I’m so excited, and I just can’t hide it” followed by the second worst fake cry in acting history (only second to her attempts in Showgirls). Now, one of the most popular shows of the last few years is about a science teacher who finds out he has cancer so he decides to start manufacturing meth and slowly becomes a drug lord that murders people that get in his way, young and old. All in order to raise money for his family when he’s gone. Can you imagine an episode of Full House where Danny Tanner decides to start slangin cane? I actually may have just come up with the perfect reunion show for Growing Pains. You get the point, the line has gone further and further. That’s what makes sitting down and watching Luke Perry bellyache about being good looking weak. But the 80’s and early 90’s had a feel that can’t really be found today, unless you try really hard. One of the best television shows of 2016 is Stranger Things, which is modeled after 80’s Stephen King and Steven Spielberg. But you know why it’s soooo good? It feels like an 80’s show AND has all of the grown up horror of today’s films. The perfect combination!

 This is going to get way bigger than I thought so I am going to go with some quick hitters now.

 • Baseball – We have now discovered that our baseball players from Gen X were all juicers but weren’t they more fun to watch? I loved the McGwire/Sosa home run chase. Jose Canseco was always entertaining. Roger Clemens was a fireballer. Doc Gooden and Daryl Strawberry were almost super human but turns out they were on amphetamines, at least according to Lenny Dykstra. Now, we may have stricter guidelines and they may be more kid friendly but it’s not as fun to watch. I enjoy looking at 80’s baseball cards, not because they are valuable, because they aren’t, but because it takes me back to when it was more fun to watch. I don’t necessarily condone cheating but if the percentage using was what they claim, was anybody really at a competitive advantage. Of course, a lot of this is tongue and cheek but the point remains it was more fun to watch!

Football – Again, it was a blast to watch because of some of the things that have changed since then that have cleaned up the game. No more celebrating after touchdowns, no more crushing hits without a penalty, a big reduction in trash talk. From a strictly entertainment perspective, it has become way more technical than “back in the day”. Now, you get beat with film study and statistical overload. Then, you got pushed around a football field and you ran someone over or you got ran over. Now, we can’t even agree on what a catch is. I still love football but it has become way too over officiated. Again, to be fair, I am not a big showboat fan but I did like when the players had some freedom to express themselves. If you didn’t like it, you were allowed not to like it. Now, that is all behind us.  But I can’t honestly say that the times were better.  The game has just changed and I miss some of the old stuff.

Basketball – This one is a hand’s down for me. I remain a huge NBA fan but you will never prove to me that the players from my generation aren’t better than they are now. The current players may be able to jump higher or may be stronger but there aren’t many people that play defense like Scottie Pippen, pass like Gary Payton or Magic, rebound like Barkley, defend the paint like Ewing and Olajuwan, talk trash like Reggie Miller or John Starks, destroy defenders like MJ or AI, or shoot with such cold blood as Larry Bird. There are some great players today that can do those things well but I’ll take my guys all day. There is nothing you can say so don’t try. Just move along.

Toys – I’ll try to close with this one. The toys of Gen X were awesome when we were young but they really hold just nostalgic value now as opposed to being something that can be replayed today. Transformers were cutting edge, GI Joe was supped up Army Men and Atari was our first shot at video games. You can’t bring those out today and expect to be mesmerized. Pong and Frogger would be quite annoying today. But would I like to play it? Hell Yeah! Super Mario and Duck Hunt brought us hours and hours of joy. Super Tecmo Bowl has received it’s own blog here. Mike Tyson’s Punch Out is a cult classic. BUT, you can only play those games for so long today and the nostalgia begins to wear off. I bought a box of 1989 Donruss for $10 a couple of weeks ago. It started out as the greatest thing ever because I took myself back to opening cards in my bedroom at my mom and dads house and remembered all of the players. About halfway through the box, I started wishing they inserted autographs and jersey cards. It lost it’s luster, until I pulled a Ken Griffey Jr. That card, currently valued at about $10 if in good condition, was the highlight, and the fun was over.

 That’s nostalgia sometimes. It can be a great idea in your head and seem really fun to begin with. But, then you start to compare it to how far technology or collectibles or our standard of living has advanced and it wears off. If I could figure out a way to bottle up that initial nostalgic feeling when I see an old movie or ride by the old Video Superstore or pull that Gary Sheffield Rated Rookie, I would be a millionaire. But that’s a part of it I guess. Nostalgia is almost a high for some people, me included. We can spend a lot of time chasing it and once we find it, it doesn’t last long enough and we are looking for it again. It’s really kind of cruel in that way. Your mind takes what were fun but rather normal experiences and gives them new life as you get older. You want to go back and get those experiences and relive them but it’s never as good as the first time around. Then, there is disappointment. But, the high is worth the low on this one. If Doc Brown would go ahead and invent that Delorian, I would have some dates picked out to go back to and experience things “the first time” again. Until then, I have my memories.

 J-Dub

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