Nostalgia

[Dreamcast]

Nostalgia is defined as:
A wistful 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.

The concept of nostalgia is something that fascinates me. Its effects are almost intoxicating. The feeling brought about by Nostalgia is an independent feeling in an of itself.

The Greek word for "return" is nostos. Algos means "suffering." So nostalgia is the suffering caused by an unappeased yearning to return. It's comparable to a drug in that it initially is pleasurable until degenerating into feelings of withdraw.

What are the things you are most Nostalgic for? For me, I miss the 90s the most. The 90s is hard to define historically. Its inability to define itself was perhaps a characteristic of it. This is most evident in 90s fashion which was a continuation of late 80s trends. With regards to Television, the 90s seemed to be the last era where substance took priority over colorful materialism. A children's show like Pete and Pete for example which contained philosophical surrealism would not survive in the age of Hannah Montana. One of the most spot on remarks I heard on the subject was that 90s television, especially with regards to youth, had the basic assumption its audience was intelligent.

A final thought on the 90s of mine was that it was a more innocent time for western civilization. The terror attacks of 9/11 had yet to occur. The expansion of the internet and its influence was not yet fully realized. Innovations such as Iphones, facebook, and twitter had yet to rob us of our individuality. The concept of instant fame with a thing like youtube had yet to penetrate society.

Nostalgia is a strange beast.

 

[Kutie Pie]

I have nostalgia for the '90s as well, mostly when it comes to cartoons. You're right, a lot of '90s cartoons were wittily intelligent, and knew both its audiences of children and adults who may-or-may-not have been forced to watch the shows. Of course, a lot of realistic TV shows at the time showed what the '90s was *coughFreshPrincecough* but it still manages to hold up today (some, anyway). There was a lot of good stuff on at the time. The '90s and early 2000s was the only time in my life where I woke up very early to watch TV. These days, I only wake up early if something bothered me, and even then, I just turn on my laptop to pass the time. I despise television these days, though a few cartoons that are coming out in the next few weeks might bring me back (I'd watch Toonami, but I don't know what time it comes on).

Another thing I have nostalgia for are the video games, but since we still have them in good working order, I can experience that any day. But the main nostalgia is for my childhood. We were poor back then, but my two brothers (at the time) and I were the happiest kids out there, and rather naive, but smart enough to know "Don't do this, I can DIE". So though we weren't free to wander the neighborhood, we played outside a lot, and had numerous of strange adventures such as playing in the mud, climbing over the swingset and hardly using it properly, looking for gophers, attempting to kill cockroaches one summer night until we found out they could fly, throw dirt clods in the desert before it got filled with houses... good times.

I honestly believe my childhood innocence ended when 9/11 happened when I was nine. I remember waking up that morning (on my own on schedule, usually Mom came in to wake me) and noticing the room was darker than normal. I had thick, blue curtains, but the room was always bright every time I woke up (except in winter, of course). I questioned the lack of sunlight, got up, and exited my room to find my parents in their bedroom watching footage of the towers falling. I didn't understand it at the time, but over the next few days, I learned there were countries out there who hate us for who we are, and did shit like that because of their hatred. As far as I know, no wars happened during the '90s after the Persian Gulf War, so this was the first time I was exposed to warring countries. I honestly believe something in me died that day, I was just too young to understand (though other children my age did perfectly, including a friend of mine who is a native New Yorker, she didn't go to school that day). My brothers and I still had our fun, but it didn't have that same innocence. 9/11 was a really sad day when it comes to our country, and our personal lives.

 

[lidaboy]

i miss the good old days of sonic in the 90's and the adventure titles and hgss and also kh2 and being back at elementary

 

[GreatGonzales]

Super Mario sunshine, anyone?

 

[Kutie Pie]

Super Mario sunshine, anyone?

Eh, I liked it better when it was called Super Mario 64. But the nostalgia of its release date counts. Same with Metroid Prime, which I can't believe both games are ten years old now. But I remember when the GameCube came out. Really nifty device it was. I think we gave away our GameCube system when we got the Wii, I miss handling it.

 

[Spock]

Man I blogged about and loved everything about the 90s and I'm getting pretty sick of this whole nostalgia thing.

Move on.

 

[Mister_SGG]

I've been thinking about before I moved from Nova Scotia to Ontario a lot lately. Depressing. I miss a lot of my friends, even though I've made loads here, and we had lots of great times.

 

[Moneyy]

Super Mario sunshine, anyone?

Yes. Also the GameCube as a whole was pretty nostalgic for me.

Another thing is Pokemon R/S/E. I played R/G/B before, but it was Pokemon R/S/E that really got me into the franchise. I don't play Pokemon anymore, but if they remade those games, I probably would play it again because they were so good.

 

[blackterminator3]

My god where to start. Gosh I miss living in the 90's. Good TV, education was at it's best. Actors, Actress sending out a positive message to the young children that listen's to their music and watch their shows. Awesome kid commercials and adult ones as well. The toys was so amazing back then. I remember when I was receiving my first Power Ranger Mega Zord which was the Dino-Mega Zord. Still have it in my closet. Wrestling was less predictable back then. Respectful people as well. I remember getting my hands on my first video game at age 2 which was Busy Town and Sonic The Hedgehog 1 for Sega Genesis. Classic rap, hip hop, jazz and etc. Less trashy streets. People were better dressed. Classic Nick shows like Rugrats, All That, Kennan & Kel, Doug, Salute Your Shorts, Guts, Double Dare, Are You Afraid of The Dark, My Brother And Me, The Legend Of The Temple. Classic Cartoon Network shows like Space Ghosts Coast To Coast, Flinstones, Jetsons, Sailor Moon, Gundam, Looney Toons, and 2 Stupid Dogs. Classic Disney shows. Extra good shows like Save By The Bell, Boy's Meets World, Beverly Hill's 90210, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Angel, All My Children, One Life to Live, GH, Dallas, Port Charles, As The World Turns and a few more. Great cartoons from other channels like Digimon, Pokemon and Bobby's World. The Video Games was very cheap. You can buy like a bunch of cartriages for like 10-30 bucks. PPV's were also cheaper. I also remember when I used to have my friends spend the night and we would also camp out in the backyard. Making smores. My god how much I miss living in the 90's.

 

[Ausgirl]

I'm definately nostalgic for the 90's. That's when TV was at it's best, I used to get up early every day to watch stuff like Sailor Moon and in the afternoon there was Daria and The Wild Thornberries. As I grew older I watched stuff like Frasier and Becker, when comady was actually worth watching and not as generic like it is today. I also miss the good ol' days where I would play the N64 with the neighbours and having to sneak Pokemon cards into schools along with the Tamagotchi's.

These day's I only watch a few shows such as the Big Bang Theory and lately Grey's Anatomy since a lot of the stuff that's on these days is crap and nearly every station has the same type of shows. I still enjoy the Nintendo titles of course... though if someone was to give me their old N64 then I wouldn't say no!

 

[Mandi.]

Last night I watched a youtube video of a bunch of the popular 90's songs. It made me so sad but happy that I remembered 98% of those songs.

 

[YaDunGoofed]

That Lil Romeo show that was on Nick in the earlier 2000s. And Kablam on Nicktoons.

 

[ShinyMienshao]

Super Mario sunshine, anyone?

YES! Gamecube was the best!

I miss my kirby's air ride that is SOMEWHERE in my house

 

[Flandre]

I recently re-watched Monster Rancher after like, 10 years? As a kid I used to literally run home all the way through my village just to get to my TV to watch it. TV is rubbish now though, apart from Dr Who but I can just record that. Things are too easy now-a-days it's no funnn. :'P

 

[ParaChomp]

"I remember it so you don't have to."

The b*stard tore up many of my fond childhood memories but now that I look back at them, they were awful.

 

[Profesco]

Man I blogged about and loved everything about the 90s and I'm getting pretty sick of this whole nostalgia thing.

Move on.

There were blogs in the '90s?


I remember... Rugrats, a string of Disney films, and catching tadpoles. Otherwise we moved around a lot and I don't have many stable memories or sentiments. I feel sort of bad ending this post on such a useless note, but I'd feel worse trying to think of things to remember from back then.

 

[Plus side down side]

I miss the way summer used to feel. I remember just laying in the grass and playing for hours in shorts and a t-shirt. My friends and I would build teepees in the backyard and pretend to be fairies. Then we would start a fire in our fire pit and snuggle up while we cooked ramen noodles with the smoke and caught things on fire while my mom wasn't looking. We would tell ghost stories that we would only be pretend to fear, just because it was fun to be scared. We would then use the neighborhood to play hide-and-seek all while the crickets chirped and the smell of smoke hung heavy.

Now we stay inside and watch movies. :/

 

[Finch.]

Romping around in the woods with my friends...Going to camp...Karate..

I think that what I miss the most though..would have to be when me and my grandma would go to Mcdonald's everyday, so we could get all the toy's in the set that week. xD She could still drive back then. She was an amazing baker. I know if she could, she'd love to make a cake every day. Whenever she'd come over, she'd always practically BEG my mom to let her fix everything. Now, she has arthritis and parkinson's disease, and can't really move around. *sigh*

 

[Zazie]

I remember back in the day using Netscape and Altavista to search for **** on DBZ, and all the information was confusing and wrong.

I remember hitting up the arcades to play Skeeball, Marvel vs Capcom and Gauntlet Legends.

I went to Funcoland and finding a Ranma 1/2 video game. They sold Super Mario Brothers 3 for a dime.

I remember watching stuff like Extreme Ghostbusters, King Arthur and the Knights of Justice, Hysteria, Beetlejuice and other stuff on broadcast T.V., because I didn't have much cable when I was a kid.

 

[Jb]

I remember back in the day using Netscape and Altavista to search for **** on DBZ, and all the information was confusing and wrong.

Remember AOL? All those free Frisbees.