Does anyone get bittersweet pangs of nostalgia?

[Fishmanpa]

I was thinking last night how when we were little, going to bed early, not going out and not going to a party were punishments and now they're things we aspire to do on New Years Eve

FMP

[fishman65]

I was thinking last night how when we were little, going to bed early, not going out and not going to a party were punishments and now they're things we aspire to do on New Years Eve

FMP

LOL that's very true Fishmanpa. Hope you have a good year, from one 'fishman' to another

[Lencoboy]

A heartfelt thank you to everyone for their New Year well wishes addressed to me.

Pulisa, hopefully there will be brighter times to come for me and my dad in 2023 and beyond, especially following the endless chaos we went through with my mom and her dementia from around 2016 through the first half of 2022, coupled with us (and everybody elsewhere) being bogged down with the pandemic since early 2020, which hopefully might peter out as 2023 wears on.

As for nostalgia in general, I think it can sometimes be more of a hindrance to modern-day society and popular culture, especially in terms of originality, which also depresses me a fair bit, but at the same time, I often can't help putting on the rose-tinted specs and looking back to seemingly simpler and more carefree times (especially pre-Internet, or at least before it became fully mainstream), many of which, ironically, weren't actually always quite as good as we often remembered them first time round.

[Lencoboy]

I was thinking last night how when we were little, going to bed early, not going out and not going to a party were punishments and now they're things we aspire to do on New Years Eve

FMP

The first BIB (going to bed early) certainly seems daft and unthinkable nowadays, unless parents confiscate all of their kids' favourite belongings from their bedrooms prior to sending them to bed early as a punishment, which many parents probably wouldn't want the hassle of doing anyway, though the kids not going out or to parties still seem like reasonable punishments to me.

Anyway, that's a whole 'nother story.

[Lencoboy]

I was having a dekko at a thread in the 'Broadcasting' sub-section of Digital Spy this morning about the 'birthday' of Thames TV, whose thread was actually started in 2021, but has received a few posts over the past few weeks, including yesterday (1st Jan), and there were some interesting discussions about the ITV franchise reorganisation of the early 90s, which was finally completed by 1st Jan 1993, which was incidentally around the same time period I was having bittersweet (semi) nostalgic pangs for.

As I never really bothered much with TV back then (nor still now either), I have no first-hand recollection of the big reorganisation at ITV as it seemed to go over my head and passed mostly unnoticed for me at the time when it actually happened. My only real recollection of it was 'The Sooty Show' that was produced by Thames (unknowingly at the time) aired its final series of that name that was set in The Sooteries Cottage during the autumn of 1992, then a year later (Sept 1993) the show had been renamed 'Sooty & Co' and relocated to Manchester, but still with the same cast and characters. Though I didn't think was bad at the time, and possibly even seemed to give the show a bit of a new lease of life, I never even twigged that the show abruptly changing both its name and location was a consequence of the demise of Thames and the Sooty franchise shifting to Manchester-based Granada TV.

Then Matt Corbett called it quits at the end of 1998 due to health-related issues and with all due respect to Richard Cadell who kept the show going thereafter, the show for me was just never the same again without any of the Corbetts.

Seems that Thames produced and commissioned some absolute quality and legendary stuff in TV land back in the 70s, 80s and early 90s, almost all of which now seems like a distant memory lost forever, despite much of it largely passing me by at the time.

[Pkstracy]

I do, I want to be growing up in the 80s again, hanging out with my best friend, god I miss her, living with my grandparents along with my parents in the same house, my cousin coming to stay the summer with me, I just want my carefree teen age years back, the music, the movies, life before the internet and cell phones, and the issues going on today.

[Lencoboy]

I do, I want to be growing up in the 80s again, hanging out with my best friend, god I miss her, living with my grandparents along with my parents in the same house, my cousin coming to stay the summer with me, I just want my carefree teen age years back, the music, the movies, life before the internet and cell phones, and the issues going on today.

Funnily enough I was having a conversation about this with my keyworker at my day centre last week, and he said that while there's always been serious 'issues' in some form or another since time immemorial, the Internet has basically 'amplified' many of them over the past 25 years or so since said medium first entered the mainstream. Plus of course certain events in other countries, e.g, the recent disturbances in France probably would have barely registered in the UK's main news headlines before the 2000s, unless it was something profoundly critical, of course.

Conversely it seems that many of the various 'issues' going on today, especially here in the UK, many of us just seem to simply tut about them in the moment while having conversations about them, then just brush them under the carpet and carry on with our usual 'more important' routines, rather than try to find meaningful lasting solutions.

[Lencoboy]

Today during the horrible dull wet weather I was once again thinking back to the year 1993, possibly due to this month being the 30th anniversary of me leaving school for good at the age of 16 (just gone 46 BTW), and have been wondering 'where's the time gone since then'?

Like I said in my OP at the end of last December, I was glad to see the back of school forever more on that date in July 1993, but subsequently developed mixed emotions about it, even though I'd actually loathe to be back there right now, despite it being physically impossible as my final school that I left back then itself closed and relocated to another site the other side of the Borough some time in the mid 2000s and that particular site is now a housing estate.

Also, Christmas 1993 was probably the last truly meaningful one for me at the age of 16 1/2, as not only my last one while still technically a child but we had a fire in our loft just after in the January of 1994 where we lost all of our festive decorations and lights (and various other things) that we had for several years prior to then, plus following the remedial works carried out on our house between the end of January up until the beginning of April in 1994 we had radical changes of decor, furniture, and even the TV in the living room, which was hard for me as many of the things we had prior to then had generally been a constant in my daily life for the best part of 9 years since we first moved into said house in April 1985 when I was nearly 8 years old.

And yes I know much water has passed under the bridge during the 30 years since July 1993, but I just feel there's very little to get mega excited about anymore, especially as I've now pretty much 'been there and done/experienced most things', and pretty much everything just seems to be so mundane and boring now.

[Lencoboy]

Recently my dad purchased a second-hand Peugeot Expert van (made in 2016) to replace his 11-year-old Ford Kuga, which he also part-exchanged with the same used vehicle dealer from whom he acquired said van.

Much of the the dashboard illumination and display lights up in a lovely orange colour which reminds me of the dashboard illumination and display in the Rover (car) that my dad bought brand new in August 1995 which not only lit up in the same orangey colour but both vehicles had/have a main digital display unit which covered/covers the audio system, temperature settings, etc, separate to the main head unit of the audio system, and it reminds me of late 1995 when me, my dad and brother were working with a covers band who played in WMCs up and down the country (especially South Wales), sometimes used to travel on our own in said vehicle to the venues to do the gigs, and being reminded of the combo of orange dashboard glow, listening to Phil Collins' first 4 solo albums (all of which I still have copies of on both CD and vinyl and still enjoy listening to today) and chilly foggy nights all bring further pangs of nostalgia.

The latter would probably be unthinkable in these more risk-averse, H & S-conscious times though.

I also recall one of the keyboards the band's keyboard player had (that I remember had purchased brand new at the time, and I think was made by Roland) had a lovely bright orange-coloured digital display unit, but was actually backlit in orange with the display text in black. Beautiful!

[BlueIris]

Your writing is absolutely beautiful when you talk about things you love.