I know you've done it too, plenty of times I'm sure. You know those times when you hear a song that instantly makes you feel all those warm and reminiscent feelings that make up nostalgia? Ah, nostalgia -- a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past. For me, I get this feeling when I hear any 90s country song because it instantly takes me back to my childhood. Or, when I hear a song that was played at my wedding, my face lights up for obvious reasons. Just the same, any time I hear an old hymn I think of my Grandma blissfully humming the tunes as she cooked us Sunday dinner. There's also this one song, “I Can Love You Like That,” the All-4-One version, that I remember singing at the top my lungs with my mom and sister on every single road trip we ever had, even the super short ones to the grocery store. It was our song. Of course I could go on and on. Now, I've never been particularly musically inclined, if that's even a phrase. I'm certainly no musician, but it doesn't take a musician to know that music is a powerful memory aid.
Most people enjoy some good musical nostalgia. We like going back to what was “the good ol’ days,” at least for us. I remember the good ol’ days. Maybe it wasn't the same days that the baby boomers or generation X remember, but they were special to me. I guess I fall into the category of a millennial. Now, I know the good ol’ days are subjective. I mean, I wish I could have lived in the 50s and referred to those as my good ol’ days, but I wasn’t so fortunate. So, for many of us millennials, the good ol’ days were the 1990s. (Oh and for the record, not all of us are into the whole entitlement thing, but I digress.) Perhaps we reminisce about the 1990s because it was a simpler time for us. Maybe it was simpler just because we were kids, or maybe the world really was a better place then. We reminisce on a time where we could ride bikes all around the neighborhood with our friends. We remember a time where we could ride in the back of a pick-up truck and it was considered fairly normal (maybe this was just a southern thing, I don't know). We remember doing weird things that kids do because, hey, kids are weird. We did this because we didn't have social media to occupy our time. We also didn't have anyone on social media to compete with or compare ourselves to, so we just embraced our weirdness. We certainly didn't take selfies at the ripe old age of 11. It's a good thing too because it’s very likely we would have been hidden behind gobs of bright blue eyeshadow. Oh, and you could find us collecting actual Pokemon cards, not chasing the characters on an app (even though we do that now). We were the kids who passed cleverly folded notes in class and wrote these strange S’s on anything we could. We weren’t sending text messages every second of every day. We were the kids who waited patiently while our VHS tapes rewound. You could find us replying when people spoke to us because our heads weren't buried in our phones (and if we didn't reply, we probably would have gotten a good smackin’ or a stern glare from our parents). We remember saying the Pledge of Allegiance every morning in school and maybe even the famous lunch prayer of “God is great, God is good, let us thank Him for our food.” We reminisce on a time when country music told stories about life and the simple joys of it. We remember wholesome family shows like 7th Heaven, Full House, and Boy Meets World. We reflect, we yearn, we smile, and we feel sadness. We feel sadness because being nostalgic can only take us so far. After all, nostalgia is just being reminiscent and memories have limits. Unfortunately they fade and time passes. As it passes, things change, society changes, people change. Boy, has it all changed. Today, it's not safe and may even be considered a type of child neglect to let our kids roam about the neighborhood unsupervised. They certainly couldn’t be caught riding in the back of a pick-up truck… the horror! However, kids today may take a good selfie or two there. For some of us though, we still long for days gone by. We so desperately desire the type of childhood we had, for our own children. There's a fairly popular song by the Judd’s called, “Grandpa (Tell Me Bout’ the Good Ol’ Days).” It’s one of those songs where if you played it, you'd remember hearing it somewhere because you just know you've heard it before. Here are the lyrics:
" Grandpa, tell me 'bout the good old days
Sometimes it feels like this worlds gone crazy
Grandpa, take me back to yesterday
When the line between right and wrong
Didn't seem so hazy
(Chorus)
Did lovers really fall in love to stay
And stand beside each other, come what may
Was a promise really something people kept
Not just something they would say
Did families really bow their heads to pray
Did daddies really never go away
Oh, grandpa, tell me 'bout the good old days
Grandpa, everything is changing fast
We call it progress, but I just don't know
And grandpa, let's wander back into the past
And paint me the picture of long ago
Did lovers really fall in love to stay
And stand beside each other come what may
Was a promise really something people kept
Not just something they would say and then forget
Did families really bow their heads to pray
Did daddies really never go away
Oh, grandpa, tell me 'bout the good old days
Oh, grandpa, tell me 'bout the good old days
That song really resonates with me. Even though the good ol’ days are subjective, every generation has them. Now, I wish with all my heart that my grandparents were still alive. I remember their many stories of days gone by, especially my Grandaddy’s. I remember him telling me about simpler times and better days. This reflection got me thinking... one day, even quicker than I can possibly fathom, the world will be an even scarier place than it is now. One day it’ll be me sitting around with my grandchildren. We’ll be talking lots of silly talk and I'll tell them all about my days gone by. I will tell them about my childhood and the joys and wonders of it. I will tell them how the world got scarier as I got older and how it seems to have that affect on people. I will also tell them how, often, perception is reality and the world really is a scary place. I hope that won't be too harsh for their sweet little souls. I will teach them to guard their hearts and minds from the darkness. I will tell them how to cherish their good ol’ days because one day soon they will become days gone by. I hope they listen.
Sources: http://www.lyricsfreak.com/j/judds/grandpa_1015483...
