NOSTALGIA AND WHAT MAKES US THAT WAY

Hey, this title sounds as if some truths will be revealed to the reader. It sounds as if some answers will be given. Or it could be, I'm just a lousy title-giver. Unfortunately, the last is true.

I don't remember Route 66. Except for the tv show with Kooky Burns getting his kicks there. But many folks are nostalgic about those times.

I used to love to hear high school students who reminiscenced about their golden grade school days. Springsteen calls those times of remberances "glory days". While the high school students hated to hear their parents and teachers pine for days gone by, they jumped right into the gravitational pull of yesteryear when discussing old classmates and times of days gone by.

Nostalgia's appeal to me is like footprints in the sand. We love to put them there. It's as if we've validated our day at the beach. And we hate to see them washed away by the incoming tide or monster wave. Or even a slow ebb of water than gently brushes away our imprints. And, to me, that's what nostalgia is about. We were there. It was fun. We survived. Now mark it. Put up a sign. If not, then share that memory with me. Share the time that we skipped school to watch a World Series game that we didn't care about. Just because we could. If you don't remember that, then somehow you've erased or blotted out a significant memory from high school.

So we hold on. Not because we want to return. But because we survived.