Ahh Memories and Nostalgia

Do you remember Kmart? I mean, how could you forget? If you are a child of immigrants, your parents likely bought your clothes from Kmart. They were cheap and not exactly cool. If you were anything like me, you weren’t that cool anyway, so it didn’t really matter. You could get almost anything at Kmart! And everything was cheap!

Do you remember Denny’s? Apparently, there are still Denny’s in other parts of the country, but they have closed down here in Michigan. It was a cool breakfast restaurant with cheap food again, and it was open 24 hours a day. I remember going there in the middle of the night in college.   

When you get to my age, nostalgia is a really popular pastime. I remember stores like Toys R Us, the best toy store in the universe, and Art Van, the best furniture store around. Now everything is online, but when I was a kid, going into a store was like a rush. Do you remember Cabbage Patch Kids? These were popular dolls that were ugly as hell, but I loved them!

Ahh memories. I remember going to the corner store and buying Jolly Ranchers in all flavors with my best friend, who has since passed. I remember crank calling random people with her on Saturday afternoons and laughing our asses off. 

No social media, I had twenty friends and that was about it. We biked around the neighborhood and sold Girl Scout cookies to people we didn’t know. We went to day camp in the summers at the YMCA, where we swam all day in a pool that was probably infested with pee. 

My British professor at Columbia used to say, “America is all about nostalgia!” He was not wrong. I’m so old that I remember cartoons like Bugs Bunny and the Road Runner. Road Runner almost died in every episode. It was a weird, homicidal show that we all thought was hilarious. Sesame Street was also another favorite. Burt and Ernie were my two favorite gay men, even though I didn’t know they were gay. Mr. Rogers was so kind. Remember Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood? Was Mr. Rogers gay? He seemed a little gay. 

Wonder Woman was my first female role model; she was a badass. 21 Jump Street was my actual favorite show. I would tape it every week with my VCR and then watch the same episode every day. I was crazy, but a good kind of crazy. I was in love with Johnny Depp. 

I was an overweight and not-so-cute kid in grade school. I lost weight in middle school and then discovered makeup in high school, and I have to say I was a pretty young girl. I never had any boyfriends or anything as a teenager because my parents would not allow it. But I had plenty of crushes.

Do you remember the rush of having a crush on a boy or girl when you were young? I thought I was in love so many times you’d think I was in a Soap Opera. Let’s not forget Soap Operas. I watched Days of Our Lives with my little sister, and we were sure that we would grow up and have a lot of boyfriends and scandals. 

I watched a ton of Oprah when I was a kid. I mean, I learned about things like Drag Queens and incest when I was too young to understand any of it. I was obsessed with Madonna, and my best friend and I would put on her albums and just dance in the basement for hours. 

George Michael and Michael Jackson were also favorites that played in the background of my childhood. I had a year of acne when I was 16, in which I wanted to hide in a closet, but that’s when I really learned that I was much more than a pretty face. Remember zits? They were a terrifying part of adolescence. 

I used to buy Cosmopolitan and Teen Magazines. There were only white models on the cover of those publications, but I wanted to be as pretty as they were. I read articles on how to have a better sex life when I was still a virgin. 

Back to the Future was one of my favorite movies. And how can we forget Pretty in Pink and Sixteen Candles, the all-time great teen movies? And the best movie of them all, The Breakfast Club. They just don’t make movies like they used to. Yes, I’m at the age when I say stuff like that. 

Kids these days don’t understand good cinema. Or commercials, remember ‘Where’s the Beef?’ Or watching reruns of your favorite show that only played on a particular day and time each week. 

Remember recess and nap time? Why did we cancel these things in adulthood? I want to play for an hour every day and take a nap like all the time.  

I hope you enjoyed my personal journey down memory lane. I know you have your own particular memories, and I hope you cherish them as I do. 

nina