Nostalgia

A few days ago I was sitting in court in Fairfax, waiting for my case to be called.  The Fairfax courthouse is fairly modern – late 1970s style – and not particular fancy or ornate, more functionally than design oriented.  My mind wandered, as it does when I’m denied the privilege of reading anything non-case related (even my Android Kindle).  It occurred to me that there could be any time in the future, be it 2111, 3111, 10011, however far advanced in time, and SOMEONE then could be wondering what life was like back in 2011, and I’d know what they could only imagine – I’m here now. 

 Occasionally I go to courts where the styling is very obvious from another time.  The US Bankruptcy Court in Alexandria dates from 1931; it’s not hard to imagine yourself back then in some of the courtrooms of that court.  Even stranger is the Baltimore City Circuit Court in downtown Baltimore, built in the late 19^th century, though as yet I have not had occasion to actually attend court in that building.  An uncontested divorce filed a few years ago had its “hearing” held in a lawyer’s office in downtown Baltimore, and a personal injury case settled without trial. 

 I suppose I should distinguish two types of nostalgia.  The first concerns a time period with which you may be personally familiar, probably either early childhood or growing up.  The other concerns time periods in which you might want to have lived – Roman times, Renaissance Europe, etc. – but with which you only have second-hand knowledge gained from books or movies. 

 1970s.  Naturally I have a strong nostalgia (of the first type) for this time period, because I grew up as a kid in Montgomery Village, Maryland at that time.   Recently I came across two issues of “Living”, the magazine the developers, Kettler Brothers, released to attract people to settle there: chock full of 70s nostalgia at its finest.  It’s too bad we can’t “go back” there.  I suppose the closest is indulging in vinyl records, 8 tracks, and scoring (someday) a 2^nd generation (1970-81) Pontiac Trans Am.  The 70s means no computers, no faxes, no cell phones, no Internet, but color TVs (no HD) and movies are in movie theater or shown with projectors and screens.  The condo I live in now, in northern Virginia, was built in 1973 and certainly looks it.

 Midnight in Paris.  This is a recent Owen Wilson film in which he time travels to 1920s Paris, meeting (among others) Picasso, Dali, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and Gertrude Stein.   He strikes up a brief romance with Picasso’s mistress, Adrianna (Marion Cotillard), a flapper who takes 1920s Paris for granted and would rather experience “La Belle Epoque” (late 19^th-early 20^th century) Paris, and indeed does so.  And the Moulin Rouge patrons who they meet there, themselves take this era for granted and would rather be back in the Renaissance.  By this point Wilson’s character Gil realizes he’s just as well back in 2010.

 Somewhere in Time.  I have to say I share Adrianna’s time preference more than Gil’s.  In this film, Christopher Reeve has a fixation, an obsession, with the early 20^th century.  He manages to hypnotize himself back to 1912, to the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island in Michigan. 

 1879-1919. This is the time period I’m most nostalgic for – that is to say, the second type of nostalgia for a time period I never actually lived myself.  It includes Art Nouveau and World War I, gaslight, the dawn of electricity and the peak of railroads, and the very first automobiles.  Movies from this time are all silent and very poor quality black & white, e.g. “Birth of A Nation” and “Intolerance”. 

 NFL Throwbacks.  The NFL has thankfully indulged in this.  Various teams resurrect earlier uniforms from time to time.  The New York Jets, Buffalo Bills, and San Diego Chargers have made the experiment permanent.  The Patriots, Steelers, Bears, Cowboys, Redskins, Vikings, Jets/Titans, don the throwbacks uniforms periodically. 

 Williamsburg, VA.  I like the concept of Colonial Williamsburg, unfortunately I have zero interest in that particular time period (late 18^th century).  I like that the people have to stay in character, but my understanding is that when the shift is over they take off the tricorner hats and period clothing and go home to their 21^st century abodes.

 Renaissance Fairs.  These are the closest to medieval Europe you’re likely to find in the US, or anywhere else.  Fortunately the Bubonic Plague is absent, as is the brutalism of that period when people were simply killed outright with no police or habeas corpus.  What’s cool is that the employees are 99% “in character” and most of the crowd is too (free admission to anyone dressed appropriately). 

 Retro.  By now we have several retro-styled cars:  the new Camaro (1969 style), Challenger (1970 style), HHR (early Suburban), Prowler, PT Cruiser, etc.  My niece Zoe plays with these American Girls dolls, each of which focuses on a different time period in American history.  My question is this: why can’t we do retro for everything?  Clothes, kitchen appliances, furniture, etc. – a full “retro package” for either rooms in the house or the entire place.  Products which were originally available during that time could be repackaged accordingly, though with contemporary content.  Recently Budweiser reissued 1936 pattern beer cans, Pepsi released “Retro Pepsi” in the original styling and made with real sugar, and the same deal with Mountain Dew.  Coca-Cola has been available for years in those smaller 8 oz glass bottles (though for obvious reasons the pre-1903 formula with cocaine hasn’t been reintroduced).  I don’t know why, but there is some undeniably stronger flavor and sweetness coming out of one of those bottles than an aluminum can or a plastic 20 oz bottle. 

            I suppose it would be silly putting a 26” plasma TV into a wood console – it defeats the purpose of having a flat screen if you’re going to put it into a deep wood cabinet, but those of us who aren’t mounting it on the wall itself probably don’t care anyway.  We had the 36” depth in the room for CRT TVs, if rooms are the same size or larger we can still handle that even if we don’t need to anymore.

            The ultimate “retro experience” might be to recreate an entire town dedicated to that time period.  For a turn of the century deal, it would have to be serviced by train only (no airport or paved road).  No TV, no cell phone service, no Internet access, and more in the way of gas appliances than electricity. I don’t think this could work as a 24/7 living experience; communes were an attempt to simply replicate a rural, pre-industrial society amidst a modern industrial country, and failed miserably whenever attempted.  But as a Williamsburg tourist deal it might work.  For the sake of economics, it might better work as a theme park with multiple areas dedicated to particular time periods, as I don’t think any one time period could attract enough people to make it work by itself.  And we’ll keep the futuristic, killer Yul Brynner robots out of this: all the “staff” will be live humans.