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Original poster

Will we ever look back with nostalgia?

202 replies

Christinaismyperson · 27/01/2021 09:38

I was just thinking about how the pandemic and lockdown are often compared to WW2 and I was wondering if one day we will ever look back with nostalgia? And if so what will we be nostalgic about?

It also got me thinking how strange the nostalgia for WW2 is, surely living through it would have been far worse than the pandemic? Husbands, sons and brothers being shipped overseas to fight. Rationing and going without food, the real possibility a bomb will drop on your house killing you and your children. Seems mad people look back with such fondness? Is it a survival technique or is it mainly people who were children in the war who didn’t understand or weren’t even born?

OP posts:
ArseInTheCoOpWindow · 27/01/2021 10:07

People definitely look back with nostalgia about WW2, singing in the underground while London was being blown to bits overhead etc. It’s a source of pride for many people. I don’t really understand it, but it definitely happens.

Yes, Brexiteere do this, even though they weren’t born at that time!

LakeGeneva · 27/01/2021 10:08

People definitely look back with nostalgia about WW2, singing in the underground while London was being blown to bits overhead etc. It’s a source of pride for many people. I don’t really understand it, but it definitely happens.

It's because they were born 10, 20, 30 years after the war ended. They're looking back at a version of other people's lives, people unknown to them, that they've constructed for their own purposes.

Brunt0n · 27/01/2021 10:10

@Thewiseoneincognito

We’ll be looking back to pre 2020 with nostalgia. Children will ask what was it like to go to a concert or football match and be so close to strangers. They’ll also ask how it was when people didn’t have to wear masks in stores or public spaces.

I’m not kidding, Watch.

Okay doom goblin
Original poster
Christinaismyperson · 27/01/2021 10:11

@LakeGeneva

People definitely look back with nostalgia about WW2, singing in the underground while London was being blown to bits overhead etc. It’s a source of pride for many people. I don’t really understand it, but it definitely happens.

It's because they were born 10, 20, 30 years after the war ended. They're looking back at a version of other people's lives, people unknown to them, that they've constructed for their own purposes.

My Nan does, she was alive in the war. She was only 8 though so I suppose it shows what a good job my great grandparents did of protecting her. Maybe that was the reason they were singing in the underground. So the children couldn’t hear what was going on above. Sad
OP posts:
ArseInTheCoOpWindow · 27/01/2021 10:11

I know. They use it as a symbol of their idiocy.

Brunt0n · 27/01/2021 10:12

@SquishySquirmy

In all seriousness, I am praying that my child will look back on this time with rosy tinted glasses (if not full on nostalgia).

Because that will mean that I have protected her from the worst of it, and even managed to paint fun and silliness onto the walls of her shrunken world.

If I am successful, she will remember the silly family days, the cuddling up in bed, the family film nights with popcorn, the walks that me and dh jolly her along on (when I don't feel jolly inside) and the long giggly phone calls with friends.

Not the other stuff.

This is lovely, I hope to do the same for my DD. I’m lucky in that I think she’ll be too young to remember any of this, but I’ve taken lots of photos so we can tell her about it one day
StressedTired · 27/01/2021 10:13

@LakeGeneva

"stay the fuck at home" tea towels

🤣 love it! I can totally imagine this happening.

Aimee1987 · 27/01/2021 10:13

Ok replace the word fondness with nostalgia and my comment remains the same.
No one who was alive at that time would have these type of feeling.
The singing in the underground was a way to mask the sheer terror and attempt to distract people.

Notnowokay · 27/01/2021 10:13

The nostalgia will come from yes, we survived that (both the virus and people response to the virus) and appreciating the new normal.

olderthanyouthink · 27/01/2021 10:14

@Fembot123

I will to a certain extent about lockdown one but the rest of it can get to fuck.
Same
2020canfuckitself · 27/01/2021 10:15

No. I'll look back at this knowing my MIL died of cancer and couldn't see her loved ones.
Knowing that my mums cancer could have been diagnosed and treated before it ate her face.

southernbelles · 27/01/2021 10:15

I actually already do for lockdown 1; my husband and I had both been working 2 jobs (1 FT & 1 PT each, I HATED my PT job, it was destroying me) for about a year at that point, we had recently moved house, we had no money despite working all the time, only 1 of us was ever at home with our 3 year old, we were NEVER at home as a family, my mental health had been fragile for a few years & I really was at breaking point, with suicidal thoughts & absolutely desperate for a break in the relentlessness. So when lockdown came & we were both furloughed from our PT jobs, & our FT jobs moved to home working, it was exactly the break in that previous routine we needed. The weather was wonderful, we were able to enjoy some LONG awaited time together, we could enjoy being in our new house. I could BREATHE. I missed family & friends but at that point it felt short-term, & there was a real community sense of 'we're in this together'. No it wasn't worth the global pandemic & terrible number of deaths, but that hardly needs saying. All I'm saying is, as our own little bubble, I am nostalgic for that time.

The rest of it, no, no nostalgia at all. Apart from for Christmas Day as it's the only day I've seen my family since October.

ArseInTheCoOpWindow · 27/01/2021 10:15

My DM was alive in the war. In her teens. She hated it, she had no nostalgia for it at all.

southernbelles · 27/01/2021 10:17

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow

Mark Francois looks like a toad.

< sorry for derail😁>

I've never seen him before but having looked him up based on that comment, spot on!
frozendaisy · 27/01/2021 10:19

Already looking at our cold wet garden have have nostalgia for lockdown 1!

Some will look back and appreciate the time they had with family that they wouldn't otherwise. We can have lunch with Dad most days as he is only sporadically going into work. Which is one good thing, it's not as good as the children being in school but you have to squeeze the smallest positives out where you can. But I am not sure this is nostalgia.

The kids might when they are older and all effects of their education being disrupted have subsided. They might. In a way I hope they do better than then being traumatized for the rest of their lives.

notalwaysalondoner · 27/01/2021 10:21

I think some will, actually, including myself depending what happens next with work - the first one in particular with the sunny days, feeling it was just for a few weeks, lots more free time from not commuting.

Certainly if I had to go back to the office 5 days a week with my 50 min plus commute each way on 2 trains I would be feeling quite nostalgic about WFH. I don't think that would happen though.

I do appreciate I'm lucky that I've mostly enjoyed lockdown or at least found it equivalently pleasant to my previous way of life. I also appreciate that the death toll and the reasons it was necessary are terrible.

jabsinarms · 27/01/2021 10:24

@Thewiseoneincognito

We’ll be looking back to pre 2020 with nostalgia. Children will ask what was it like to go to a concert or football match and be so close to strangers. They’ll also ask how it was when people didn’t have to wear masks in stores or public spaces.

I’m not kidding, Watch.

Sadly I agree with this. Concerts and football matches will probably return but won’t be at full capacity for a few years due to social distancing.
MintyMabel · 27/01/2021 10:25

lockdown are often compared to WW2 and I was wondering if one day we will ever look back with nostalgia? And if so what will we be nostalgic about?

Yep. We’ll use it as a stick to beat the younger generations with when they are dealing with whatever shit life will throw at them.

We’ll wax lyrical about how we all supported the NHS by clapping on our doorsteps, how everyone did what they were supposed to do to protect the NHS and our vulnerable population. How we all came together as a community to help each other and wore masks. Everyone behaved and just did what we had to do.

IcedPurple · 27/01/2021 10:26

Rose tinted glasses would definitely be needed to see this grim period in anything approaching a positive light.

TheKeatingFive · 27/01/2021 10:27

No. None of it.

There will be a lot of questioning of our response to it in retrospect however.

sashagabadon · 27/01/2021 10:29

Yes I think so as some people have had an ok time and made financial savings, had lovely family bonding time or whatever.
I can look back to august very fondly for example , I had some really lovely days as the weather was so nice.
But I don’t think we’ll look back at the bigger picture with fondness

DenisetheMenace · 27/01/2021 10:31

Good grief NO. This will be consigned to the memory dustbin ASAP.

Buzzinwithbez · 27/01/2021 10:31

Lockdown 1 took away every healthy coping mechanism I've developed ( no getting into the countryside to spend time in nature, tramping the streets avoiding scared people is not the same,) and brought me panic attacks and claustrophobia.

Lockdown 2 sort of passed in a daze as my teenager was in crisis.

Lockdown 3, I'm resigned to, but am using every exemption going to keep all my loved ones as mentally and cognitively healthy as possible.

I'll look back fondly to the festival we made it to and the other slices of normal that topped up my batteries.

MintyMabel · 27/01/2021 10:32

The kids might when they are older and all effects of their education being disrupted have subsided.

Like my generation does about the teacher strikes which resulted in two day weeks. I remember having to go to school as I was still in primary and they weren’t affected. My brother and sister went to the house of a woman who was taking in kids and teaching them whilst they were off. At no point did I ever consider how hard it must have been for my mum who had a full time job and my dad was working in the Middle East. It was all just fun.

CherryValanc · 27/01/2021 10:35

Absolutely it will. As mentioned it'll be all about the singing from balconies, gathering in the streets chatting from a distance to neighbours you never knew before. Neighborhoods caring for the vulnerable around them.

It's like that saying "look for the helpers" (during a scary/bad time. It's something that's easier to see when the scary or bad time has past.