Will we ever look back with nostalgia?

[Christinaismyperson]

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?

@Christinaismyperson

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?

Surely the only people who look back fondly on WW2 are pricks on Facebook with Union Jack profile pictures who weren’t even bloody born during the war?

I wont. All this has done is prove that for every one kind person there are 20 wankers who moaned and made others feel like shit while doing fuck all to help anyone but themselves.

Everyone even the media assumes you are rule breaking murderer. There is so little positive spin on things like the foodbsnks and community groups. There is way more people shouting "you selfish murdering fuckers!!" at everyone.

Your kid needs a education? What a selfish fucker
You need to go into a shop? What a selfish fucker
Your boss wont let you work from home and you didnt resign? Shame on you you selfish fucker!!!

Nope. Fuck. this. Shit.

@burntraisins which is kind of the question I’m asking. Will the pandemic be memorialised in the same way WW2 was. As you say it’s frequently referenced in culture and society from high art to children’s games. In 10yrs time will people be looking back with the nostalgia we saw for the war? Will people go to vintage fairs in 50 years time wearing face masks and pjs in a nod to 2020s fashion?

Or is it just too awful? In which case that would be a bit strange because WW2 was far more harrowing imo

@WrongKindOfFace yes and no. There is the EDL British bulldog type but then look at something like the Goodwood Revival, which has an undeniable WW2 vintage chic ascetic. And the Facebook posts of proud parents dressing up their kids as evacuees for WW2 day at school, complete with gas mask box! What fun! It seems mad when you really think about it.

WW2 was awful in many, many ways. A lot of people bore mental trauma from it for the remainder of their lives.

However for some kids there was some excitement to be had. They weren't cooped up.

I grew up listening to women who'd been girls and young women and so many had their stories to tell. Many were sent around the country to work and some really broke through the barriers of class and the expectations of women. Some really very funny stories they'd tell him like young factory girls off to dances to meet the Yanks. Dancing, there was always dancing.

The toilet roll shortage of 2020 was a pale imitation of the daily irritations and workarounds caused by rationing.

Apart from heroic medical staff and vaccine boffins there's not much to get behind.

So no I don't think there will be nostalgia.

Nope. Can't wait to burn the masks.
Only thing I'll reminisce about is wfh which I am happier doing.

I think the pp who have pointed out that it tends to be the post WW2 generation who show nostalgia for the war years, and maybe some who were children at the time. My grampa certainly never did- he was a young soldier who was at the liberation of Belsen and he was scarred; I read some of his diaries after he died and it was a tiny glimpse into a lifetime of trying to come to terms with what he bore witness to and utterly failing.

Things that people might get nostalgic about?

• having the kids home and baking/crafts/garden camping (forgetting the tears and tantrums of homeschooling) note - I’ve worked throughout and haven’t had this luxury or a garden!
• Captain Tom
• Those streets on the One Show that had daily coffee mornings outside their front doors (nothing like that here!)
• Clap for Carers
• London lighting up blue for the NHS (that was pretty cool)
• The Queens speech which coincided with VE Day, drawing further parallels.
• The nurses and drs clapping the first discharged patients out of the hospital
• The first vaccinated and the huge effort going into vaccinating people every day
• Joe Wicks
• BBC schooling (I’m sure they will be a key memory for my children, I can see them rewatching when they are in their 30s out of nostalgia)

I think there’s enough there for people to look back on one day with some nostalgia.

Joe Wicks?

Really?

[quote Christinaismyperson]@WrongKindOfFace yes and no. There is the EDL British bulldog type but then look at something like the Goodwood Revival, which has an undeniable WW2 vintage chic ascetic. And the Facebook posts of proud parents dressing up their kids as evacuees for WW2 day at school, complete with gas mask box! What fun! It seems mad when you really think about it.[/quote]
True, but none of them were alive during the war. People who lived through it generally weren’t saying how marvellous it all was.

You’re right though, it is quite mad!

Many people who lived through World War Two certainly did talk about it all the time- think about the uncle Arthur character from only fools and horses who's standard joke is that he is always talking about the war. Those of us who had grandparents that were 18 plus in the war years would have definitely had older relatives reminiscing about their war years. My grandad would never talk about his service as he was traumatised by some of the things he had to do but he would talk about the era as a whole.

@IcedPurple

Joe Wicks?

Really?

Well not me personally, but I’m aware he was quite a “big thing” in the first lockdown. My kids school never stopped linking to the chap! I expect he might be something that kids remember into their adulthood? 🤷‍♀️

If I was to get nostalgic about anything from lockdown 1 it would be Joe Wicks, yes.

There is the zoom quiz. Though we've given up on them!

I’m already nostalgic for lockdown 1 as a family member moved in with us for 2 months and it was lovely. I hated many things but that I loved and I was grateful for.

My daughter is nostalgic for her first keyworker bubble. She likes her current one but the summer one was better for reasons she can’t articulate.

I’ve only scanned the thread but I realise for many people it has been hell.

The only person I knew who lived in WW2 as a young child looked back on it with PTSD, she would be horrified that we're trying to use WW2 as a way to slap down peoples very real concern about a pandemic as it is in no way the same. She remembered the anger at the government for taking them to war, she remembered the anger at the rationing, and an overall feeling of having their lives snatched away.

There is no way she looked back with nostalgia and there is no way I would look back on the pandemic with it either. I'll look back on it as a time humanity lost its damned collective mind when they suddenly seemed to realise people die, from illnesses, every damn day but that only covid death mattered. Until we get a sadly daily death show for every cancer death, every suicide, every murder due to domestic violence the pandemic will never compare and folk will never actually realise how many people do die of preventable illnesses.

Yes, absolutely.
This lockdown has given me the gift of time and has allowed me to have a taste of what retirement will be like. I cannot wait.

I think I'll be the old codger who the kids think is crazy.

"Have you stocked up on toilet paper, paracetamol, masks and hand sanitizer?!!"

"Yes......." they will groan while shaking their heads that they haven't when they think I'm not looking. Someone will quietly mention Covid as an explanation and there will be low ooh and ahhs of understanding.

Christ, not the WW talk AGAIN...

@Christinaismyperson

Things that people might get nostalgic about?

• having the kids home and baking/crafts/garden camping (forgetting the tears and tantrums of homeschooling) note - I’ve worked throughout and haven’t had this luxury or a garden!
• Captain Tom
• Those streets on the One Show that had daily coffee mornings outside their front doors (nothing like that here!)
• Clap for Carers
• London lighting up blue for the NHS (that was pretty cool)
• The Queens speech which coincided with VE Day, drawing further parallels.
• The nurses and drs clapping the first discharged patients out of the hospital
• The first vaccinated and the huge effort going into vaccinating people every day
• Joe Wicks
• BBC schooling (I’m sure they will be a key memory for my children, I can see them rewatching when they are in their 30s out of nostalgia)

I think there’s enough there for people to look back on one day with some nostalgia.

I can promise you no one will be nostalgic for literally any of those things.

I think whilst there may be light hearted comedies or comedy dramas set around the pandemic in future, I don't think we will look back with any nostalgia.

More people have died than civilians in WW2. The biggest enemy we have had is our own Prime Minister. We will look back with shame as to how we ended up with him as Prime Minister and indeed to a lesser extent with Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader. The general election of 2019 was only a choice in name only.

@lalaland2 people on this thread have said they are already nostalgic for those things!

I’m not saying it’s wrong or right either way so there’s no need to be shirty. It’s the coronavirus section of the website and I’m free to start any discussion I wish about coronavirus. If you don’t like it why on earth have you read through and commented?

We won't but our children and grandchildren will. My DC are still quite little and they'll probably be talking about how we just got on with it without complaining and moaning. They'd be wrong of course. I dread to think what a rosy picture my potential grandchildren will paint in their minds about us heroically surviving a global pandemic without any of the year 2120 modern comforts.... they'll probably talk about how we only had our internet and gadgets to keep the children amused with.

I already have nostalgia for the first lockdown because compared to now, it was fun. There was more virtual interaction, more new hobbies, more kind of sharing this new awful situation and making the better of it. Now it's all just depressing. There will be no nostalgia for me ever after things return to normal life. More like I'll have ptsd than nostalgia.

I will definitely miss working from home when they make me go back, I much prefer it, even though I do get a bit lonely. I am trying to see the pandemic as my "sabbatical" as I think once real life starts back up again that will be it - chained to the office forever.