Jump to content
IGNORED

Am I nostalgic or is this a mid-life crisis?


Recommended Posts

Do you love nostalgia and things that meant something to your childhood or are you too cheap to go out and buy a boat or a corvette? lol My house is filled with things from Star Wars to stacks of Intellivisions to Transformers and even the vehicles I build are of the same ones I drove from the time I was 16. Everything revolves around the younger era of my life and as eBay items arrive in the mail and my woman looks at me like I'm nuts I wonder what everyone else's motivations to stay connected to these things are. So what is it for you?

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just left the Disney store which is full of stuff from my childhood like Marvel and Star Wars. My kindle is full of Batman comics, and I like talk about old video games here. Am I a nostalgic sap? Maybe, but I think giant dork probably covers it better.

 

I do okay in the present but have an appreciation of the past too. Sounds like middle age to me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't think there's such a thing as a "mid-life crisis". That's a term people invented when you were supposed to "act your age", ie. middle aged guys were supposed to get up at 7, put on a suit and go to work in an office from 9 to 5 so they could support their wife and kids. Then they'd come home, eat dinner in that same suit, sit down and read the newspaper until 10PM, then put on their pajamas and slippers and go to bed. Meanwhile, you were expected to be married to somebody your age or slightly younger and have 2.5 kids aged 10 and 12, and 8 if you happened to have a third. Your wife was supposed to stay home and cook and clean and take care of these kids.

 

If you did anything other than that in your 40's, you were having a "mid-life crisis". Especially if you lived that kind of life and then left it, or decided that it wasn't enough on its own and you needed some different hobbies.

 

This is no different than calling a woman who's unmarried in her 30's an "old maid". It's such a stupid, old-fashioned term based on outdated expectations of how people live and age as they get older, if those expectations were really *ever* followed by most people.

 

I think that these days our lives are such that the past, present and future are really all mashed together. In the old days you'd have stuff when you were kids and you would *literally* forget about it as you got older, which made it easy to just never pick it up again. There was nobody writing the history of, say, all the different Lego sets or all the yearly HESS trucks within easy reach (unless you went to a bookstore and maybe ran across a book on it).

 

But now, the internet means we can vicariously relive the complete history of anything we ever had, which often makes us want those things again. And that same internet makes it easy to get them again. As we get older, we can also afford more, so often we can get even more into the hobbies we once had than we used to be.

 

I think that those of us who are middle aged now are the first generation to really experience this, but as time goes on it's just going to be normal for people to really *never* give up their hobbies, or to just keep coming back to them forever and building up bigger and bigger collections (though I do think downsizing in later age will probably still be common). The stuff people are into as kids will just be the stuff they're into forever, because others will have grown up with those same things and will be talking about it online, in more and more mature ways as they get older, keeping the history alive and making it seem like those things never really "expire".

 

Anyway, obviously this isn't the first time I've thought about this. I have a wife but no kids and so our lives are very different from the stereotypical middle aged couple. A lot of the things I do make me think of the "mid-life crisis" label but I always come back to thinking about what a dumb term that is.

  • Like 7
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't think there's such a thing as a "mid-life crisis". That's a term people invented when you were supposed to "act your age", ie. middle aged guys were supposed to get up at 7, put on a suit and go to work in an office from 9 to 5 so they could support their wife and kids. Then they'd come home, eat dinner in that same suit, sit down and read the newspaper until 10PM, then put on their pajamas and slippers and go to bed. Meanwhile, you were expected to be married to somebody your age or slightly younger and have 2.5 kids aged 10 and 12, and 8 if you happened to have a third. Your wife was supposed to stay home and cook and clean and take care of these kids.

 

If you did anything other than that in your 40's, you were having a "mid-life crisis". Especially if you lived that kind of life and then left it, or decided that it wasn't enough on its own and you needed some different hobbies.

 

This is no different than calling a woman who's unmarried in her 30's an "old maid". It's such a stupid, old-fashioned term based on outdated expectations of how people live and age as they get older, if those expectations were really *ever* followed by most people.

 

I think that these days our lives are such that the past, present and future are really all mashed together. In the old days you'd have stuff when you were kids and you would *literally* forget about it as you got older, which made it easy to just never pick it up again. There was nobody writing the history of, say, all the different Lego sets or all the yearly HESS trucks within easy reach (unless you went to a bookstore and maybe ran across a book on it).

 

But now, the internet means we can vicariously relive the complete history of anything we ever had, which often makes us want those things again. And that same internet makes it easy to get them again. As we get older, we can also afford more, so often we can get even more into the hobbies we once had than we used to be.

 

I think that those of us who are middle aged now are the first generation to really experience this, but as time goes on it's just going to be normal for people to really *never* give up their hobbies, or to just keep coming back to them forever and building up bigger and bigger collections (though I do think downsizing in later age will probably still be common). The stuff people are into as kids will just be the stuff they're into forever, because others will have grown up with those same things and will be talking about it online, in more and more mature ways as they get older, keeping the history alive and making it seem like those things never really "expire".

 

Anyway, obviously this isn't the first time I've thought about this. I have a wife but no kids and so our lives are very different from the stereotypical middle aged couple. A lot of the things I do make me think of the "mid-life crisis" label but I always come back to thinking about what a dumb term that is.

????

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think it's mostly a matter of closing circles.

 

I had a Snoopy wrist watch from 1958 when I was a kid, time passed and it was destroyed by a silly accident, then for no reason at age 35 I wanted it again.

 

I got it and feel pretty satisfied. Now it's forgot in my drawer but everytime I see it I feel, again, satisfied.

 

More or less I've closed all the 80s circles. Including the deep need to have an Intellivision and Triple Action ;)

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Probably Nostalgia. If it were a real mid-life crisis, playing with your childhood toys would make it worse. For others it could be something else. Like being a lifelong fan of a sports team, the time and attention spent on this hobby doesn't make sense. As a ten year old these things might have been the most important things in one's life, leaving an imprint in the brain that can't be easily removed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Michel Gondry included a short film with his Directors Label Series DVD called "I've been 12 forever. " Being young feeling young and recapturing youth is often about sustaining that sense of wonderment. If you loved music videos, check out that DVD just for the videos or watch his videos on YouTube. .

 

Stay excited about your stuff. There is too much in the world not to be excited about.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Only you can say whether, in your case, it may be a midlife crisis, or nostalgia, or both...or neither.

 

For me, it's neither. It's simply that some of the things that I enjoyed when I was younger, I never stopped enjoying.

 

If I'd enjoyed playing golf as a kid, would it be nostalgia if I'd kept doing it for decades?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's a mid life something. You can call it whatever you want. Almost all of us here are holding onto something from our past. Wether or not you spend large amounts of money on your crisis depends on you. The "crisis" is nothing more than remembering great times from the past. The actual item really does nothing other than trigger a response.

Edited by atari181
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I love the responses! To those who thought I was seriously asking, while the subject may have sounded like it was a serious question, I thought my post would come through that I was joking around about it. So I apologize if you thought the subject was a real question and mislead how you read this. I just wanted to know how you guys reflect on your own adult childlike obsessions. I am definitely not having a mid-life crisis and I don't think I would have a mid-life crisis although I guess anything is possible. For me it would probably closer to a 3/4 life crisis :D but then again, we never know when the clock will strike.

 

On that note I just bought 7 more transformers and another TandyVision One with two games in excellent condition. :grin:

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

For me it's all about priorities and management. If you can manage your hobby and:

 

  • Maintain healthy relationships with family/friends
  • Spend within a reasonable budget
  • Show up to work on time
  • Keep it organized so you don't get buried alive under an avalanche of boxes
  • Don't get so obsessed that you shrivel up into a creepy monster and start calling it 'the precious'

...then you should be fine :D

Edited by JasonlikesINTV
  • Like 6
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Do you love nostalgia and things that meant something to your childhood or are you too cheap to go out and buy a boat or a corvette? lol My house is filled with things from Star Wars to stacks of Intellivisions to Transformers and even the vehicles I build are of the same ones I drove from the time I was 16. Everything revolves around the younger era of my life and as eBay items arrive in the mail and my woman looks at me like I'm nuts I wonder what everyone else's motivations to stay connected to these things are. So what is it for you?

 

 

I just left the Disney store which is full of stuff from my childhood like Marvel and Star Wars. My kindle is full of Batman comics, and I like talk about old video games here. Am I a nostalgic sap? Maybe, but I think giant dork probably covers it better.

 

I do okay in the present but have an appreciation of the past too. Sounds like middle age to me.

 

If nostalgic = middle age, I've been nostalgic since I was a kid! Maybe moreso then. :) Like in 1982, I'd be missing the good old days of 1980 :D

 

But on the other hand, I always try to live in the present too... to make more memories to be nostalgic about. Like no matter how much crap music they put out, I'm determined to find the good stuff. The day I give into the "there's no good music being made today, not like in my day" is the day I consider myself old.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...