The Lure of Nostalgia:

I guess it has to do with graduating college, as I did much the same thing when I graduated high school. Or maybe it's longing for a lost past. Everyone does it, at least once in their lives. Or maybe it's just that I have difficulty letting things go. I hang on to stuffed animals that I've had since I was 4, TV shows that I spent my childhood watching, movies that I've loved since forever, even books that, though I can now read them easily, I still enjoy.

Perfect Strangers, for instance, will always remind me of the Friday nights I spent watching ABC's "TGIF" block of family programming. TGIF ran from 8PM to 10PM between the mid-80s and the late 90s. Some of my favorite shows were on that night, but PS was the one I loved most. It was also one of the few shows my sisters watched with me. We often fought over TV shows, but we all liked Balki and Larry's hilarious antics. From 8 to 10, you couldn't have pried us from the TV with a crowbar.

I recently re-read several books that I haven't read since I was a child, some of which may eventually turn up in the HomeTown Library section. One, Miranda and the Movies, was the wonderful tale of a young girl who becomes caught up in the excitement of movie-making circa 1914. This book was interesting to me for several reasons. I was about Miranda's age when I first read it, and it was great to see such a plucky heroine. I was also just becoming an old movie enthusiast, and this movie helped to fan the flames of my newest hobby. I also loved the classic Nancy Drew and Bobbsey Twins stories (I occasionally read the Hardy Boys as well), which may be the source of my current love of thrillers and mysteries.

Why am I suddenly re-reading books that I haven't read in years and thinking of a show that's barely been noticed since its cancelation in 1993? As a child, I was happiest when I was reading, writing, or watching TV, and that's still how I'm happiest. They remind me fondly of the hours I spent laying on my bed, with nothing but a typewriter, my little black&white TV, and my stuffed dolls to keep me company. They make me think of happier days, of different days, when silly sitcoms like PS and children's book series like Nancy Drew were common, or at least, more common than they are now. When I obssesed over "Star Wars" and paid the consequences (I was teased more than ever, as "Star Wars" was out of fashion by the late 80s).

I guess, I'm doing it because it seems easier than living in the present at the moment. Not better, maybe, but easier.