WC #2: I'm a hopeless Nostalgic!

So, I came to the realization today that I must just be a hopeless Nostalgic!  Never heard of one?  Well, me neither, but I've diagnosed myself.  Now I probably need to get out my psychology books and try to analyze myself and decipher why I do the things I do!

It's no secret to anyone who knows me that I've always preferred listening to my "oldies" music.  So much so that my children all grew up knowing the lyrics almost as well as I do.  Even my dear "extra" daughter, Jana Mae knows lyrics, titles and artists she never heard of in her early years thanks to hours of Cousin Brucie and the 60s on Sirius Satellite radio!

However, a few years ago, with the growing use of DVD technology, I began to find some old favorite movies and just had to have them!

Shown here are some of the very best: Barefoot in the Park,

Bonnie & Clyde, Breakfast at Tiffany's, The Day the Earth Stood Still,

Love Story, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, 

Romeo and Juliet and The Sting

(I'm sure Lanie will remember watching most of these 

in the theater with me!)

Next thing I know, they start to put some of the very best TV series on DVD too!

The Best of Ozzie & Harriet

Lost in Space!!!

Next thing I knew, "Barbie" was celebrating her 50th birthday and Walmart began selling collector's editions of all the old original dolls!  I just had to replace the two that were originally chewed on by our black lab pup, Buck, and then finished off by my very own children!  An added bonus was that each doll happened to come with one of the outfits I ALWAYS wanted for my Barbies but they were too expensive and my mom wouldn't buy them for me!

I got the original Barbie on the left for my 5th birthday in 1960.
The "Bubblecut" Barbie was for Christmas in 1963!

If you think I'm starting to lose it, you ain't seen nothin' yet!  So, I mentioned my love for oldies music.  Well, I really like a lot of the old groups: The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Abba, The Archies, The Partridge Family, but the first group I ever really loved (and had a crush on the lead singer) was Herman's Hermits!  Such a fan in fact, that all of my children have had the pleasure of attending at least ONE Herman's Hermits concert with me in the past decade!  But, no matter how much I loved the Hermits and Peter Noone, they couldn't hold their place in my heart after I found The Monkees!  I'm sure Davy Jones was the one who originated my soft spot for men with brown eyes and The Monkees concert in Chicago, Illinois on July 30, 1967 was my first and only REAL, HONEST-TO-GOODNESS, SCREAM & CRY HEART-THROB concert with my cousin Beth and ex-best friend Janice Graham---oh, and my poor dad--- who kept sneaking off to have a cigarette.  He knew I wasn't going anywhere!  So, of course when I found out I could order both seasons of The Monkees TV show, I had to have them!

The Monkees, Seasons 1 & 2 with the People Magazine
Tribute to Davy Jones last year

Then, wouldn't you know, my career with Walmart put me in a situation that I was exposed to all the latest and greatest in technology and I bought my share of electronics in those four years.  Well, I already owned a Nintendo Wii when lo and behold they released a Beatles edition of the popular RockBand genre!  You know it!  I had to have it!

Shortly after this, the Twilight series inspired a few trips across the state of Washington to visit Forks on the peninsula. On the way home the second time, my friend, Karen, suggested we go back home through Leavenworth, Washington, a delightful German community where oddly enough I found an Indian doll that I fell in love with!

The doll on the left is the first one I purchased in Leavenworth

Now, what does an Indian doll have to do with nostalgia?  When I was little, whenever my dad went out of town on a job, he always brought me home an Indian doll.  I loved them and I was fascinated with them!  I always had a thing for Native American lore.  I loved hearing my mother tell me about the Indian legends of a Great White God who came to visit them and how they waited for his return.  I know now that it was actually the Spirit whispering truths to me at that young age to prepare me to recognize the truths in the Book of Mormon, but there I go, rambling again.  Anyway, I always loved getting my Indian dolls.  The thing I don't know is if my dad brought them home to me because I loved them, or if I loved them because my DAD brought them home to me!  Either way, since moving to Seattle, I've purchased three more Indian dolls and a few totem poles.  The other doll pictured above was purchased in Alaska when I went on my very first cruise ever with our dear friend, "Aunt" Susan Schulthies.  The other two pictured below I purchased in the same doll store in Leavenworth where I found my first Indian doll.

I figure now that I have four Indian dolls, I'll keep buying
them until I have one for each granddaughter!

That brings me up to today, when I received (via Amazon) my most recent, crazy nostalgic purchase that inspired this blog. Back in 1966 when The Monkees first aired, there was another new television show, but this one was a soap opera.  But not just ANY soap opera! This one had vampires, witches, werewolves, zombies and anything supernatural you can think of!  The acting was absolutely HORRID, yet every teenager that I knew, hurried home after school in time to watch it.  It became a "cult" classic; was remade into a failed TV series in the 80s or 90s and, most recently was made into a movie starring Johnny Depp.  (The movie is actually quite funny, but I think you have to be acquainted with the original TV show to REALLY understand all the humor in it.)  I found the ENTIRE series on DVD on Amazon shortly before Christmas and warred with myself for the past month and finally decided to splurge on myself and I did!  I am now the proud owner of every episode ever made of Dark Shadows from 1966-1973!

So... what thinkest thou?  Am I the true hopeless nostalgic I described at the beginning of this blog?  Is it just that I like these things?  Is it just that I enjoy the memories connected with each of them?  Or do I have some deep-seeded desire to return to a simpler time, when I had no responsibilities; when I was surrounded by family and friends and love?  Or even worse, am I trying to escape from the reality of my life and an unknown future?  Go ahead.  Analyze me!  Heaven knows, if you're reading this, I've probably psycho-analyzed you more than once in your life, so now it's your turn!  But in the meantime, perhaps my theme song should be "Those were the days, my friend. We thought they'd never end. We'd sing and dance forever and a day. We'd live the life we'd choose. We'd fight and never lose. Those were the days; oh yes, those were the days...."