“Nostalgia is a sentimentality for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations. The word nostalgia is a learned formation of a Greek compound, consisting of νόστος (nóstos), meaning “homecoming”, a Homeric word, and ἄλγος (álgos), meaning “pain, ache”, and was coined by a 17th-century medical student to describe the anxieties displayed by Swiss mercenaries fighting away from home. Described as a medical condition—a form of melancholy—in the Early Modern period, it became an important trope in Romanticism. In common, less clinical usage nostalgia can refer to a general interest in the past, their personalities and events, especially the “good old days” from one’s earlier life. Boym argues that nostalgia is more prevalent during times of great upheaval.” Just wondering if anyone is longing for the days gone by… We all have a sense of nostalgia to us, we all use snuff, the oldest documented form of tobacco use, pipes and cigars… I however I also use a Straight Razor or DE Razor, Brush & Mug Soap to shave… Also in my collection is, Cast Iron, Simple Leather Work, Working with Antler, Simple Pipe Making, Carving and whatever else I choose to embark on, on a whim… I love the outdoors; Mostly hiking but also like to make walking sticks and using 100 year old tools… Anyone else Nostalgic in some of their ways of life? Attached, some of my “made Items”

Nice hand work there. I really like the pipes. I too enjoy the past–period movies, etc. You shave with a straight razor, which I love, but I choose a beard over shaving daily.

I use fountain pens and write in cursive script. I don’t know if that makes me nostalgic, or just old fashioned.

Also, proper hats. My house is a baseball cap free zone.

I rarely leave the house without one, usually not a baseball cap either, although I do have a few. They are great yard hats.

I also use a Fountain Pen on occasion, hats are another thing… Flat Caps for me… Cursive is no longer taught in school… Can you imagine that? We started that stuff in second grade… Oh the times have changed…

Nice hand work there. I really like the pipes. I too enjoy the past–period movies, etc. You shave with a straight razor, which I love, but I choose a beard over shaving daily.

Thank you for the complements… As of late I have also grown a beard… Out of necessity for the winter weather…

Pipe smoker and DE shaver here

Classical music. Pipe organs. And also nearly nostalgic is Asian food here.

I often think back fondly and remember the days when I was nostalgic… I use a double edged safety razor, shaving brush and proper shaving soap. Anyone who uses those three or four blade things and a spray can is being conned and lazy, I get a great shave at a couple of quid for a box of razors, and last time I bought soap was at the start of last year and it’s still going strong… Any car I have is old due to lack of money, but as long as they work I’m happy, I have no urge for new, shiny things. But I am nostalgic in my love of old time radio, there are some great shows around from what you could term the golden age of American radio, and I like old British shows, too. Give me them over up to date reality shows on telly any day. I tend to prefer old films to new, when they weren’t all about pace, but built a bit of depth. Youtube is also a great resource for old tv shows, etc. I heard the introduction music to Listen With Mother yesterday (an old UK storytelling radio show for those who don’t know it), and was moved to tears. My girlfriend reckons I yearn for my childhood, and she’s probably right. It’s here (only the first few bars were used as the theme). Press the play button: http://www.televisiontunes.com/Listen\\_With\\_Mother.html One website says “Few radio memories come as misty-eyed as this: no other signature tune evokes the warmth and tenderness of childhood security as powerfully as the Berceuse from Faure’s Dolly Suite.” And sure enough, it did it again. Hankerchief, please.

Beard. Fountain Pens, cursive.

Excellent Craftsmanship ! I keep going back to look at the Saw, it’s great !

Well I’m glad I’m not the only one that still likes the past… I guess we could start doing the “I remember when” but I don’t know if there is enough space to type @perique‌, I had seen a member of a outdoors forum making the buck saws and charging well over $100.00 for them… I thought to my self, “I can make one as nice and a whole lot cheaper”… It’s about $12.00 in material… And thank you for the complements…

I live in a century old house, decorate with antiques, listen to 50s-70s vinyl LPs and 20s-30s 78s, have a big library of out-of-print and antiquarian books. When possible I prefer to buy things vintage and 2nd hand. I enjoy bygone activities like porch sitting, reading old books, gardening and pipe smoking. I don’t watch TV, due to an intense dislike of commercials, Sometimes I flip to a different mode and listen to cutting edge electronica like dubstep, or watch blockbuster CGI movies in the sci-fi or superhero genres. But then again I suppose futurism is the other side of the nostalgia coin. Over the decades I’ve seen a lot of good things go away, and I feel that much of the character of the past has been replaced by a certain sterile homogeneity, especially in the cities and suburbs. On the other hand, for all that, I do recognize that new ways often render old ways obsolete. The automobile put the buggy whip makers out of business, right? The internet created global connectivity, resulting in new possibilities, like the Snuffhouse community and all of the sharing of information and resultant renaissance for a mode of tobacco consumption that was dying out. Back to the topic of books and records. I am pleased to see a growing backlash against the eReaders and iPods. Reading a printed book is a different experience than staring at a glowing screen. Sure, its nice that you can put the entire literary canon on a flash drive, but will you read it? And will you treasure a pdf file the way you might treasure a well-rubbed volume of Moby Dick? A book is more than just a sequence of words. Touch and smell and the sound of rustling pages, and the care taken to not overbend the spine. These things are important, and they are denied the generation raised to read books on smartphones or tablets. Listening to records is also a sensual process different from the cold perfection of the CD or the deletable ephemerality of the mp3. In the past, people listened to records the way the producer intended. Side one, flip, side two. No shuffling or skipping. The warm crackle of the vinyl, cover art big enough to actually appreciate. People actually used to put a record on and just sit and listen. And then play it again. Don’t get me wrong though. I like mp3s. I have recorded over 50 albums which are only available as internet downloads. Some day though, I’d like to take the best of it and have it remastered and pressed to vinyl.

Some of the “good old days” we will remember are happening now.

Yes. Still spinning my old vinyl collection, painting with a brush on canvas, sketching and writing with a pen and ink, and smoking my dad’s pipe. I like the scritch scratch of working on paper and all the rub outs just add character. I’m just old enough to have practiced penmanship in early school. Have been collecting music of all eras from the 20s to now but I am especially mad about old time radio and music from the 20s and 30s. I have my grandfather’s 78s and 33s and always on the lookout in the antique malls for a deal on old records. I have CDs and mp3s too but there is just something about records. The old music sounds better on vinyl. Every song takes me to a time and place and sometimes even a feeling about a place and time I was never in. Odd that. I’m nostalgic and kind of a sap really. Miss the old book shops and cafe culture, life before texting. Sometimes I feel old before my time but I’m okay with it.

@cpmcdill‌ Me too. My property was designed by Sir Robert Smirke in 1820. He built in the Greek Revival style & also designed the main facade of the British museum. I like old property, but they can be pretty drafty & cold in Winter.

Wow, that’s gorgeous. I agree about the draftiness. Not easy to efficiently heat, also, not easy to insure. I have found that most homeowner insurance companies won’t touch anything over a century. At least in the US. Might be different in the UK/EU countries where older structures abound. The house I live in is allegedly a kit house from the Sears catalog circa 1914, though I opine that it is a kit house from a different company. Nevertheless it does show traits of definitely being a kit. Classic American Four-Square farmhouse, with precision-cut beams and studs. Last major renovations in the mid-1950s.

@lunecat‌, very beautiful home… I’m envious

@lunecat, so is that house all on a single story, as it appears in the picture, or at least a cellar?

It was once owned by an Earl, who was also a Conservative Prime Minister of Britain.

Edward Smith-Stanley, Earl of Derby, by any chance?

Ohh I’m not sure if my tastes could be called nostalgia, since I’m only 25 but, vinyl, straight razors, old cars and I am violently opposed to over-produced CD’s…cold perfection is far from what I’d use to describe your average CD. I also use a tube amp, Love the warmth they bring to the sound. And I use snuff in public…I guess I’m just different, not nostalgic. However I could never give up my modern computer or my smartphone for directions hehe I’d feel lost and would lose multiple hours every day waiting for the wrong bus and all that. I’d also be lost without modern fabrics that shed moisture and keep you dry or plenty aerated during summer time

I have my grandfather’s 78s and 33s and always on the lookout in the antique malls for a deal on old records.

My computer is so old it has a slot for burning 78’s…

However I could never give up my modern computer or my

That’s what maps are for

I have my grandfather’s 78s and 33s and always on the lookout in the antique malls for a deal on old records.

My computer is so old it has a slot for burning 78’s…

Now that’s old

I need a new pack of matches to stop my 8 track from skipping

Back in the day; a CB radio was social networking. Base stations at home with massive antenna strapped to the chimney and mobile units that had 23 channels in the car with 101 inch whip bolted to the bumper. Talk was cheap ,no cell phone plan required. You didn’t go to the store for milk it was delivered to your front door. Charles Chips also delivered your favorite junk food. Gas stations pumped your gas ,checked your oil, tire pressure and washed your windshield ,Service with a smile.

My dad use to flick me a quarter and send me to the Barber Shop and tell me to ask for a “30 day” haircut…

Gas stations pumped your gas ,checked your oil, tire pressure and washed your windshield ,Service with a smile.

I use to be one of those people that had that task @basement_shaman‌

I’m some what nostalgic, being 57 I remember the change over from fountain pens (I use a fountain pen at times) the switch over from DE safety razors (I use a DE), but when I’m in a hurry I will use a trac II which is what I learned to shave on. Though no matter how much in a hurry I use a mug, soap, and a brush, which is also what I learned to shave on. I also have used a pocket watch for most of my life (still have the one from when I was 10) and a straight razor at times. The pocket watches and straight razors are of course before my time.

I remember going to the movies - in the theatre - 15 cents for kids and a quarter for adults. We would still take in our own goodies because the admission was so darn steep…

hippy daze

My dad use to flick me a quarter and send me to the Barber Shop and tell me to ask for a “30 day” haircut…

What is that? Bald?

To be fair, I get a hair cut only every 6 months. Might have to change that with the new job. I’m not doing it to save money. I just don’t care that much what my hair looks like.

My dad use to flick me a quarter and send me to the Barber Shop and tell me to ask for a “30 day” haircut…

What is that? Bald?

Not quite, but close…

Just reading this thread while I was eating my lunch and trying to think of something “Nostalgic”… After reading the definition at the top I started to wonder if liking or being interested in “older” stuff is really nostalgic. According to the definition, nostalgia is a time in your personal past that you are longing for or fondly remember. So for me I would be longing for the 80’s and really bad clothes and hair styles. (actually just having hair on my head again would be pretty awesome.) Anyway some of the things that “we” are talking about here are much more than nostalgia these are things that pre-date anyone on this forum by maybe a hundred years or more… I don’t know if that’s nostalgia anymore or something else… and I have no idea what that something else is called but I’m sure there is a name for it. In any event… canes and walking sticks… I’ve always thought those were pretty cool and don’t know why we ever stopped using them. Plus you can get one with a sword in it!

Interesting point @SnuffnStuff. I guess by the definition my nostalgia period would be late 80’s/early 90’s. But my interests an affectations are mostly from earlier times. I use DE razors and srtaight razors, always wear a proper hat (partly because I’m running out of proper hair), use snuff obviously, smoke pipes. But it makes sense to me that the kind of people who would participate in a snuff forum are the kind of people who would tend to long for bygone days when things were simpler and, dare I say, more civilized.

@SandwhichIsles I agree with you and I think a part of it (for me at least) is preservation. I don’t know if something like snuff or pipe smoking will ever be common place again but I think that the knowledge, tradition and skill of those things should be preserved. I own a straight razor and learned to shave with it, (before the beard) I have a pocket watch, I have cuff links and dress pants with suspenders that actually button not just the metal clips. Sadly I don’t own a bow tie but I would be all for it. I wax and curl my mustache every day, even if I’m just going to work and I can’t tell you the number of people over the last few years who have commented on it. I don’t think it’s nostalgia at all to be honest, I think everyone here on some level or another is working in their own ways to preserve a tradition. Be it snuff or pipes or working with antiquated tools or listening to vinyl records. All of it is historic preservation in its own way.

@SnuffnStuff, I got a pretty cool walking stick when I was recovering from a broken ankle. I was tempted by a sword stick model, but I realized how difficult it would be for plane flights and so on, not to mention that it’s probably illegal where I live. Bunch of kill joys out there.

Sadly I don’t own a bow tie but I would be all for it.

I wear them quite often. Their greatest advantage is that they don’t drag in your lunch.

@Justin … yet another reason to get a few! Not that I need to dress up very often for work but still an advantage in some situations.

Fezzes are cool https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obnblNruPiU

Damn right…

Snuff, roll ups, DE safety razor, swiss army knives and multitools for actually fixing stuff rather than throwing it away and buying new. Hiking, camping, and before I sold the boat I was chopping wood for heating and cooking. I’d rather talk to someone in person than on Facebook. Cast iron cookware, and sharp well made kitchen knives. Where I live has a bath, not a shower. I’ve embraced the new as well though. Flashlights which emit 100+ lumens on a single AAA cell, spend a lot of time online. Container gardening exotic fruits in a garden lit with solar powered LED lighting… but with a chiminea too, so I can still enjoy a nice fire and have an excuse to get the axes out.

People in my age group (early 30s) grew up to witness the slide from electronics being “occasional” tools or toys to becoming, particularly in the last 15 years “vital” to daily life. In my area, alot of us are revolting in a way out of a sense of overstimulation. We crave social contact and real interaction, because we feel it is slipping away. In my house, we have no TV. We do have a computer for watching DVDs, but that computer is not hooked up to the internet, because we chose not to have it here. I access the internet solely through my phone using data, which is nice because it limits my exposure without cutting me off completely. We have no microwave. My fiancee cooks everything in the oven or on the stove using her collection of cast iron skillets, and I man the charcoal grill. We do it because we like sitting down to a meal, like our families used to do when we were kids. We play board games and card games with the kids (which are still totally a thing! Check out a newer card game out thete called Family Fluxx. It’s great! We even play it without the kids!), and like playing outside, going for walks, driving out to places we have never been, etc. For us, this is nostalgia. There are things much older than myself that I like too, for different reasons. For example, I also made the switch to DE shaving with bowl and brush. Not out of a sense of nostalgia or olde tyme revival, but because A) it’s cheaper, and B) I am the kind of guy who enjoys things alot more when thete is ritual involved. I like jazz, because, well, have you heard the crap they are calling music now? I like to wear proper clothes, because I like to show self respect, which I usually buy 2nd hand, because, again, it’s cheaper. I will also say that kids right now are not doomed as alot of people seem to think. My step children are 7 and 10. Their generational technology DOES offer them lots of oppertunities to tune out, but it seems to have more to do with the model presented to them at home. For example, their bio father is an IT, spends all day in his pajamas babysitting appletts and playing RPGs. When the kids stay with him, they come back saying it was boring. Almost as soon as they step foot in our apartment,they forget their Kindles anfd start using their imaginations to concoct the most strange games! I believe all people crave real interaction, but alot of parents are finding it easier to let them tune out to their video games, social media, and reality TV. Before I enteted this relationship, I thought kids now were doomed too, their whole generation. But if you get their attention, and play with them for a little bit, you’ll see that people never really changed. My kids are the same kind of kids who have always been kids. People are always people. Toys change. It’s all about the values you choose to live by and model (with actions, not words). Is that nostalgia?

@Hitsuzen, I’ve set my computer to block access to social media until six o’clock in the evening. I think it’s healthier to deal with real people at least during daylight hours. Good on ya for teaching your children the same thing. When I was a kid, I wasn’t allowed to watch TV until after sunset. Of course, I evaded the rule by going to my friends house. But as I got older, the rule began to make sense.

Fezzes are cool

Not worn on the back of the head like that they’re not. Damn’ Gallifreyan hasn’t got a clue…

Barber shops with the red and white pole outside that only did mens hair and shaves, no hairdressing or hairdressers, no hair dryers, no women hogging the seats for hours having god knows what done costing half the house keeping (I’m taking deep breaths now and a snort of Tom Buck to calm down). Consequentley I cut my own hair with clippers now which going through two lots of clippers in the last twenty years has cost me a princely forty quid for those decades.

Nostalgia is not what it used to be… 8->

I use DE razors mostly, but I have and use straight razors once in awhile, I also have vintage Pioneer radio and turn table equipment & about 300 lp’s , I also still talk on CB Radio home base station I use old tube type amplifiers , I have a large collection of cast iron cook ware that I still use. I make my own herbal medicine & tinctures , I guess I am stuck in the past maybe but I wouldn’t have it any other way. I also love to read.  Things were made to last in the old days and today things are made to be disposable , they want you to replace everything every year or so, not me !  G’Day

Yea I am. I use a fountain pen, write hand written letters, use a DE razor and like vinyl and proper books, prefer the Authorized version of the Bible and Book of Common Prayer so yes pretty old fashioned. I use tech but I look back on the simple days. I am of the generation when it was just coming in: late teen when the net took off.

I can’t decide if I’m old fasioned, nostalgic, or just a weirdo. I’m 31, smoked pipes since I was 18, hand roll cigs (waaay before the machine ryo took off), use snuff (duh), last summer I picked blackberries to make jam out of, I raise chickens, I play banjo and acoustic guitar, if I can make my furniture I would rather do that than buy it, I have a grandfather clock in my dining room that I cherrish…the list goes on. I would rather work hard to make a gain so that I can appreciate it more. The odd thing to me is, this is not how I was raised. Dad had a good job growing up. I never had to work for anything if I didn’t want to, but I always did. Hmmm…

@StillLearning definately weird. We do much of the same. I smoke a pipe because sometimes its nice to sit down with all the time i have left in my life. My father had a decent job but I too wanted to work. Im a minimalist though. My job pays more than i spend and i still think i have too much lying around. My clothes are either from work or a charity shop. My cars are cars that other people wanted to throw away. A few extra bucks swayed them. Living in an old house too. I feel claustrophobic in new houses…not literal claustrophobia but some weird feeling. Relate anyone. Wheres the questionmark on this phone.

@Caudimordax

Your talk of two pairs of shears in twenty years saving you a fortune, reminded me about my haircut arrangement.

My mate does mine with a pair of electric shears, not much to cut these days.

One day I saw him trimming his dog with similar shears.  I jokingly said to him they were just like the ones he does  my hair with.

He then told me he only had one pair of shears , and he does his dog, his own , mine and anyone else who wants a free haircut with the very same set of electric shears.

He said    “It’s OK  the  dog doesn’t complain”

I take snuff, smoke a pipe, wear an automatic watch and raw unwashed selvedge jeans, wet shave with both a straight razor and a double edge safety razor, my favorite boots are all leather, Blake welted, brass screwed, with steel taps, a nailed leather heel, and leather laces, etc… yeah i have nostalgia.

All this nostalgia talk made me think of my old school days, many, many years ago.

Teachers in those days knew how to set an example, and dressed accordingly.

Brogue shoes with leather soles, complete with Blakeys or Segs hammered into them. 

Harris Tweed suits, collar and tie.  Short back and sides haircut.  Finished off with the regulation pipe and moustache.

Of course, some of the male teachers made an effort as well.

All of the above, plus maybe what this writer says too “There is nothing more nostalgic than the subtle familiarity of you slowly returning back to your old self. The self that fought hard, that knows how to survive; the self that kicked the living hell out of the miserable areas of your life.” - Marcus Hades

I’m missing the 19th century a lot these days. I live in a place that had stagecoaches, cattle drives, and Butch Cassidy locked up in the county jail way back in the late 1800s.

Don’t know if I’m nostalgic… I just don’t get the nowadays society. Just joking, sort off… Too be honest, yes I am nostalgic in the 2nd definition of the opening post. Most of personal interrest goes well before I was born. The year 1978 that is. As a teen, the music I listened to was the music of my parrents youth. Sixties mostly. I think that’s where it started. Now i listen still 60’s but also 50’s, 40’s, 30’s. Started taking lindy hop dance lessons recenlty even. But it doen’t rule out 80’s, 90’s , 00’s, and the music of today. Wich i also can enjoy. Still for now mostly playing on my stereo is jazz from the 20’s till the 60’s. Although I can enjoy modern music, modern fashion, no! I prefer myself the fashion of days gone by. I never leave the house without a hat. And take it off when ettiquette says so. I wear a waistcoat if the weather allows. A jacket with a pochet and a cravat or bowtie around my neck. Okay, the cravat and bowtie not everyday, but still as much as I can. I do wear casual clothing, but that is mostly during workdays. Where fancy clothing is not really the best choice to wear. And for tobacco. I started smoking pipes when I was 18. And years later unfortunately also ryo’s… But I’m glad I found snuff in the end. One day it will stop me from smoking the ryo’s…

Oh and I forgot to mention: playing hurdygurdy. Shaving d.e. (before I let my beard grow). Prefering cast iron cookingware. Using solid soap instead of liquidsoaps. Reading books, mostly literature before I was born. Vinyl. Prefering old fashioned cocktails over the contamporary ones. And so on…

I think alot of us are confusing “style” with nostalgia.

I wear distinctive facial hair, shoot black powder, restore antique vehicles, use fountain pens, carry Case pocket knives, smoke cigars and pipes, and use snuff.  I also make beer, wine, etc at home.  I’m good with BBQ, GREAT with a smoker, and bake bread at home.

This is all style, not nostalgia.  

My parents are still alive (thank the Lord) but they are both almost 90.  I’m nostalgic for the time my grandparents were still alive.  My grandma baking pies from scratch ( a full stick of butter for each crust!).  My grandpa teaching me how to bleed drum brakes, how to scrape points in distributers, how to use feeler gauges to set valves.  He taught me to fish, how to run a still, and how to make a knife from a worn out file with nada but patience and emery cloth.

That being said there is ALOT from my childhood/young adult years I’m glad are over… especially winter time chores.  Getting outta the truck in a blizzard to lock in the front hubs on a 4x4.  Miserable.  While I still have a woodburner in the back room of my house, the woodburner in the front of the house has been replaced with a wind-up pellet stove.  So convenient!  I fill the hopper with a full bag of pellets and have slow constant heat for three days up to a week.  

When i was a kid we kept warm with either wool, or down.  Down rocked, until it got wet.  Now a days we have goretex and fiberfill and thinsulate, etc.  

Hell, I LOVE Amazon.  No more hour plus drives to Walmart just to find out they don’t have several items on my list.  My wife and I compile a list, get it all on Amazon, and it comes to our front door.  That blows my mind.

@moemojo well said - how can the 1890s styles for example for most people my age be nostalgic when it predates our lives. I do love history though. I’m nostalgic about my college years but profoundly thankful that I survived & moved past them and without a rap sheet. I’m nostalgic about my grandparents before they passed away. I smile on my way to work every day when I see the statues of saint from my father’s mother’s garden in a garden of my own. Relating to this hobby, I think I’m nostalgic of the smells of my mother’s parents’ home with decades of tobacco in the carpet and on the wallpaper. There are certain snuffs like Celtic Talisman that make me think “Grandma’s House.”

that is a solid point. In fact I was just thinking something along similar lines. What I am noticing is less nostalgic tendencies and really more any appreciation of quality. More of hyper attention to detail. More of a ability to enjoy the finer things in life regardless of how common or contemporary they are. In fact I recently had a conversation in which I had to explain I am not into old things necessarily I am into finer things that work better and that gives the illusion of being into old things. I think that’s because well crap can not survive past being contemporary. I love listen to people my age talk about how much better the music was in our day, like nah man there was some great stuff people still listen to but there was a lot of crap you are forgetting about. It takes quality to be remembered and cherished after decades, to be popular now just takes luck. 

@miemojo, @ar47 I think “borrowed nostalgia” is a thing. You can certainly appreciate the way things used to be in the past, even if you weren’t there. We usually see things like that though rose colored glasses though, and usually only through the eyes of the “privileged” (the lazy, do-nothing lifestyle of the old South might sound nice, so long as you can excuse racism and probably a bit of boredom). @bob I feel the same way about watches. I have a couple seiko mechanical watches that have gears and springs instead of batteries. I just think its cool to have a little machine on your wrist instead of some smart watch or ultra-accurate atomic clock.

 Hmmm… let me think…

Snuff,

Fountain Pens,

I do my shaving with straight razors (the kind that you use a strop to sharpen,)

Music from the 1920s and 1930s,

Old Time Radio shows especially Gumshoes, Audio Noir, and Sci-Fi from before 1945,

Railroad Grade Pocket Watches (most of mine are from between 1880 and 1935.)