nostalgia: lol!

(from www.etymonline.com:

nostalgia (n.)

1770, "severe homesickness" (considered as a disease), Modern Latin (cf. French nostalgie, 1802), coined 1668 by Johannes Hofer, as a rendering of German heimweh, from Greek algos "pain, grief, distress" (see -algia) + nostos "homecoming," from PIE *nes- "to return safely home" (cf. Old Norse nest "food for a journey," Sanskrit nasate "approaches, joins," German genesen "to recover," Gothic ganisan "to heal," Old English genesen "to recover"). Transferred sense (the main modern one) of "wistful yearning for the past" first recorded 1920.)

("considered a disease"! well, if you grew up when i did, w/the era's cultural influences, perhaps that's true; the music of our parents' time, i think, was much less embarrassing, as a whole!) :D

- james posted this pic on our facebook page, so i'm posting it here... (sing peaches & herb song...) earlier tonight, i was driving & tuned in to art laboe & found myself singing along to "ladies' night" (kool & the gang -- had to look both artists up) & stopped singing & laughed out loud, realizing the song's nostalgic for me, even tho when the record came out, i didn't like it, was indifferent to it, or maybe even hated it! i texted james cause altho we both love american music best, being of the same vintage we have that shared almost-uncanny  familiarity/attraction to stuff far different, the pop culture stuff of our youth, a time long before internet, before music videos, even, when all kids seemed to hear the same radio music & watch the same tv shows & buy the same records & long for the same bell bottoms, the time of disco, then new wave (at which pt "video killed the radio star")... ... two young members of my family are learning piano, i'm so proud to say, so earlier, mama was digging around for sheet music to send little thomas in texas when she found my once-beloved sheet music for the early '80s tv show "hill street blues." "remember how you used to play this all the time?" she said, & in my amnesiac-kinda way, i didn't, so dutifully i went to the piano & started playing it & laughed out loud, the mundane, tinkly melody instantly familiar & so typical of inoffensive, uninteresting yet catchy, generic-sounding tv themes... (i belittle, yet composers w/knack for such melodies are sitting a lot fatter financially than i am, i think!) ... it was a song i once had thought SO COOL cause i was 11 or 12 or who-knows how old & i watched that tv show! how tastes change; how memory persists, triggered by the smallest to most blatant smell, sight, body sensation, comment, or melody... well, here's hoping madeline & thomas learn to love the piano like i have, & never turn away from it, as i did when i was actively drinking/etc, & find friendship, joy, challenge, catharsis, gratitude in it, as i have... that's enough for now.