Is it possible to have nostalgia for a past you've never lived through?
I'm sitting in a Starbucks trying to study, but they're playing a bunch of oldies and my mind is wandering. For instance, right now they're playing "Why Do Fools Fall in Love" and I feel like I should be in a poodle skirt. Not that I particularly have a desire to live in the 1950s. I don't dig containment culture, cold war and the fear-mongering that went along with it. But there are some things I get nostalgic about. Lounge music does the same thing for me. Strange, I know. "The Girl from Ipanema" can be playing and forget it--I feel like I belong in the 50s hosting a cocktail party. I don't particularly associate these times with happiness or traditional values once had. Or do I?
