Nostalgia is an emotion that feels sweet, but also kind of hurts in a way. Sometimes, all you want is to experience the past yet again.
While you can’t literally go back to your childhood , you can do the next best thing: look at old pics that might mentally transport you there, even if it’s fleeting.
“The magic that was the Scholastic Book Fair.”
I remember seeing the Scholastic boxes getting unpacked at the school library and knowing that it was going to be a good day. It was critical to get there before all the best posters were gone.
“The family computer.”
At one time, each house used to have a ‘computer room’, and siblings would engage in blood feuds to get some precious computer time. If you didn’t use the ninja icon for your profile, you just weren’t cool.
“Remember these styrofoam gliders?”
These things are quite literally the most fun you can have for…what did they cost? Like 25 cents or something like this? Seeing this pic makes me want to see if they’re still in production.
“When you wore flare jeans and it rained.”
I don’t know why, but at the turn of the millenium, the baggiest clothes were also the coolest clothes. I don’t know if the fashion points were worth the wshh-wshh-wshh sound of denim dragging on the ground as you walked.
“When Wendy’s used to be yellow…”
This pic gave me some cognitive dissonance, as I remember the yellow era of Wendy’s quite fondly, but I remember the fries and drinks all saying ‘Biggie’ on them. Was my childhood a lie?
“Who remembers this [ice cream] from school?”
I remember this not just from school, but also from the variety store. Once you started to taste wood more than ice cream, it was time to go back in for another scoop.
“Yes kids, back in the day, we’d have to remove the faceplates from our car stereos so they wouldn’t get stolen.”
This might represent some long-gone nostalgia for some, but I had one of these in my old beater car right up until 2015 or so.
“Wooden playgrounds.”
I guess they represented numerous hazards, but these playgrounds had so much more character than modern plastic and metal playgrounds. There was one near my house that had a freakin’ zipline on it. You don’t see stuff like that anymore.
“Me and my best friend in 1999/2000 working on our Donkey Kong/ Banjo Kazooie fan website (titled ‘The DK/BK Jungle’).”
Seeing this pic made me do a search for my personal website I made back when I was 13. Thankfully, it’s gone.
“Remember when you didn’t have to enter your personal info online to win a soda?”
These were amazing. If you were really lucky, you could buy a bottle of soda, win another bottle, go back in for your free bottle, win a free bottle from that bottle, and just keep it going.
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“I know you all remember the Spacemaker pencil box!”
Back in the day, that translucent plastic and funky font style seemed so modern, like it would never go out of style. Nowadays, it’s hard to believe that this dated design ever seemed modern at all.
“The GE alarm clock that everyone seemed to have.”
This clock radio wasn’t trying to impress anyone. It was functional and durable, which might explain why pretty much every family can probably find a working model somewhere in their house to this day.
“MSN Messenger! Playing with emojis over a decade before it was cool…”
![Image credit: [deleted]](https://static.diply.com/qfCZDATvyNVfgLNRGah3.jpg)
It feels quaint to look back at a time when you’d have to log onto a desktop computer to chat with your friends, but at the time, it didn’t feel quaint.
“These are the streets I grew up on.”
Although I didn’t have this exact rug, seeing this fills me with nostalgia for the one I did have. I still remember the exact layout of the roads, which is weird because I’m constantly forgetting about far more important stuff.
“Motorola RAZR V3XX.”
You were truly blessed if you had one of these cutting edge phones. The nostalgia for these is so strong that the design choices are a big influence on Motorola’s newer line of foldable Razr phones.
“Pencils with cartridges.”
It felt so cool to replace a dull pencil lead with a brand new, sharp one without even having to use a sharpener. If you lost one of the cartridges though, the whole device became completely useless.
“Limewire.”
This was a great way to access music, and also a great way to fill up your computer with viruses and misnamed songs. I cringe just thinking about the things those viruses must have done to our family computer.
“Burning the sickest CDs in the neighborhood.”
I was the first kid I knew with a CD burner, and the pressure was real. Everyone wanted me to burn them CDs, which entailed finding the songs on Napster or Limewire, then converting them, then burning them. It would literally take all night.
“Flipping through these as a kid trying to find your favourite band’s poster.”
I don’t know if posters were the big deal they once were, especially now that record stores have mostly gone the way of the dodo. Either way, finding the new center piece for your bedroom walls was a total rush.
“These TV carts always meant class was going to be fun when the teacher rolled one in.”
The TV cart being rolled in was kind of a gamble — you might get to watch The Lion King , you might get to watch a boring educational video. Either way, watching TV was better than schoolwork.
