Nostalgia Triggers

I don’t know about y’all but almost anything can trigger a nostalgia trip for me. It can be a smell, a song, seeing and holding something from my past, etc. It doesn’t matter. And there are two seasons of the year that trigger the greatest nostalgia: summer and Christmas. I’m probably not alone with that.

Lately, since my 5-year-old is growing up, my trips have been back to my own childhood. This summer has two very different trips. One, of course, is the 30^th anniversary of Star Wars. That shot me back to the summer of 1977 (and 1978, a year early). The other is the realization that 20 years ago, I was preparing to go to college at The University of Texas at Austin. Hook’em.

There are times where I aim to trigger the nostalgia myself. In trying to figure out what to eat for lunch, I settled on McDonald’s and its wonderful sandwich, the Big Mac. Why is this an important milestone for me? Well, as I was a growing boy, Mickey D’s was the closest fast food restaurant to our house so we’d go there a lot. It was also on the way to our church. Back then, ordering a Big Mac and actually eating it was a goal I had. I can remember the first time I did it. My dad and I were going to an astronomy club meeting at the local high school. I was not yet a high schooler. I ordered a Big Mac, complete with its environmentally UN-friendly Styrofoam container, and I ate the whole thing. I even went home and told my mom. It was that big a deal.

Nowadays, of course, with the expanding waistline problem and the lack of physical activity to rival my childhood, I eat Big Mac rarely. But when I do go to Mickey D’s, I almost always order a Big Mac. And today’s Big Mac is especially tasty. And I'm ten-years-old again. And it's summer. And I'm smiling.

What are y’all’s favorite nostalgia triggers?