Nostalgia Part 2

From the vineyards of Caceres to running wild in Usera and Orcasitas with catapults and slings, our journey to the past led to discussions about nostalgia and attachment to the past.

La Vaguada was a great place for youngsters way before Madrid’s iconic shopping mall was built there.

Many remember the freedom of long summer days in Spain’s villages, in places like Cuenca, where life was very traditional in contrast with the modern city where parents tended to be very protective, especially of their girls.

Others were lucky enough to actually spend their youth in small towns near bigger cities like Mérida and Santander until these places seemed too small for them.

 Real poverty and hunger in post-civil war Spain perhaps made memories more vivid so that happy moments were happier. Juana recalls her grandfather in the dark, cold, early morning heading for the coal mines of Palencia and when the miners came home safe from a day’s work she remembers how their singing could be heard in the distance giving joy to all.

Our attachment to places has a lot to do with nature, the sound of the sea, the mountains, the countryside smells.

Not everyone was so attached to the past. Some have the travel bug and would have been happy to continue to indulge in that passion for absorbing other cultures, living in  faraway lands.

My own memories of a happy childhood spent in a small town in Ireland have in common the fun of playing outside with friends and nature…buttercups, daisies, the autumn leaves on the ground, the birds singing in the bushes, views of the mountains, the cows grazing in the fields and the non-existence of the word ‘boredom’.