Fifty Plus (50+) - What takes you back in time?

I've had a few flashback moments in recent days. I almost always enjoy it when this happens (unless it is a flashback to bad memory).

1) My 3rd daughter came up from North Carolina and accompanied us on a road trip to visit family in Ohio and West Virginia. In Ohio we visited my 2nd daughter. We did some things that we used to do 10-15 years ago. It was great. Walking down the street with the two of them, along with my wife and my 16 yr old, brought back so many memories.

2) When in Morgantown, WV, I walked around my old college campus and down the main downtown area. Like I did so many times when I was in college and during the several years when I worked at WVU. Those were good years. Had two daughters with me when I was downtown and the old toy store that we used to frequent was still open. Bought them a few things.

3) Just yesterday I was driving through a little town in Wisconsin in my Integra with the roof open & windows down. One of those towns that haven't built a new building in 80 years. As I was cruising and enjoying my drive, a couple of great old songs from Crosby, Stills & Nash (no Young on these two) came on the radio. I had the strongest flashback to the 1970s. It was a lot of fun.

Some bike rides have these moments too. For me they happen when cruising along, as even in my teens I wasn't prone to hammering and so hard rides don't bring back memories.

Anyone else have occasional to experience the occasional pleasant flashback?

Yes. Lovely.

I had a flashback that Cheech and Chong got back together.

I said pleasant memories!

I posted this in the TdF forum, but basically it goes as following. My Dad introduced me and my brother to the Tour in the mid 1970's and we got hooked on following the races, even though the Tour news was hard to get at the time. It just seemed to make it more mysterious though. Not being able to actually watch the racing allowed your imagination to work overtime. The three of us would go out for Sunday rides, and each hill was Alpe d'Huez or the Tourmalet, each town line was a bonus sprint. We were Tour riders in our own minds. Great fun for us all. My brother is now 2500 miles away and I don't see him often enough. Dad passed on several years ago, and each time the Tour comes around I think of the 3 of us, riding again in our own imaginary race. Every time I ride my bike, I feel Dad riding along with me.

Tom, your post took me back in time. You mentioned Morgantown, WV. I worked in a coal mine near there in the summer of 1970, living in Morgantown.

I had a flashback that Cheech and Chong got back together.

+1

In 1970 I was living in Belington, WV, a small town close to Elkins. My grandfather & great-grandfather were coal miners for decades.

I like Morgantown a lot. It is nicer now than it was back then. They've made many improvements along the riverfront, including putting in a very nice bike path that runs for over 30 miles along the river. There's a chance we might retire back to there in a few years.

I posted this in the TdF forum, but basically it goes as following. My Dad introduced me and my brother to the Tour in the mid 1970's and we got hooked on following the races, even though the Tour news was hard to get at the time. It just seemed to make it more mysterious though. Not being able to actually watch the racing allowed your imagination to work overtime. The three of us would go out for Sunday rides, and each hill was Alpe d'Huez or the Tourmalet, each town line was a bonus sprint. We were Tour riders in our own minds. Great fun for us all. My brother is now 2500 miles away and I don't see him often enough. Dad passed on several years ago, and each time the Tour comes around I think of the 3 of us, riding again in our own imaginary race. Every time I ride my bike, I feel Dad riding along with me.

Wonderful story thanks for posting it. Your Dad sounds like a great guy!

Unfortunately I have no pleasant childhood memories, but reading yours and Suzie Green's made me smile.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ycgegp0KdE4

Music and certain weather conditions do it for me...warm summer evenings with a slight breeze and certain classic songs from the 70's. Bob Seger's Night Moves will do it for sure. Driving down PCH at dusk with the windows down, the smell of the ocean...yep, I just flashed back. :twitchy:

We ive in Tucson, AZ but are spending the summer months in northern Utah town of Logan.
It's like stepping back 25 years into time . . . laid back, cool, friendly and some great terrrain for tandeming to boot!
All kinds of small town stuff on weekends: Sidewalk Days, rodeo, Lions Pancake breakfast, Summerfest, Art in the Park, Cruise-In (over 1,000 antique, hotrods, muscle cars, customs barreling through downtown)
LRRH (Little Red Riding Hood bike tour), County Fair, Demolition Derby . . . and the list goes on!
Yup, we're really back in time!
Pays off to be 50+ . . . and retired!
Pedal on!
Rudy and Kay/zonatandem

As it happens, I woke up this morning thinking about the summer when I was 15 years old. It was 1969. My parents had just divorced. I had just flunked out of 10th grade and I went to spend the summer with my father in California. I was involved with the Unitarian youth groups, so my Dad got me involved in the local California group. The second person I met there was a girl who I got romantically involved with and a couple of years later became my girlfriend. It helped that we had almost identical steel string guitars from Sears.

I lived at the base of the mountains in Pasadena and went hiking up into Millard Canyon to pass the days, and got involved with the youth group. Over the course of the summer, there were group trips to see Hair, and hikes and camping trips in the local mountains. The girl had gotten a nicer guitar and my Dad bought me a guitar followed by a weekend in San Luis Obisbo at a ranch where I learned to ride a motorcycle and it culminated with that girl becoming tearful when we couldn't share a ride back to LA. The trip back ended as we all came in and Neil Armstrong was just landing on the moon. My first date was with the girl going to see Peter Paul and Mary at the Hollywood Bowl. The girl and I spent endless hours on the phone and "Leaving On a Jet Plane" became our song.

All too soon, it came true as I flew back to Florida. School was a big hurdle as I had to show up in class with all these people who used to be one year behind me and now were classmates. Oh the embarrasment.

That girl and I called it "That Summer". We're still friends.

What caused me to think of it? I think it was a dream where I was in this building under construction that morphed into a prep school. And then, come to think of it, she sent me a quick email yesterday.

Hearing Stevie Wonder's My Cherie Amour takes me back to a particular day on the deck of the Olympic-size swimming pool at the Los Angeles Police Academy when the song was first released. They played music through the speakers around the pool and I remember the spot where I was lying on my beach towel by the pool, listening to the music.

Listening to Brian Byrne, "Mr. Rock 'n Roll", play the oldies on KRTH 101 (K-Earth) takes me back to all those summers I spent with my friend at the beach.....

Noticing the sun spots and sun damage on my skin also takes me back to all those summers I spent at the beach....:(

I have a variety of pleasant flashbacks from time to time.

Another hillbilly :thumb: I grew up back in a hollow, 2.5 miles to the bus stop. outside of Sissonville. Fall has always been my favorite time of the year when the leaves are falling and the ground is damp woods have a certain smell of decaying leaves on a cool fall morning Just can not help but go home for a moment
My Dad worked in the mines and his Dad at least 5 generations
Go Thundering Herd!!!:)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ycgegp0KdE4

Good.

They did release an update, which improves some of the video clips and fixes a couple of errors:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsZFiMo8TIc

That song brings back both good and bad memories. Good personal memories, but a lot of references to tragic deaths.

Certain smells bring me back instantly. Also, sparkling new snow always brings me back to my first memory of snow back in Wichita KS. And definitely songs. We have a local radio station (KFOG) that has a segment called "10 at 10". "Ten great songs from one great year." I'm pretty good at guessing the year because of the memories the songs conjure up.

Everything takes me back in time...........................The things that I try to hold to a minimum are those that bring me back.

B52s youtube videos. None of them are very good musicians, but in her younger years Kate Pierson might have been one of the most beautiful women in rock and roll.

Earlier this week I learned that she's gay, which is I guess cool with me but it means I never had a chance with her :( Bums me out for some reason. She also needs to buy a bike and shed a few pounds now.

Tuesday I watched a kid cutting curves back and forth across a long straight decent on his bike. Just zooming back and forth from side to side. The section of road we were on was closed to cars because there was construction work being done a few miles ahead. It looked like so much fun, that I had to follow suit. It brought back memories of being 12 and riding my bike all summer long, as if the summer would never end... nothing but sheer joy feeling the responsiveness of the bike and the wind in your face. Every now and again something like this will happen when on the bike, and I really do feel like that care free, tousled hair kid again. A few weeks ago it was seeing a spent "Pixie Stick" along side the road and remembering riding home from Little League games with my glove strung on the handle bars, riding no handed and tearing open yet another Pixie Stick for a prolonged sugar rush. It seems to me the right memories can help refocus the present in ways the enrich how one approaches the day.

Anyone else have occasional to experience the occasional pleasant flashback?
I was listening to the 60s channel on XM radio yesterday (XM channel 6). They were playing the top 20 from 1963 (I think). I heard "Surfer Joe". Brought back happy memories when I was 19 and in the Air Force, stationed in California. I could still "see" all those nice young things prancing around the beach in their bikinis. :)
Hey XM, thanks for the memories. :beer:

Every time I hear "Satisfaction" by the Stones, I flash back to a motel swimming pool at Daytona Beach when I was a young teenager on a family vacation. That song was playing as I walked by the pool and for the first time really noticed how pretty the girls were in their bikinis lounging around covered in suntan oil.:love:

My dad passed away this year and my mom and I have been spending a lot of time reminiscing. Last weekend I was helping her move a large glass wine bottle (think wine keg) that they got from our old landlord in Italy, it took me right back to Tony's tavern in Aviano...we had great times there in the 70's.

When I'm on a ride through a rural area and smell that horse, kind of a tar weed smell I am again 8 years old on Grandma's ranch watching her milk the cows.

In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida.......baby.


There, get that out of your head........:)

When I'm on a ride through a rural area and smell that horse, kind of a tar weed smell I am again 8 years old on Grandma's ranch watching her milk the cows.

Absolutely right on this one Curtis...the smells on a morning ride will throw me back to my youth as well. Growing up in the country has it's advantages. :love:

In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida.......baby.


There, get that out of your head........:)

Man, that has got to be the all time worst cut (side) ever. What is it about that song, anyway? :)

Man, that has got to be the all time worst cut (side) ever. What is it about that song, anyway? :)

The love between Adam and Eve... In the Garden of Eden. :love:

In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida.......baby.


There, get that out of your head........:)

Thanks to you, I can't. :notamused:

On my morning ride, watching two young boys about 8 or 9 zooming on their bikes in and around the trail, going off into the brush on the accompanying horse trail, having a ball.

That reminded me of me at that age.

I would hate to live in an area without kids.

They had helmets on, I didn't!

Thanks to you, I can't. :notamused:


:roflmao2:

The only happiness I had growing up was the time spent on my bike
in my teen years. It was the only escape I had from a miserable childhood
environment of growing up in a house where I obviously was unwanted, and
felt totally unloved. Back then I had wished I'ld never even been born and
came close to doing something about it a couple of times.

So these days my aimless wandering on any of my bikes brings me back to those
old feelings of peaceful stolen moments from a miserable first 18 years or
so. Good old Rock will take me back to my late teens and early 20's where also
I had almost total freedom and escape from those old childhood problems, only
back then I was sitting in a bar guzzling ales.

So for me it's riding a bike and good old Rock & Roll, and occasionally the fisrt sip
of a nice cold beer.

I was listening to the 60s channel on XM radio yesterday (XM channel 6). They were playing the top 20 from 1963 (I think). I heard "Surfer Joe". Brought back happy memories when I was 19 and in the Air Force, stationed in California. I could still "see" all those nice young things prancing around the beach in their bikinis. :)
Hey XM, thanks for the memories. :beer:

i riged up a car antena to a metal clip,which fits on my helmet easy.and bike all day listing to the 50's and 60's,it works so good it scares me! the XM people don't even know what they have..it's great!!! joe

Flashbacks are all I have been having when I ride lately. I was born and raised in San Diego. Left when I was 18 and now back home after nearly 30 years.

DG took me for my maiden voyage at Lake Miramar. This is where my dad used to take me fishing.

We rode around Balboa Park for my 2nd ride. The park was like a 2nd home to me in my teens.

We also went for a ride and happen to go down the same exact bike path that I rode to JR. High every day.

It's been surreal (in a good way).

On my morning ride, watching two young boys about 8 or 9 zooming on their bikes in and around the trail, going off into the brush on the accompanying horse trail, having a ball.

That reminded me of me at that age.

I would hate to live in an area without kids.

They had helmets on, I didn't!

And yet you survived, as we did we all. How strange.

What takes me back? Wow, what doesn't, you know?
Like young Double Deuce, I live now where I grew up. Same house, in fact.
It's hard NOT to encounter something that puts me back somewhere in the past.
But, for me, the biggest thing is music. Any given song at any given time makes me a Billy Pilgrim.

But, for me, the biggest thing is music. Any given song at any given time makes me a Billy Pilgrim.

Isn't that the truth! Life should come with a soundtrack... don't you think? :innocent:

Isn't that the truth! Life should come with a soundtrack... don't you think? :innocent:

Think Abba...."Mama Mia!" :roflmao2:

Isn't that the truth! Life should come with a soundtrack... don't you think? :innocent:

Well, I think mine does

Isn't that the truth! Life should come with a soundtrack... don't you think? :innocent:


Well, I think mine does

That must be why some people need ipods to hear music when they ride. They got the version of life without the soundtrack. :p

When I go into the local feed store on occasion it takes me back to when I was 9 or 10 and we used to ride our bikes to the grain elevator store and buy a coke. All of the smells of grain, horse feed, I can almost smell it now. Just the other day on the ride home from work I passed a cow pasture and it reminded me of when we use to ride to Petey Youngs dairy and watch him milk the cows and tell us big stories.

There are fwe places that take me back to that time in our lives when we were preparing to take on the world. My college (Va Tech) doesn't do it - everything I remember has been changed - many of the old buildings are there but there are so many new ones and expanded ones it just isn't the same - and the town has changed so much. Where I grew up in Northern VA is all different - even my old neighborhood has changed. I have fond memories of trips through WVa - driving to IL to see my girlfriend (now my wife) - but the turnpike is all different since it went to 4 lanes in the 80's. There is little that gives me a flashback.

I long to hit some of the emotional highs I had at that age when all was new and I didn't know all the things that "don't work". Ignorance of youth is a blissful state. The more experience I get the more depressing life seems to be.

And yet you survived, as we did we all. How strange.




Errr . . . .

My guess is that those that didn't survive likely aren't posting in the 50+ forum, wouldn't you think?

In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida.......baby.


There, get that out of your head........:)
Thanks a lot! :twitchy:

The only happiness I had growing up was the time spent on my bike
in my teen years. It was the only escape I had from a miserable childhood
environment of growing up in a house where I obviously was unwanted, and
felt totally unloved. Back then I had wished I'ld never even been born and
came close to doing something about it a couple of times.

So these days my aimless wandering on any of my bikes brings me back to those
old feelings of peaceful stolen moments from a miserable first 18 years or
so. Good old Rock will take me back to my late teens and early 20's where also
I had almost total freedom and escape from those old childhood problems, only
back then I was sitting in a bar guzzling ales.

So for me it's riding a bike and good old Rock & Roll, and occasionally the fisrt sip
of a nice cold beer.

We want you, cranky old dude! :hug:

We want you, cranky old dude! :hug:

Ditto. Your story makes my heart cry.

I grew up in a little town along the Little Miami Scenic Trail. Each time I ride this section of the trail I take a detour and ride the streets around town. I love seeing the places I went to school, the house where I lived, my grandparent's old house, the old swimming hole, the restaurant that was a regular stop after school, etc. I often run into old school mates or their parents. I'm so glad I grew up in a small town:love:

If you did it on a footbike, you would take in alot more! I guess you know that tho, don't you?

Errr . . . .

My guess is that those that didn't survive likely aren't posting in the 50+ forum, wouldn't you think?

Well, sure, if you fall down and die, that does kind of cull the herd, doesn't it? I can see that.

But seriously -and I almost hate to bring it up- does anyone know someone from their childhood who fell and mortally hit their head on the pavement? I don't.

I believe it helmets and wear one every time out but sometimes I think we're getting a little paranoid about life in general. But, I always wear my seatbelt, too, so... ???

OK,

Let's see - do I have this right?

You wear a seatbelt while bicycling and a helmet while driving?

Also, in the 50+ forum, you never quite know who is posting, and it could be someone from the "other world!"

Have a great night.:)