Nostalgia in Everyday Living

By Emery Lay

What is nostalgia? The ebb-and-flow between what was and what is? A coping skill to escape the current moment? A desire to reconnect with the elation of childhood?

It is all those things and more. With the internet giving younger generations thorough access to the aesthetics of the past, the topic of nostalgia has become more complicated – and simultaneously more desirable. Now, adults raised in the 1980s aren’t the only ones who want to relive their teen years. Their children do, too.

Dr. Michael Sloane, an Irish psychologist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), has devoted his studies to better understanding human behavior and the complexity of brain behavior relationships. When it comes to second-hand nostalgia, Sloane has witnessed this first-hand.

“I mean, there’s a huge interest in my students collecting vinyl records,” Sloane said. “It’s not anything they experienced, so, it doesn't have that kind of autobiographical component. That's not to say, when they first encountered music from the 70s or 80s … that it laid down a positive or autobiographical experience. But obviously, they didn't experience it directly. The appeal doesn't really qualify as your traditional nostalgia type experience … [But] the simple answer is that music in the 80s is the best.”

Sloane, who focuses on sensation, cognition and perception in the brain, said that nostalgia is primarily "a reflection on cherished memories” not just “any old memory.” Sloane said there are several characteristics of nostalgic memories.

First, they tend to not be from the immediate past, but further back, often into childhood. Second, they have some element of personal meaning – hence, the autobiographical nature.

Finally, nostalgic memories have a “social context aspect,” which means they typically revolve around memories with family, friends and loved ones. This is the “interpersonal component,” Sloane said.

“What might trigger nostalgia for you is going to be coming from your story, your early days, your life and be totally meaningless to me,” Sloane said. “I was exposed to [80s rock] growing up. I wasn't exposed to classical music or jazz. So, a lot of it is your exposure. If you're exposed to a particular genre of music while being with people you really like, the whole context is locked in together in terms of memory.”

These positive feelings from nostalgia can be triggered subconsciously by different stimuli (such as taste, smell and sound) or certain situations. However, nostalgic memories can also be deliberately summoned. This is done by purposefully thinking on an old memory, listening to old music or looking through old photo albums.

Sloane said that watching old movies or listening to an older song is a “deliberate attempt to elicit nostalgic, positive feelings.” The effects this has on the brain have been analyzed, too, through brain imaging studies.

“We can monitor their activity while they're looking at neutral stimuli … [and] we also look at brain activity in response to seeing stimuli that are nostalgia-inducing,” Sloane said. “By comparing the activity profile in the brain in those two situations, we can see that there's activity in centers of the brain related to memory [in both]. But in nostalgia, it’s areas of the brain involved in memory and areas of the brain involved in reward pathways.”

Nostalgia-inducing stimuli produce activity in the reward pathways of the brain ­ – limbic system structures that support emotional processing. This is where the emotional component of nostalgia has its roots. For example, a person’s sense of smell is directly connected to both the amygdala, which is involved in emotional processing, and the hippocampus, which is a key component in memory formation.

“But it’s not confined to smell,” Sloane said. “There’re visual-auditory stimuli. There are touch-tactile stimuli. They're all going to be involved in a first experience where there would be an emotional component of that experience.”

Sloane referenced Marcelle Proust’s famous anecdote about madeleines. The same goes for baking cookies with grandma, he said. If you encounter the same smell of cookies 20 years later, it will still trigger positive emotions because there is an “emotional tag” on that smell.

“We have a positive vibe to the feelings of nostalgia,” he said. “They can also be tinged with sadness, but usually the positive wins out.”

This begs the question – how does an entire generation form shared memories and shared feelings of nostalgia if they are so individualized?

“Take for example, a song,” Sloane said. “You hear a song on the radio. That will bring back memories of that time in your life. It may not be your favorite song, but it certainly triggers memories that are tinged with positive emotions from that particular time. It’ll do the same thing for other people that are in that cohort.

“It puts a timestamp on that period of their life. It is a bridge across individual experiences. One person might have liked the song more than the others, but that's irrelevant. It’s just a timestamp, something that shares a particular era and a way of doing things or… triggered by this one song.”

Rock N Roll Pinball

Sloane’s favorite music, of course is 1980s Rock N Roll, and for him that elicits nostalgic memories. For Ernie Rains, however, Rock N Roll means something totally different.

Rains grew up a “Navy brat” in San Diego, California. In 1986, Rains landed in Montgomery, Alabama, with the Air Force. In 1996, he retired from the military and became a state worker for the next 10 years. Never had he thought of opening his own business. But one day, during a trip to the doctor’s office, Rains’ doctor asked him what he would do once he officially retired.

“I said, ‘Maybe I’ll play pinball,’” Rains said. “He said, ‘You can’t do that eight hours a day!’ And I said, ‘Well, I could try.’”

The Beatles pinball machine was one of Rains’ bucket list items. He bought it in 2018 from a seller in Birmingham, BumperNets, soon after retiring as a state worker. Slowly, his love for the game grew. He had not played much as a child, only some during his teenage years, but he was discovering a new niche. After an old Air Force buddy invited Rains to come see his arcade in Asheville, North Carolina, retirement started to look less appealing.

“I went up there and came back feeling like Alabama need[ed] something,” Rains said. “I knew I couldn’t do it alone. I found a few guys in Auburn, so while they were accumulating pinball machines, my job was to find a location.”

Rains knew that Auburn, the 6th fast growing city in the country, was the place he wanted to be. But three strikes out with finding a location made Rains feel like he was running out of luck.

“[Then,] somebody said on Facebook, ‘We're glad you're embracing the retro-ness of pinball,’” Rains said. “I thought, ‘You know what? Pinball is retro. And Opelika is retro.’”

Today, Rock N Roll Pinball is at 815 S. Railroad Ave. in Opelika, Alabama. Rains always knew he wanted his business to be rock ‘n roll themed, which was only solidified by the existence of pinball machines themed after rock legends ACDC, Aerosmith and Elvis.

Now, the business runs six days a week. The pinball machines are set to free play, with wristbands costing $10 for an hour, $20 for all day or $5 to visit the Jailhouse.

What is the Jailhouse you might ask? A brick-walled bar and venue located behind the pinball building. What used to function as a toy-store storage shed is now host to trivia nights, throwback movie nights, concerts, open mic nights and more, working with local stars such as members of the Opelika/Auburn Film Arts collective (OAFAC) and the Opelika Songwriters Festival.

“We have what is truly one of the best, if not the best, music venue in Opelika,” Rains said with unshakable confidence.

As for Rock N Roll Pinball itself, Rains said he wanted to make it a “community center,” and he works with local groups such as the Boys and Girls Club and Storybook Farms to give back.

Rock and Roll Pinball is both for pinball beginners and pinball aficionados. For the latter, there is Tuesday Night League – a weekly gathering that allows the pros to play on four marked machines. Teams are constructed based on skill level so that each player gets to compete fairly.

“The best part is just getting to know people who have a love of pinball,” Rains said. “People who didn't play pinball hardly at all but became a pinball player [here].”

Julius Vaughn is the perfect example of this. You may mistake him for an employee at first glance. As Rains completes his interview, Vaughn, unprompted, has been ushering customers in, instructing them on how the games work and giving them tours of the Jailhouse. Yet, as it turns out, Vaughn simply has an overflowing love for the store and pinball.

“The best part is talking to different people that come in,” Vaughn said with a grin. “For example, there is a couple from Louisiana who came in and they said this would be a good idea in their town.”

Vaughn’s enthusiasm is as contagious as Rains’. As a kid, Vaughn played pinball. Now, he revisits those memories at Rock N Roll.

“Every machine has its caveats and things that you can do to get different scores,” Vaughn said. “If you couple that with mastering the multipliers, you rack up a high score.”

Rains and Vaughn originally met at a Cars and Coffee meetup where Rains was handing out discount business cards. Now, Rains uses digital software that Vaughn developed to notify league players of any updates.

“What Julius is hitting on is the critical thinking [involved] and you put things together like a puzzle,” Rains said. “In an arcade that has 32 machines, there are 32 different challenges, whereas in a bowling alley with 30 lanes, all the lanes are alike. You can become an expert on one machine and be weak on another machine. It can be challenging.”

Not only are games like pinball machines mentally challenging, but they also bring with them a sense of nostalgia. Sloane said that engaging our brains in these types of activities has healing benefits emotionally coming from their sense of nostalgia.

“They often provide people with a way to cope with current challenges or situations … just like COVID,” Sloane said. “We were all locked up and looking at old movies and listening to old songs and enjoying things that conjured up a better time. In that sense, it was a coping mechanism that allowed us to access positive emotions and feelings to help us get through current challenges – thereby reducing anxiety.”