Nostalgic Cravings

Don't know why it happens, but just like the usual hunger pangs I feel, every now and then I start thinking about life in the past. I know you shouldn't set up a forwarding address to yesterday but I think sometimes it's good to reminisce of the world as I use to know it. But why the sudden urge to travel back?

Not really sure what triggers the desire to remember.

This week I thought about our gathering, some 25 years ago as college students called in to ministry. We often met at a restaurant in Circleville Ohio to dream of the future. Funny, now, how how I look back at our look forward!

Yesterday I found myself engrossed in a table top book that featured all the Cooperstown Baseball Hall of Fame players. Each page had a story, stats, photos and collectible items featuring that star from long ago. It was a pleasant feeling that made me wish I was in the stands to experience other eras of America's great past time.

Last night I started surfing the net to find old stories about my hometown, Binghamton New York, circa 1970s. I came across an article about the now defunct Mohawk Airlines, remembering I was a passenger aboard just before they were sold to Allegheny Airlines. And then I typed in local tv station, WBNG, to see what I might find. I actually had the unique opportunity to serve as reporter on their Saturday morning program called "Action News For Kids," around 1975. How awesome it felt to walk into their newsroom amid whom I thought were legends back then such as Bernard Fionte who was anchor and Bob Buchanan who provided nightly weather in the Susquehanna Valley.

So I decided to next do a Google search on Bob Buchanan. The results were as cold water thrown on my face. Last week Bob dies after a short illness. I learned that he retired as meteorologist in 1998, after some 30 years at the station. That's when I was once again reminded that another piece of my past has faded. I never got to meet Bob, although his daughter-in-law and children attended the church I pastored on occasions. I had hoped to meet him and would have loved to get his perspectives on the "good old days." Unfortunately, we never met as I moved away twelve years ago.

Sometimes those cravings for the past lead us to things we weren't expecting. It happened last night. Though, not always pleasant, there are lot of good memories of life in the Triple Cities. Strangely, many of those I think on did not seem that big a deal as I was growing up.