Do you think you're drawn here because of past life memories....

[Amy Jeanne]

it meant a trip to the graveyard where we'd go around and make up stories about the residents.

I still do this today at age 36 lol I also make up stories about the building I live in. Built in 1926, I just recently discovered a rotting ballroom, beauty salon, and squash court in the basement (urban exploring one night!) So now when I'm in the basement I pretend "Betty and Harry" and "Mabel and Charlie" are down there going to the ballroom on their way from Betty getting her hair done.

Yes, my husband thinks I'm nuts lol

 

[LizzieMaine]

Every once in a while people ask me if the theatre is haunted, so I give them this whole elaborate story about how a team of vaudeville acrobats played here in the mid-twenties, a man, his wife, and his best friend, and the wife and best friend were carrying on and were discovered. A pistol was drawn, the husband shot the best friend, there was a struggle, and the wife shot the husband. Horrified by what she'd done, the wife drank an overdose of laudanum and then hung herself from the stage flies. And some nights when I'm here alone, I can hear the rope creaking as her dead body swings back and forth from the rigging....

Or not. But it never fails to impress the people who ask.

 

[Amy Jeanne]

lol lol

When I was a kid everything "old" was said to be haunted, which also made me more insterested in it. All the kids in town claimed that one of the oldest schools in my hometown was "haunted." Apparently there was a huge, framed photograph of the woman the school was named after hanging in the gym and the "eyes moved." lol It made me scared/fascinated with this particular school.

 

[Blackjack]

Every once in a while people ask me if the theatre is haunted, so I give them this whole elaborate story about how a team of vaudeville acrobats played here in the mid-twenties, a man, his wife, and his best friend, and the wife and best friend were carrying on and were discovered. A pistol was drawn, the husband shot the best friend, there was a struggle, and the wife shot the husband. Horrified by what she'd done, the wife drank an overdose of laudanum and then hung herself from the stage flies. And some nights when I'm here alone, I can hear the rope creaking as her dead body swings back and forth from the rigging....

Or not. But it never fails to impress the people who ask.

hahaha, Go Lizzie!!!!

 

[Miss Sis]

Add me to the club of cemetary lovers! I find them far from creepy - I'm fascinated by the people buried there.

As to the whole 'why' of why we are drawn to things from another era, it is an interesting question. I've always been interested in times past. I spent alot of time with my Nana when I was little, looked at lots of photos and heard alot of stories about her life and childhood (she was born in 1911) but it's the 1930s that grip me. I loved talking to my parents about their life experiences and am very interested in them, but they don't feel 'real' to me the same way the 1930s do. It's like my switch off point is somewhere about mid WW2. I definitely don't feel a connection by around 1945 or the end of the War although I am drawn to the early War events etc. It is something that has puzzled me for some time!

 

[Amy Jeanne]

It's like my switch off point is somewhere about mid WW2.

I have a "switch-off" point, too. About 1947ish. I like things about the following decades, but I just don't feel as connected to them as I do 1917-1947. I don't care for much of the fashion, movies or some of the music after 1947ish. This switch is off until about 1977, when I start to become interested in popular culture again (mostly music, though -- not too keen on movies or fashion after 1977..lol). Weird.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I don't care much for the postwar era either -- I'm familiar enough with it, and I don't run in horror from it, but the overall zeitgeist of the era just isn't to my taste. As I've said elsewhere, the true Golden Era ends for me when FDR dies --something was lost during the war that didn't come back after VJ Day. Bu I pretty much completely lose interest after the early sixties, and I never bothered to catch up.

 

[Bluebird Marsha]

I use to freak out my college friends, Whenever I'd visit them at their homes, I always wanted to go check out the cemetery-Kentucky is filled with nice old ones. Lexington has an especially beautiful one that I went to as a little girl after church with my folks. Feed the koi and the birds, and read the old tombstones- great way to spend an afternoon walk. I think that's why I so intensely dislike some new cemeteries. They just look like parking lots. Uggh!

I know what you mean about old houses. I lived off and on at my grandparents house, which was probably built in the late 1800's. My grandparents renovated it when they bought it in the 40's. You know- adding things like indoor plumbing and house wide electricity. No one in town gave it a thought, because so many houses were that age. But when we sold it the 80's the new owners (not from around our area) renovated it, and got an article in the local paper about it. They claimed there were ghosts- imagine that! Unfortunately for them, they named one of my relatives as the possible ghost. Ouch. So we wrote to the paper saying that since we'd had the house ghost free for 40+ years, that the new owners must have brought the ghosts with them- cuz really no one in OUR family would hang with the current occupants.

Don't know if reincarnation is true, although I'd like to believe it's real. 100 years or so is just not enough time! And if it is, I must have drowned somewhere back there- because I just do not want water in my face at all. Not even in the shower! I wish I had a video of when my scuba instructor made me take my mask off underwater- not a pretty sight. Funny, but not pretty! One must occasionally look fear in the face and sneer- or at least whimper loudly.

 

[Blackjack]

Don't know if reincarnation is true, although I'd like to believe it's real. 100 years or so is just not enough time! And if it is, I must have drowned somewhere back there- because I just do not want water in my face at all. Not even in the shower! I wish I had a video of when my scuba instructor made me take my mask off underwater- not a pretty sight. Funny, but not pretty! One must occasionally look fear in the face and sneer- or at least whimper loudly.

THAT is a very common thread with people in the old soul new soul camp. Many persons believe that if you died a violent or unexpected sudden death, the memory of that same way of dying carries over as an unnatural fear of the cause. It's a strange phenomenon, someone who has never been cut is terrified of knives, or water, or bees...interesting.

 

[Amy Jeanne]

I do not like swimming pools. Especially inground pools. Maybe I died in 1947 in a freak pool accident. lol

 

[C-dot]

THAT is a very common thread with people in the old soul new soul camp. Many persons believe that if you died a violent or unexpected sudden death, the memory of that same way of dying carries over as an unnatural fear of the cause. It's a strange phenomenon, someone who has never been cut is terrified of knives, or water, or bees...interesting.

Yes, very interesting! I've never been in a serious car accident, but I get very tense just thinking about it. The hypothetical historical me may have been in a smash up.

 

[Tango Yankee]

An interesting question, but in my case, no... I have always liked some things from the era, and as I get older I find that more things make sense (like shaving with a double-edge razor instead of 4-blade cartridge, wearing a decent hat, fountain pens). I've always enjoyed the beauty of older cars and buildings. When I'm in an old building (sometimes very old, like cathedrals and castles in Europe and the UK) I wish I could see what it was like new and in use. Of course, as a friend and historian commented when I said something like that when we were at the remains of a castle in Germany, I probably wouldn't want to smell what it was like!

I have had the sense of doing exactly what I was meant to do with my life, though. I was an Airman First Class at Offutt AFB and had been in for about 2 1/2 years. As I was walking along a nondescript government-green basement corridor in the HQ Strategic Air Command building I suddenly realized that I was doing exactly what I was meant to be doing--an epiphany, I suppose. That feeling stayed with me for the rest of my 25 years in, and I still feel that way about my career.

I came here because I found the Lounge through a Google search on hat stretchers. I'm still here because of the people. Which reminds me: Poohbang, you have made it abundently clear that you are not here for the people, which is too bad. It is the people here who fill the site with the information you are here for and they are what make this site worth visiting. Perhaps you should take your analogy of this site being like an library a bit further and observe the "Silence" of a library rather than continuing with your rude and snide comments. If you mean for them to be humorous, they aren't. At least, not to anyone but you.

Regards,

Tom

 

[Tango Yankee]

I never knew there was a term for this, but I've always enjoyed cemetaries too. When my cousin and I were kids, Memorial Day was our favorite holiday, because it meant a trip to the graveyard where we'd go around and make up stories about the residents.

I enjoy cemetaries as well. They're very peaceful. I came to like them when I was on the base Honors Detail and performed duties at military funerals. They can be very sad, though, like the time I stopped at an old cemetary in Nebraska. As I walked along I realized that a lot of the headstones were small, and the birth and death dates were too close together... and the death dates of a lot of them were within days or a week or two of each other. I realized that I was looking at the incredible sadness of a town that had lost a lot of it's children to a disease of some sort in a short period of time. It is a stark reminder of how fortunate we are to be living in a time with the medical advances we now enjoy.

There's another small cemetary in Landstuhl, Germany, that also tells a sad story. The dates all tell the story of women of varying ages, old men, and children dying towards the end of the second World War. Some gravestones had the names of both mother and child, buried together. It is a stark reminder that war is a brutal thing.

Regards,
Tom

 

[AtomicEraTom]

I am not sure how to feel about past lives and all that.

My mother says she never believed in Reincarnation until I came along. She said from the time I was able to walk and talk, I was interested in suits, ties, fedoras, etc. I've always loved old music and never enjoyed much of new music, except for Country-Western in the 1990s and after it sounded more 'pop' I gave that up. Mom said from the time I could talk, I talked older and that people always said I seemed 'mature' for my age. I always had an interest in old things and started collecting antiques around age 5.

Reincarnation? I don't know. I give a lot of credit to the world I grew up in. My hero was my great-grandpa, a man born in 1902 and who always wore a tie and hat. I would steal his hats off his head when I was little and wear them. I grew up in a very old-school farming community. Our family was the youngest there. Most families were older than my grandparents and had lived there for generations. There was a very depression-era to the 1950's era mentality all around there. I imagine I picked up on a lot of that. Also, my parents' belief system is very old-school, both coming from staunch Catholic families.

Whatever contributes to it, people always tell me I live in the wrong time. I am not doing what I do to impress anybody. I feel this is proper and that the world around me just isn't what works for me. I watch it and shake my head, not in a 'holier than thou' manner, but just because I feel like a square peg most of the time. That's what brings me here, more than anything. It's a place for square pegs to unite.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Yes, very interesting! I've never been in a serious car accident, but I get very tense just thinking about it. The hypothetical historical me may have been in a smash up.

As for me, if this theory is true, I choked to death on an onion in 1962.

 

[LoveMyHats2]

must everything be personal?

Can't we just have a conversation?

I think without wanting to ruffle any feathers, if you would leave your verbal "ball bat" alone, and stop taking swings at people with it, you would find it less provocative on your own behalf, when posting here.

 

[LoveMyHats2]

I am not sure how to feel about past lives and all that.

My mother says she never believed in Reincarnation until I came along. She said from the time I was able to walk and talk, I was interested in suits, ties, fedoras, etc. I've always loved old music and never enjoyed much of new music, except for Country-Western in the 1990s and after it sounded more 'pop' I gave that up. Mom said from the time I could talk, I talked older and that people always said I seemed 'mature' for my age. I always had an interest in old things and started collecting antiques around age 5.

Reincarnation? I don't know. I give a lot of credit to the world I grew up in. My hero was my great-grandpa, a man born in 1902 and who always wore a tie and hat. I would steal his hats off his head when I was little and wear them. I grew up in a very old-school farming community. Our family was the youngest there. Most families were older than my grandparents and had lived there for generations. There was a very depression-era to the 1950's era mentality all around there. I imagine I picked up on a lot of that. Also, my parents' belief system is very old-school, both coming from staunch Catholic families.

Whatever contributes to it, people always tell me I live in the wrong time. I am not doing what I do to impress anybody. I feel this is proper and that the world around me just isn't what works for me. I watch it and shake my head, not in a 'holier than thou' manner, but just because I feel like a square peg most of the time. That's what brings me here, more than anything. It's a place for square pegs to unite.

You have many similar life's experiences and cares from the past, as I do.

I maybe felt a bit out of place when it came to kids my own age growing up, but family was where it was at for me, and really, still is. However, now, as an older adult, I have what I call, ethical and moral standards that have helped me in every area of life, to be a success. So that square peg in a round hole part, shows to others when I do business. People like to see that I am not typical (wanting to over charge them for what I do as others are into) and find that it is nice to have someone that has some ethical principles to do business with.

Given that, I think for the most part, there are many things we do and enjoy, and why not enjoy being a bit different then the "crowd"?

 

[Miss Sis]

I do not like swimming pools. Especially inground pools. Maybe I died in 1947 in a freak pool accident. lol

For me, it's a fear of falling. Not heights - I'm fine with them as long as you can't fall off the edge of a cliff or something. Particularly, I have thing for falling down stairs, but then I have done that in this life! Once when I was very small my Dad saw me fall down our stairs and rushed to check me. Said I just got up and walked off. I don't remember it, but perhaps that had an impact on later life.

I also used to have dreams about falling from a great height. And in the dreams I always hit the ground with a large thump, face down onto my chest. Just before I woke, I would always think 'Well, that's the end of that, then.', knowing that in the dream, I was about to die. Strangely, I never felt scared of the dying part, the fear was in feeling the 'pain'. I'm not scared of dying in real life either.

 

[Blackjack]

What about people? Has anyone met someone for the first time and felt like you've known them for years? Have you met someone that you DON'T like for absolutely no logical reason. A lot of folks believe your drawn to past loves and friends who help you in life. I know I've run into people that I instantly know I will have a relationship with, now that is beyond strange to me.

 

[Young fogey]

Well, my religion says the soul and body are custom-made for each other and will be reunited and restored, so reincarnation's impossible but it's fun to think about: that all my vintage-mania/living half in the past is past-life memories coming up. More likely I'm just an odd duck who's set his compass to a collective cultural memory, one that's still in people's living memory, thank goodness. Normally the only things I hear about the gear are compliments and usually from people at least just old enough to remember.