Number 2, Memory Lane

After looking through my old photos to find a picture of my dad for his birthday post I have strolled up and down memory lane a few times this last week. This may mean that there will be a few nostalgic trips back to the past coming up.

It's a very good word "nostalgia", don't you think? It is a combination of two Ancient Greek words; nostreo, a marvellous verb meaning "to return to one's home or country" which metaphorically speaking would almost be enough on its own but here it is linked with the noun algos (found in English for example in 'analgesic') which means "pain, sorrow, grief, distress".

Put them together and you have; a return to your (metaphorical or literal) home and the pain or sorrow that it can evoke (if perhaps it has been a long time).

This excerpt from my junior school English book does it for me...1965! Time travel back to class 3G with Miss Glover - do they still call teachers "Miss Something" in England?? Did that time really exist? I was nearly 10 when I wrote this - the kind of thing that teachers are still asking kids to write - ah...the pain, the sorrow of loss...Nostalgia House, No. 2 Memory Lane.