Member Berries

Over the last few years, I can't help but realize a sad, unfortunate truth. I'm suffering from Member Berries. Don't know what Member Berries are? For those that don't watch South Park, Member Berries is a metaphor for nostalgia. At least, that's the easiest way I can think of it.

You know how the routine works. You could be doing something simple. For the sake of argument, let's assume you're at the store picking up a few quick items you need. Over the speaker system, a song plays that you haven't heard in several years. In an instant, you start remembering things that you haven't thought about in years. Depending on your mood that day, this might last for 30 seconds. Or, you spend several days remembering "the good 'ole days".

In my case, I'm noticing that I've been doing this more and more lately. In some cases, I think about the music from my generation. Other times, it's television. I frequently think about movies from my youth, as well. Then there are times where I miss the "simpler days", where we didn't have such rapid changes in social norms, not as much technology interfering with our lives, so on and so forth.

Not sure if this is just a normal part of getting older. There are days where I feel like a grandpa. I'm finding myself yelling at neighborhood kids to stop playing in my yard. I've been catching myself starting conversations with "Back in my day....."

Depressing. Down right depressing many days. Back in October, I finally had my 40th birthday. As I was talking to my younger brother, he mentioned that it's amazing how time manages to sneak up on a person. Can't help but think how true that statement is.

Mentally/emotionally speaking, it doesn't feel like that long ago where I graduated high school. Yet, I can't help but realize just how long it's been since I stepped into a high school. Feels like yesterday when I had my first video game consol. I don't remember the specific year. I remember it was approaching Christmas. Mom bought the NES. This was something I was expected to share with my brother. Since we were a poor family, stuff like this was considered the greatest shit ever.

Parents, I have to admit, usually put us before themselves. Once in awhile, the parents would make the decision to give themselves something, even if it meant telling me or my bro to fuck off. They hated telling us to go to hell on stuff. Once in awhile, they had to give themselves a few things that would bring them some entertainment.

Can't say I blame them, either. They didn't give themselves enough gratification in this area, either. Some would argue that they were being awesome parents. I think they could've gotten away with being a bit more self centered and still manage to be great parents.

Guess they made up for it by usually buying stuff that we could all enjoy. When mom picked up the NES, it was generally understood that bro and I wouldn't be the only ones using it. Mom wasn't into video games so much, herself. Dad, on the other hand, managed to find a few that sparked his interest. It was usually the sports games. Super Techmo Bowl and Bases Loaded II were the games I frequently played with him.

Since I had more knowledge and experience with video games, dad would ask me to slow the pace down a little bit so he could learn what he was doing. He seemed to learn  some of the games in a decent speed. I had to stop going easy on him after a short amount of time passed.

When we were finally able to get a Sega Genesis, dad was always impressed with how well things were improving. This would happen when finally getting PlayStation years later. Mom didn't even bother trying to figure it out. By her own admission, video games were just one thing that she couldn't figure out.

Though, when DVDs were first becoming the next big thing, she was able to figure that out a lot easier. She realized that it wasn't much different then figuring out a VCR, for the most part.

I think the one thing that helps me to deal with the Member Berries is modern technology. I want to listen to music I enjoyed in my youth? It's often as easy as listening to an internet radio station, such as Pandora or going onto YouTube. I can usually get my fix of my old favorites with those two options.

I want to play an old video game? If you can find someone that fixes old systems, great. For some, it's buying a re-released game system. I believe Nintendo is releasing a variation of the old NES, with several old school games saved on the systems' hard drive, or some such thing. If I recall correctly, it's perfectly capable of playing the old school Nintendo cartridges.

For me, I have a copy cat system that allows me to play both NES and SNES. I also have a system that plays just the NES. I think it's under the Retro Dud name, or something similar. Different design then the original game systems. Software allows them to play the old games. I'm sure there's something in the trademark laws that probably allows companies to do this. Not sure what the legalities are.

All I know, these systems appear to be legit as they've apparently been selling for quite awhile. I believe it was only a couple years ago I even realized this was an option. I live in an area where this is more of a specialty market, so items like this are sold in limited stores. Come to think of it, I can only name one area store that sells stuff like this.

Doesn't matter. I have a game system that allows me to play some old school NES games. I'm slowly stocking up on some old SNES games, as well. Got a second system that allows me to play old school Sega Genesis games, which is also awesome. I think this was a novelty thing sold at some Walgreens stores, several years back.

Want to watch movies or TV shows I used to love? DVDs have been a great way of doing that for me. If I had more time for internet use, I could probably subscribe to a few online services, such as Hulu.

I know I'll never be able to completely relive everything from my past (fortunately), I can at least relive some of the best parts. I can still relive the parts that allowed me to have good memories, like playing a few video games with dad or watching certain TV shows and/or movies with the parents.

I think it makes my life more enjoyable, at least for me, when I can still relive parts of my past while still being able to keep my eyes on the future. If I'm going to be honest with myself, I need to realize that there needs to be a balance. it's fine to remember the past as long as I'm still capable of looking toward the future.

With that said, I'm going to enjoy some classic rock while I goof off on the web.