RobArt Penguin

Daily writing prompt

What makes you feel nostalgic?

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Many things make me feel nostalgic. I’m a sentimental softy at heart. The holidays are a great time for nostalgia, traditional foods and car rides to see the lights. Shopping on the day after Thanksgiving, once the biggest shopping day, was my favorite. My mother would take us shopping because we had no school. We’d eat lunch at a restaurant on the top of a department store, back when fast food was not a thing. I’m a softy for shows like “It’s A Wonderful Life,” the many versions of the Christmas Carol, and the Santa Clause movies. I like light-hearted lofty sentiment. My mother had a manger for her nativity scene. It was rustic and looked like an old building… like an old manger. When we were kids we would place it outside with lights. It wasn’t very big, so I doubt people could see it from the street, but I loved when snow would adorn it with a new look, making it appear real. I would imagine the people struggling to keep warm in the cold. Although, I know it doesn’t snow in Jerusalem. To this day, I still put out the manager each year. It’s over fifty years old. My mother’s nativity set is long gone, and I use my own, a set she gave me. The manger was falling apart, parts were missing and the plaint was flaking off, but I refurbished it to its old glory. Probably that silly old manger makes me feel the most nostalgic at the holidays. It reminds me of my mother and the good times we had together.