Nostalgia is a perquisite of those who can afford it or who could afford, back then, to live a life they could look back on fondly. It also seems to be something people fall back on who are having trouble coming to terms with the changes we are living through.

Mind you, when you look at the damage we are increasingly doing to our environment and to our relationships, I can also understand people looking back longingly to the days, in childhood, when it was easier to find a forest or other wilderness to explore, not too far from home (in Australia as well as in the UK and Europe).

I have fond memories of my childhood in the fifties and teen years in the sixties, but I would not swap those years for what is available now; nor would I swap my childhood/teen experiences for what they might be if I was young now.