Welcome
“Nostalgia; a sentimental yearning for the happiness of a former place or time.” In our project, each article was geared towards looking at memories of the past in a positive manner, as the definition of nostalgia goes. The challenge was writing about things of the past that are still newsworthy for readers today. In each section, we made sure the articles had an element of the past as well as current relevance.
In the Arts & Entertainment section, both articles were about TV shows and movies that have a sweet connection to the past and are now coming back for viewers to enjoy. For example, Star Wars is a classic franchise that is releasing a new film this year.
In the Satire section, the first article, about seniors regressing in age due to “senioritis”, references the past in a positive manner in that during senior year students regress back to the old habits of an innocent childhood. The second piece of the Satire section, the vintage clothing piece, referenced the current popular trend of wearing vintage clothes as a new style.
The photos in the Photojournalism section all have a sense of childhood to them, or the past in some capacity (vintage cars, Disney World, balloons, LEGOs, amusement parks). Nothing evokes the past better than a photograph.
The Reviews section is comprised of a review of a classic childhood animated film, Beauty and The Beast, turned live action in a 2017 remake. The section also includes a review of some additions to a familiar childhood memory; the ice cream truck. Both of these articles have positive connotations with the past – for most people, Beauty and the Beast and ice cream have positive memories associated with them.
Both of the articles in the Sports section are blasts from the past as well. The baseball article references all the time that most of the kids have spent in the town league, bonding together since they were very young. Memories between the same group of kids were being formed long before high school. The second article is about the alumni game the boy's lacrosse team holds every year at this time when alumni players are back from college. The graduated players all come back to relish a taste of the past, even just for a short time.
The first article in the Opinion section is about the change in the TV production department for the 2016-2017 year. CCN’s (Columbia Cable Network) morning show, A.M. News, was reduced from being every weekday to just one day of the week (usually Fridays.) For many, A.M. news has a sense of nostalgia to it because it has been around since our freshman year and we’ve seen so much of it throughout our time in high school. The article explains what happened to CCN and how people reacted to the change. The second article in the Opinion section is about the current fad with old media. Record players, Polaroid cameras, etc. are all popular even though those methods of media aren’t necessarily the quickest or most efficient ways for music listening and taking photographs. But there is something about the charm of using these old devices that still captures people today, and this article highlights that.
The News section was an immense challenge for us because it needed to be very current yet reference the past at the same time. The three articles managed to do that though. The first was about all of the South Mountain Elementary Alumni going back to South Mountain for their field day, School Spirit Day. It captures this current event while still referencing past memories that current CHS students have from their elementary school days. The second article is about the alumni that contributed to the Special Dance Company’s (SD) performance this year. The SD show just happened, so the article managed to be timely while still including elements of the past through the alumni references. Lastly, news of the post office changing over to (possibly) a Starbucks evokes a sense of nostalgia for many who knew the Maplewood post office as a town landmark.
Much of the site has included references to Alumni and senior year because senior year and old students lend themselves to being a natural topic of discussion for nostalgia. The site will take you back with blasts from the past, while still remaining relevant and interesting to the current Columbia High School student.
