I started singin' bye-bye, Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry

Old Car City- Nov 2021 by Paul Sager, on Flickr


I think it was in the summer of 1972, we took a family vacation drive from Dallas, Texas back to visit an older neighborhood in Omaha, Nebraska. If the car had A/C, I don't remember, just the open windows, heat, and the summer hit on the radio playing, I think, once every hour the entire trip and the whole car singing along.

Old Car City
White, Georgia
Nov 2021

Old Car City- Nov 2021


A quick way to induce nostalgia is through music, listening to songs makes people feel not only nostalgic but also warmer physically.

Old Car City- Nov 2021


Nostalgia's definition has changed greatly over time. Consistent with its Greek word roots meaning "homecoming" and "pain," nostalgia was for centuries considered a potentially debilitating and sometimes fatal medical condition expressing extreme homesickness. The modern view is that nostalgia is an independent, and even positive, emotion that many people experience often.

Old Car City- Nov 2021


I met UHH mmember Bob Casper at Old Car City in White, Georgia on a Saturday morning in November. I told him I was looking for specific images on this visit to OCC. I wanted images that bring back some of the memories of that 7 year old in the backseat of a Ford Gran Torino during the 10-hour 1-way drive. I remember some of the time in Omaha and maybe a vague memory of a slide at a hotel pool, but really the sharpest memories are from the backseat with the windows open and the song playing.

Old Car City- Nov 2021


Now the halftime air was sweet perfume
While the sergeants played a marching tune
We all got up to dance
Oh, but we never got the chance

Old Car City- Nov 2021


Nostalgia also sometimes involves memories of people you were close to, and thus it can increase one's sense of social support and connections. Nostalgia is also triggered specifically by feelings of loneliness, but counteracts such feelings with reflections of close relationships.

Old Car City- Nov 2021


Reliving past memories may provide comfort and contribute to mental health. Medical studies have found positive physiological effects from thinking about past 'good' memories.

Old Car City- Nov 2021


Hearing an old song can bring back memories for a person. A song heard once at a specific moment and then not heard again until a far later date will give the listener a sense of nostalgia for the date remembered and events that occurred then.

They were singin' bye-bye, Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry
Them good old boys were drinkin' whiskey and rye
And singin' This'll be the day that I die"

Old Car City- Nov 2021


Images in this post freely mix scanned negatives from fresh and expired 35mm film along with digital work. All lenses are Canon L-series, with an EOS 1v film body and an EOS 5DIII DSLR. The specific details are available from the Flickr host pages via the URL links of each image title.