Nostalgic Bonds

Making New Friends with Old Memories

Not being able to answer the question “where are you?” is an odd feeling. My wife and I are currently aboard a cruise ship. We left the Azores Islands in Portugal a day or two ago and are headed toward Bermuda. I can tell you where I am on the ship (deck 9, “aft”) but as to where on the globe we are… well, on a map we’re somewhere in the blue part between Portugal and Bermuda.

The dress code on cruise ships varies as much as the people themselves. There are people walking around every day and night in formal wear, and there are people walking around in ripped t-shirts, shorts, and flip-flops.

I packed a good mix of clothes — plenty of pants, shorts, and polos — but one thing I always bring is a variety of t-shirts. Not normal, single-color t-shirts, but ones that represent who I am. On this trip I brought my Goonies t-shirt, my Headbanger’s Ball t-shirt, a shirt with the vintage MTV logo, a Run DMC t-shirt, a Star Wars shirt, a Donkey Kong shirt, and a Dungeons and Dragons shirt.

There are a couple thousand people on this cruise ship, the vast majority of us strangers. People sit next to one another in the dining room, pass each other in the corridors, and stand behind one another in line. It’s easy enough to make small talk (“Where are you from? How many cruises have you been on?”) It’s a way to start a conversation, but nobody really cares what the answers are.

With the t-shirts though, people will point and say, “Heck yea, Run DMC!” There’s an 80s movie night (I think they’re showing Ferris Bueller’s Day Off) and people who saw me today in my Goonies t-shirt have asked me if I’ll be there.

There are people here from literally all over the world. There are people from countries I’ve never been to who will see one of my shirts and say “ooh, Donkey Kong!” It’s a strange but fun experience. It’s weird to think that at some point in history, someone thousands of miles away from me was enjoying the same things I was.

This is officially the longest vacation I’ve ever been on. Almost two weeks ago we flew to London, then went to Paris and finally Barcelona before boarding this ship which has taken us to ports in Spain and Portugal with more planned in Bermuda and Florida. I’m a typical American and only speak one language fluently (English). I took two years of Spanish in high school 30 years ago which I am surprised to say helped a little, but by and large, we’ve depended on other people speaking our language more than our ability to speak theirs.

Earlier this evening it donned on me… nostalgia is a bit of a universal language. I may not speak French or Spanish, but if I can make a kid in Portugal smile by wearing a Pac-Man t-shirt… that’s pretty cool.