Man, do I feel that. We had an unexpected death in our family in 2022, one of our younger relatives was killed by a reckless driver. It's made me think back to these times, when all my siblings and I lived in our parents' house together and our parents were the age we are now. You never think about kids going out before you. Their sibling set will never all be together again. It really hung in the air this last Christmas. The scary part is that someday we'll get used to that absence. I long for the closeness our family had back then. Knowing if something came up that you can pick up your phone to call your parents or your siblings is reassuring, but it's not the same as going down the hall to our parents' room or going downstairs to my older brothers' room if I needed to.

@@MRF1983 First let me way...I am SO incredibly sorry for your loss. That is so truly awful and heartbreaking 😥 . I cannot even comprehend a loss like that. Family becomes everything to lean on in the wake of such tragedy. My heart goes out to you 💜 Second ..man you really know how to hit me right in my feelings lol ☺️. You make such true statements about the past and I swear you are in my head because those things are exactly some things I think about when I lie awake at night. Just missing...absolutely YEARNING for the days of my youth when life was just so great. I felt safe...I had all my wonderful relatives alive and well...etc. Just when life was HAPPY. I am not joyful anymore. Not depressed...just realizing that those true innocent carefree days are a thing of the past. All I have are memories and same days I just sit and ponder too much. I guess that is why I love the 90's so much. That was the decade of my youth. The best times of my life 🥺. At least now I know I am not alone with those thoughts. Thanks again for commenting 💜❤️💜

@tiffanyf7383 I appreciate your words, thank you very much. It was my brother's daughter who was killed in the crash. It's a weird feeling, like you know it really happened, but at the same time it doesn't seem real that someone so young with their adult life just starting and the rest of it waiting ahead of them is just gone. I'm a single guy who just hit 40 and her death has made me reflect on all she accomplished in her short time versus the things I never really put much effort into. I always thought my siblings and I would meet people and all have kids of our own and that our kids would be as close as we were with our cousins at family holidays and reunions. My other brother got divorced in 2017 and my parents and I have been trading off babysitting his son since then. My brother moved to the area we all grew up in, it's depressing to see how negatively it's changed. Our dad was in the Air Force stationed at a base in that area that's been decommissioned for 20 years now. It just ripped the heart and soul out of the area. Whenever I'm in town to watch my nephew, I drive past all the empty or run-down buildings of the places we used to go to. It's like running into an old friend, but they've had brain damage and the person you used to know just isn't there anymore. On rare occasions, some of the commercials in these collections on different youtube channels are from where I grew up. It makes me both happy and sad, because it's like you said about relatives who've passed on, things just aren't that way anymore. I try desperately to cling to the sounds of my great-grandmother and grandparents' voices, as time has marched on from their passings it's harder and harder to hear their voices in my mind when I think about them. As much as the world has changed, the memories of the times from these commercials feel more real and relevant to me than the world as it is today does. Sometimes I feel like Jennifer Garner in 13 going on 30, like I went to sleep as a kid one night and woke up as an adult in a time and place that makes absolutely no sense to me. I hope that you have people in your life you can count on and lean into when those times of joylessness creep in. Texting my parents or my brothers or sister when I'm stuck in one of those thought-pits helps me push through them. You described it perfectly, that lack of joy but not full-on depression. An ache for the togetherness and sense of solid reality I had when our family was all in the same place together then. Our parents are in their 70s now and are shades of the vibrant people that raised us. Our dad's body is full of pain from all the years he worked to provide for his family. Our mom has had multiple minor heart attacks. It doesn't seem fair that don't have the health they deserve for all the care they worked to give us. I wish you a return of joyfulness in your life. I wish you the love and care of family and friends. Thank you again for your kind words.

@@MRF1983 I wish there was a way for us to communicate off YT. You sound like someone who I can relate to...and to be honest...I only really have a few people who do get me. We sound like we both reflect and think heartily about the same things. I don't have a FB or Instagram or any of that stuff. Not into much social media. YT is about as far as I usually go with a online forum lol. But if there is a way ...and if you are interested...let me know. Maybe we can exchange emails? I feel like we would have a lot to talk about. I am Tiffany btw. That is my real name 😊

agenda-free

Definitely. There was less worry about being P.C. especially as a kid seeing the tot commercials when there were people actually singing the jingle for the product putting so much effort into it.