“The American Way,” in simplest terms, was this: Every generation knew they would exceed the one that came before them. Yet, in fairness, the good ol’ days were not devoid of problems. Indeed the ’80s and ‘90s in particular weren’t necessarily halcyon times for all.

Life is filled with ups and downs regardless of the time in which you lived. Still nostalgia runs rampant, perhaps more now than at any point in memory, because people of every background have come to find solace in reminiscing on bygone eras in which order was understood and crazy was burrowed on the fringe, set apart from the mainstream of society.

Past decades, imperfections and all, were generally typified by a sense of optimism — a naturality for which I’m told the uninitiated (foreigners) have always found vexing, yet strangely amiable and, by extension, uniquely American.

We’ve lost that and people intuitively seek to understand why, as if to reconcile part of something that has inexplicably vanished. So be patient with those who fixate at times on the past because their memories are derived, not from allegories or falsehoods, but from a dream that shaped a nation which was, in fact, very real.