Thursday Night Nostalgia

Nostalgia permeates every facet of my life. Almost everything my eyes see remind of something from the past that I enjoyed and long for. That’s why I started writing all those years ago…to share the thoughts that run through my head about the past.

Usually, my nostalgic writings are about memories of things from the ’80s and ’90s, but I’m getting to the age now, and enough time has passed, that I’m getting nostalgic for things from the early 2000s as well. Recently, I became quite nostalgic for 2001 in particular.

Back then, my wife and I had only been married for one year. As most young couples, we didn’t have much. We lived in a small place, both worked regular, low-paying jobs, and we didn’t have much disposable income. But we were happy with little things, so we didn’t mind just spending nights at home together instead of going out.

We’d get home from work, shower, and make dinner together most nights. And after having dinner, we’d usually go for a walk when the weather was warm enough. And afterwards, we’d sit together on the couch and watch whatever we found interesting on television until it was time for bed.

A few weeks ago, I was making a recipe that I had I saw on Facebook called No Peek Chicken. When I took the first bite of it, I was instantly transported back to 2001 and those quiet dinners at home with just my wife and me. It reminded me of some old box meals that are no longer available that we used to love. Those meal kits were Cambell’s Supper Bakes and Stove Top Oven Classics.

We used to enjoy these meals at least once a week. There were several varieties and we ate them in a rotation for months on end. They included everything in the box you needed to make a delicisous chicken dinner in one casserole dish in the oven.

And it was in 2001 that a friend of ours from another town over appeared on season 3 of Survivor. Big Tom Buchanon, the lovable country bumpkin. The wife and I had never watched Survivor before but we knew we couldn’t miss seeing Tom on there. We were also fans of CSI, so Thursday nights became a much looked forward too, at-home, date night for us. The chicken dinners became our go-to dinner for these Thursday date nights.

We changed up our usual nightly routine on these Thursday nights. We skipped the walk, and instead of eating dinner at the table, we settled in on the couch, side-by-side with our plates and had dinner while we watched our new favorite night of television. We’d make one of the boxed meals for dinner, and settle in on the couch side-by-side to watch Survivor and CSI.

So when I took that bite of the No Peek Chicken, all of that came rushing back to me. I told the wife about it and we sat for a while that evening reminiscing about those days. Then an idea hit me. In this modern world of streaming that we live in, those shows are at our fingertips. And after discussing with her, we decided to relive those Thursday nights all these years later.

Several weeks ago we recreated those Thursday nights, and have beeen doing it every week since. We make dinner together, settle in on the couch, and stream an episode of that season of Survivor, followed by the episode of CSI with the same air date right behind. We’re up to week 4 now and have been having a blast, and it’s quickly became the night we look most forward to every week.

All in all, it’s proof that you can still have a great time all these years later on a very small budget and maybe all you need is a little nostalgia.