Why Was the Past So Cool?

5 slick old-school things you won’t believe existed...

When Mick Jagger and his girlfriend Marianne Faithfull met Alain Delon in 1967

In Requiem for a Nun, William Faulkner gave us one of his most memorable lines:

The past is never dead. It's not even past.

There’s an undeniable allure to what came before that pulls us in, making the present seem a little less thrilling by comparison.

But why is that?

I’m writing this piece to offer the best answer I can, though in truth, it’s an open question with countless variables and no definitive conclusion.

Still, it’s a subject I find endlessly fascinating…

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Scientists suggest that the past often feels more appealing because of how our memories work: our minds tend to filter out the bad and hold onto the good, a phenomenon known as "rosy retrospection."

This selective memory paints the past in warm hues, making it seem gentler, simpler, even more beautiful, especially when held up against the complexity or harshness of the present. Everything from childhood feels brighter, richer, somehow better. And maybe it was...

Or maybe the past feels sacred simply because it's where life has happened — while the future remains the unknown, where death inevitably waits.

Of course, looking at facts, life today is better in many important ways: In 1900, the global average life expectancy was approximately 32 years. By 2021 this had more than doubled to 71 years. The global literacy rate has risen from 12% in 1820 to 87% in 2025, while the proportion of people living in extreme poverty has decreased from 44% in 1981 to 9.9% in 2025. Thanks to technology, many other, more superficial aspects of life have also inevitably changed — some for the better, others perhaps for the worse.

What seems to have faded, though, is a certain attention to beauty and coolness in the things we create, wear, and surround ourselves with. Objects once carried a kind of soul... now, they too often feel impersonal and disposable.

There’s a widespread nostalgia for a time when life moved at a different rhythm. When mornings began with printed newspapers instead of endless scrolling on TikTok, and conversations happened face-to-face rather than on FaceTime. The past is often remembered as more “real” and authentic, where imperfections spoke to human hands and stories behind every item. Today’s world, saturated with mass-produced goods and fleeting fads, leaves many longing for that sense of individuality and the warmth of the human touch.

So what exactly made the past so cool?

One way to answer this question is by taking a closer look at these remarkable old-school things that are sure to make you fall in love with them… and maybe even help explain why the past continues to hold a special place in our hearts.

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1. Bookwheel

The bookwheel is a rotating bookcase that lets one person easily read several books without moving. Instead of spinning flat, it turns vertically like a waterwheel. Agostino Ramelli first sketched the design in the 16th century when big books were hard to handle.

This particular bookwheel, over 300 years old, is housed in Puebla, Mexico’s Biblioteca Palafoxiana. It once allowed researchers in the 18th century to keep seven books open at the same time.

Comedian Mark Normand called it “the original version of having too many tabs open.”

2. Renaissance Musical Knives

Dating back to the early 1500s, these knives from Cambridge’s Fitzwilliam Museum feature musical scores engraved on their blades.

Each knife corresponds to a specific vocal range (soprano, tenor, etc.). On one side is a benediction that may have been sung before a meal, while the reverse side bears a grace likely sung afterward.

3. Victorian Dollhouse

This antique 1:12 scale dollhouse is an architectural model of the Dean family’s Victorian mansion from 1880s San Francisco. Featuring over 53 glass and iron windows, iron gates, and detailed woodwork, it faithfully represents a grand family estate. Electricity was added in 1930, enhancing its realism. Given to the family’s daughters as a dollhouse, it has been lovingly preserved by three generations of collectors, keeping the family’s legacy alive.

4. Reusable Grocery List

Back in the 1950s, many grandparents carried a clever alternative to the usual paper notebook: a reusable metal grocery list that easily fit in a back pocket. This rad gadget featured small notches to check off items, helping shoppers keep track of their groceries. Although the exact debut of the metal shopping list is unclear, it likely appeared in the late 1940s or early 1950s.

5. Art Nouveau Letter Opener

This exquisitely beautiful Dominick & Haff Art Nouveau silver letter opener was crafted in New York sometime between 1872 and 1900.

To me, it’s pieces like this — and the stories they carry, from the artisan who created it to the hands that once used it to open letters from loved ones — that make it impossible not to fall in love with the charm of days gone by.

But loving vintage doesn’t mean getting stuck in the past. I believe in using its beauty to inspire the lives we’re building today. We learn from where we’ve been, but we live for where we’re going. As Søren Kierkegaard wrote:

Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.

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