We had Barbie summer and Brat summer…is this year “Nostalgia” summer?
If you spend any time on Threads, you would have noticed that it was completely taken over by Gen X women…trying to get their $16.99 ESPRIT sweatshirts from Costco. They sold out online in a matter of days, and were rapidly disappearing from Costco stores. (Full confession: I bought one for myself and my high school friend!)
Camp Snap sells screen-free point-and-shoot cameras for kids at summer camps that have phone bans. But, what they weren’t expecting was the demand from adults.
Camp Snap has seen its sales double in the past year. Canon also shared with NPR that their PowerShot sales have jumped sevenfold from 2022 to 2025. One student was quoted in the NPR article saying the photos from these cameras “felt more genuine.”
There has also been a surge in “grandma hobbies.” NPR, The New York Times, WSJ, and Newsweek have published articles about the exploding popularity of certain hobbies. The Green Door Folk School in northern Michigan opened in 2024 and teaches a variety of classes – basketry, beekeeping, quilting, book binding, sock knitting, etc. The majority of their students are Gen Z and millennials.
John C. Campbell is the oldest folk school in North Carolina. Years ago, it was struggling to fill its teen programs; now there is a waiting list.
Ella Emhoff, aged 27, started a knitting club in NYC. She ties the increase in “grandmacore” activities to the AI anxiety that is bubbling up among her peers. “People are getting freaked out by their lack of autonomy in this world and the lack of their ability to have a hands-on feeling to things,” she said. (Quote from The New York Times.)
People are craving authenticity, remnants from their past, and genuine connection.
While our phones are a tempting distraction and AI is ever-present, there is no replacement for connecting with others, learning to create with our hands, or partaking in a hobby. May we all find new ways to go offline and connect with one another.
Do you have niblings?
Do you have niblings??
Niblings is a gender-neutral term used to refer to your sibling's children; it’s a replacement term for nieces or nephews.
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What is the word for a group of ladybugs?
A loveliness.
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What is the word for having a fear of long words?
Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia refers to the phobia or fear of long words.
A MUCH-NEEDED LAUGH!
INSPIRATION
Charles Joughin was asleep in his bunk when he was jolted awake. Unfortunately, it was no ordinary disturbance. He was summoned to the ship’s bridge, where he learned the horrifying truth.
Charles was the chief baker on the Titanic. After leaving the bridge, he woke up his fellow chefs. They gathered up bread and distributed the loaves to each lifeboat. He knew there was not enough room for him on the lifeboats, so he decided to start drinking whiskey.
Charles came back to the deck and began assisting people into lifeboats, and he eventually started throwing chairs and cushions overboard. He hoped they might help people stranded in the water. Charles went down with the ship, yet he did not drown. In fact, he said his head never even went under the water.
He swam to a nearby lifeboat, but they would not let him board. A fellow cook recognized him and helped him hold onto the lifeboat. Charles said he didn’t feel cold because of all the whiskey he had drunk. Yet, many people who had entered the water died from hypothermia in 15 minutes.
After two or three hours in the water, he was rescued, along with the other survivors, by the Carpathia. Charles believed he survived because of the enormous quantity of whiskey he had consumed!
Astonishingly, this was not the only shipwreck he survived. He was on board the SS Oregon when the boat sank off the northeast coast of the United States; he survived that shipwreck as well.
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I was shocked by Charles’ story. He knew that he wasn’t going to make it on a lifeboat, yet he passed out loaves of bread, helped passengers into boats, and even tossed over cushions and chairs for people in the water. His genius (?) move to drink away his fears might have saved his life.
This story reminds me that reality is so much more surprising than fiction. And, we have NO IDEA how events are going to unfold; there will be many unexpected triumphs!
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