About  Nostalgia Pie's 
Angel Noire

There must be an Angel...

 

...There most certainly is!

 

Hi there! I’m Angel and I’m the brains - if anyone could ever refer to

me as 'brains' - behind Nostalgia Pie.  I am an avid bookworm; a

crafting enthusiast; a retro TV aficionado; a Blockhead (I had

plans to marry Jordan Knight!) and I'm a complete and utter

nostalgia addict! Retro enthusiast; vintage addict; nostalgia

nut; time traveller... you get the idea - I think it's cool to

be old-school! Which is just as well really considering I’m the

founder of a nostalgia site!

 

I spent my childhood and teen years soaking up, what I

believe was, the best of the latter part of the twentieth

century. Oh and in case you couldn’t tell - I love exclamation

marks! Funnily enough I did actually wear Exclamation! as a

teenage girl in the nineties. Perhaps the over-absorption of this

fragrance is connected to my overuse of this punctuation mark -

who knows!!! Oh and furthermore, I don't half go on - but I think you

already figured that!

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Who is Angel?

 

  I’m an English teacher who hails from old England but now resides in New England with The Mister.  In my younger days (last week to be more specific!) it was all about the clubs and house parties.                                                              Nowadays, my idea of a wild time is a day out                                                              thrifting, trying to buy back the childhood my                                                              mum threw out! I collect vintage treasures that                                                            makes The Mister roll his eyes; shake his head,                                                            or just look plain horrified!. I may be an English                                                            teacher by trade, but I guess my real area of                                                              expertise is in finding novel ways to sneak more                                                            vintage goodies into our house without The Mister                                                          noticing. And if I may say so myself, I don't                                                              think I'm doing such a bad job. Most of the time                                                          anyway!

 

                                                        It’s taken me a long time to think of America as my second home as I’m still a die-hard Londoner  and proud - with the accent to match. Well… an accent that has somehow managed to transcend three London boroughs (the result of moving around a lot.) Although The Mister and some of my family and friends think that they can detect an American twang (“You sound two-thirds British and one-third American.” How’s that for precision!) while a few New Englanders have told me I sound like The Beatles (what, all four of them???) ​A bit odd seeing as I've only spent a week of my entire life in Liverpool when I was five!

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And it's my move to America that I credit for the

starting point of my transformation into the                                                            nostalgia enthusiast that I am today... Well I say I

credit this move Stateside, but I am shocked at

just how much I've managed to accumulate since I

was a kid, so I suppose my mum didn't quite throw

out all my childhood bits and pieces! So while I had

never previously thought of myself as much of a

nostalgiac, I suppose I must have had the makings

of a nostalgia enthusiast my whole life. I just didn’t

realize it was steadily creeping up on me until it

pounced. And it just happened to have pounced when

I moved out here. So now I have well and truly

been bitten by the nostalgia bug and it is a massive part of my life.

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Start of Something Good...

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My move to America naturally made me feel quite homesick for my old home country. And quite strangely nostalgic for times gone by…  It would appear that absence really does make the heart grow fonder... for vintage TV shows; eighties/nineties boy bands and teen mags! And don’t even get me                                                                 started on sausage rolls and Yorkshire pudding!                                                             It was a period that involved a lot of changes:                                                             being married; moving away from family,                                                                   friends and all that was familiar, and                                                                       navigating life in a new country. While it was                                                               great making a new bunch of friends, it soon                                                               became obvious that most people hadn't                                                                     the foggiest what I was talking about whenever                                                             I mentioned anything British - especially if it                                                               was something from my childhood. I soon came                                                             to realize how much these things and moments                                                             meant to me.

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Watching Too Much TV Leads to Great Things!

 

 

​The 1989 BBC TV mini-series Mother Love is the show that kickstarted my love for vintage TV shows and cult classics and is what got me started down the nostalgia rabbit-hole that I’m still happily bounding down today. A whole heap of memories came flooding back: of the show; the eighties; the lives of my family and myself at the time, and of Britain back in the day. There was a certain quality and a charm to such shows that I felt was lacking in a lot of more current TV shows.                                                            Furthermore I enjoyed that feeling of rediscovering

something I'd long forgotten about, thinking "Oh my

gosh! I remember that!"

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I soon decided that I needed a home to house all

these new-found memories because I figured there

had to be others out there who also understood

the thrill of rediscovering a long-forgotten gem.

Turns out I was right!

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My first I'm-not-worthy moment came very early

on when I wrote a post about eighties sitcom

Streets Apart, as I was contacted by the sitcom's

writer, the fabulous Adrienne Conway, who told me how much she appreciated the post and how I spoke so highly of the show. Well it wasn't hard to do - Streets Apart was a great sitcom of which I have happy memories of watching with my family. And over the years, the very talented Ms. Conway and I have kept in touch.

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​So that’s how Nostalgia Pie was born. It was originally a collection of my nostalgic childhood memories. But it has evolved over the years to become so much more. It was always my goal to make Nostalgia Pie more interactive so when I had the chance to give the site a revamp, I added a forum and much later on, an online reading group as well. 

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More Than Just Magic Moments

 

​                                                   Over the years I've got a lot more out of this                                                       nostalgic experience than I could ever have                                                          imagined. So much for a simple space just for                                                       reminiscing! On the one hand it's been a fabulous                                                     learning experience of which I'm being taught                                                         something new all the time, whether it's a TV                                                       show that was first broadcast before I was born                                                     (Hey, Thriller!) in-depth information about a                                                         historical moment (Hi there, Live Aid!) or the                                                         impact the invention of the bikini had on society                                                     and on popular culture (Well hello there, Bo        Derek!) I'm loving this journey into the retro unknown and beyond, and that I get to share my  findings with all you fellow nostalgiacs. Despite all the years I've spent indulging in nostalgia, I still wouldn't call myself an expert (except when it comes to sneaking vintage goodies into the house!) but I am most definitely an enthusiast.

 

And that's not all...

 

Nostalgia is what I do and what I’m known for.                                                      But community, connection  and feel-good vibes                                                      are most definitely my why. What started out

as just a place for nostalgic musings has led to 

connecting with people, I may otherwise never

have got to know and creating real-world

friendships. And whenever I’m feeling down,

nostalgia is more often than not my go-to

place to give me that much needed boost. Don’t

get me wrong - I’m perfectly capable of living

in the here and now, and there's an endless

list of things that I appreciate and couldn’t do without in the modern-day age. But I also acknowledge that there’s still something very ‘old soul’ and ‘old school’ about me too. I’m just grateful that through this space I’ve been able to connect with those who I consider to be my tribe - my fellow nostalgia enthusiasts! 

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                                              And because nostalgia often brings out the

                                              best in us, I wanted Nostalgia Pie to be                                                        about so much more than just the good ol' days

                                              - I wanted to be about giving back. Over the                                                      years, I've heard about the personal challenges;                                                    physical and emotional health problems that have                                                    been faced by our followers and those they love.                                                    I’ve been moved by their stories and feel quite                                                      humbled that they’ve reached out to me to share                                                    things that are clearly quite personal to them. Their

                                                stories have inspired me to use this platform to                                                      help where I can. By raising awareness and                                                          supporting important causes, and shining a light on organizations that share our values, I hope we can make a positive difference together.​​​​ At the moment we're still in the process of getting things started, but we hope we'll be able to put our efforts to good use. The connection between nostalgia and good causes might seem surprising, but both are rooted in a desire to hold onto the things that make us feel grounded, safe, and connected. Whether we’re looking back or moving forward, it’s all about preserving and holding onto something good.

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Nostalgia Notes

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I know you'd like to know a little something about the person behind the site so I thought I'd throw a few facts out there:

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• I majored in history which I suppose is understandable for a girl who loves old things - sorry, vintage/retro!

• Michael Jackson's Dangerous album was the first I'd ever bought with my very own cash that I'd earned during work experience when I was fourteen.

• I'm not a vegetarian but I much prefer veggie pies and pizzas.

• Jordan Knight was the love of my life for far longer than I’d care to admit... until The Mister came along. (But let's be honest, Jordan’s still got a place in my heart.)

• I am obsessed with angels.

• I'm known for being a rock chick so everyone assumes I was a grunger during the nineties. I wasn't - I loved my urban music. And still do! Who says you can’t love rock and R&B?

• I have a bizarre love/hate relationship with oranges and coconuts. (Yes, really. It’s complicated.)

• I've never understood the point of plain sparkling water - unless you're using it as a mixer.

• I may be known for being a girly girl but I don't own a single lipstick and haven't done so since I was fifteen.

• Maroon 5 was the first concert I ever went to. I loved them so much I saw them three times within one year!

• Half of me wants to be all black lace, leather and vodka, while the other half wants to channel my inner Barbara Windsor. The struggle is real!

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​Welcome to Nostalgia Pie! 

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