--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: This happened back east of course. I've…" description: "\"“This happened back east of course. I've heard that term a lot since coming to this part of the country. But I never think of the term as a marker of g..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/657/don-delillo-294_geography_this-happened-back-east-of-course-i-ve-h_192044.jpg" --- # This happened back east of course. I've heard that term a… ![“This happened back east of course. I've heard that term a lot since coming to this part of the country. But I never think of the term as a marker of geography. It's a reference to time, a statement about time, about all the densities of being and experience, it's time disguised, it's light-up…” quote by Don DeLillo](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/657/don-delillo-294_geography_this-happened-back-east-of-course-i-ve-h_192044.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/657/don-delillo-294_geography_this-happened-back-east-of-course-i-ve-h_192044.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/657/don-delillo-294_geography_this-happened-back-east-of-course-i-ve-h_192044.jpg) > ““This happened back east of course. I've heard that term a lot since coming to this part of the country. But I never think of the term as a marker of geography. It's a reference to time, a statement about time, about all the densities of being and experience, it's time disguised, it's light-up time, shifting smoky time tricked out as some locus of stable arrangement. When people use that term they're talking about the way things used to be before they moved out here, the way the world used to be, not just New Jersey or South Philly, or before their parents moved, or grandparents, and about the way things still exist in some private relativity theory, some smoky shifting mind dimension, or before the other men and women came this way, the ones in Conestoga wagons, a term we learned in grade school, a back-east term, stemming from the place where the wagons were made.”” [Don DeLillo](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/don-delillo/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. The phrase “back east” is used as a temporal marker, evoking nostalgia for a past cultural landscape rather than a strict geographic reference. **In simple terms:** People use it to reference a past way of life. Key Takeaway Recognize how language can encode collective memory. Themes nostalgia memory place identity time Mood reflective melancholic Type analytical philosophical When to use this quote - family storytelling - regional identity discussions - historical analysis - personal reflection Key Concepts cultural geography collective memory temporal framing Questions to Reflect On - How does nostalgic language shape our perception of history? - What are the risks of idealizing the past? A Different Perspective It may oversimplify complex histories into a single nostalgic label. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Geography](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/geography/) [Happened East](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/happened-east-2027006/) [History](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/history/) [Men and women](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/men-and-women/) [Past](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/past/) [Shifting Smoky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/shifting-smoky-2027002/) [Smoky Shifting](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/smoky-shifting-2027003/) [Smoky Time](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/smoky-time-2027005/) [Speech](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/speech/) [The-united-states](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/the-united-states-189118/) [Theory Smoky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/theory-smoky-2027004/) [Time](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/time/) ## Related quotes > [“The United States is the wealthiest nation in the history of the world, yet its inhabitants are strikingly unhappy. 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