It's never safe to be nostalgic about something until you're absolutely certain there's no chance of its coming back.

Bill Vaughn (1915–1977) was an American newspaper columnist and humorist whose syndicated pieces often turned everyday attitudes—politics, family life, modern conveniences—into dry, cautionary wit. This line reflects a recurring mid‑20th‑century comic theme: that “the good old days” are frequently misremembered, and that many things we sentimentalize (economic hardship, outdated technology, social constraints) were unpleasant when actually lived. Vaughn’s humor typically punctures romantic retrospection by reminding readers that the past can return in the form of renewed problems, fashions, or political conditions—making nostalgia a risky indulgence rather than a harmless mood.

The quip warns that nostalgia is often selective and self-protective: we polish the past only after it has been safely sealed off. Vaughn’s twist is that if there is any real possibility of the past returning, then sentimental longing becomes premature and even foolish—because what we miss may include the very burdens we were glad to escape. The line also implies a moral about historical memory: romanticizing earlier eras can dull vigilance against their reappearance (old injustices, old crises, old habits). In that sense, the joke doubles as a caution against complacency and against confusing distance with improvement.