The Good Old Days

I think I have mentioned here before how I tend to have an overly romanticized vision on my own past. Everything that has ever happened to me looks infinitely better in retrospect than it did at the time that it happened. Furthermore, it always looks better than whatever is currently happening in my life. I always find myself thinking that I just didn't appreciate how good I had it back then. The problem is, when I find myself looking back longingly on my previous experiences, how do I ever know how accurate my ideas about them are? How do I know if I should try to get back to that point or not? How do I ever know if things were really better then, or if I'm just forgetting all the bad stuff?