たものだUsed to; looking back on the past
Use たものだ to look back with feeling on a repeated habit or a characteristic memory from an earlier period. It often suggests that things are different now.
Looking back from a changed present
This is more than an ordinary past tense. The speaker looks back from a later point and presents the event as part of what life was like then. A word such as よく often makes repetition clear, but it is not required when the context already shows a recurring habit.
A former childhood habit
子どもの頃は、夏になるとよく祖父と川で魚を捕ったものだ。今では、川へ行くことさえ少なくなった。
When I was a child, I would often catch fish in the river with my grandfather every summer. These days, I rarely even go to the river.
AnalyzeThe first sentence recalls a repeated summer habit, and the second makes the contrast with the present explicit.
Habits and characteristic memories
The remembered event may be a clear repeated action or something that regularly characterized an earlier period.
学生時代は、授業が終わると仲間と喫茶店で何時間も話したものだ。
In my student days, my friends and I would talk for hours at a coffee shop after class.
Analyzeあの頃は町全体がもっと静かで、夜になると星がよく見えたものだ。
Back then, the whole town was quieter, and at night you could often see the stars.
AnalyzeThis recalls the general character of an earlier period rather than one isolated event.
Casual conversation
この道、ずいぶん変わったね。
This street has changed a lot, hasn't it?
Analyzeうん。昔は放課後、ここでよく遊んだもんだよ。
Yeah. We used to play here a lot after school.
AnalyzeThe speakers are sharing an informal memory, so もんだ sounds natural.
Choosing the right way to describe the past
たことがある reports that an experience has occurred, while たものだ evokes what life used to be like. Habitual ている describes a current routine rather than a former one. Also notice the past ending: nonpast ものだ has other uses, so the embedded past form and the retrospective context are essential here.
More examples
高校生の頃は、試験前になると図書館が閉まるまで勉強したものだ。
When I was in high school, I would study until the library closed whenever exams approached.
Analyze祖母は冬になると、毎朝ストーブで餅を焼いてくれたものだ。
Every winter, my grandmother would toast rice cakes on the stove for us each morning.
Analyzeあの頃は携帯電話もなく、待ち合わせの場所を何度も確かめたものだ。
Back then, without mobile phones, we would check the meeting place again and again.
Analyze若い頃は、休日になると夜明け前から山へ出かけたものだ。
When I was young, I would head for the mountains before dawn whenever I had a day off.
Analyze母が元気だった頃は、誕生日ごとに手作りのケーキを焼いてくれたものだ。
When my mother was in good health, she would bake a homemade cake for every birthday.
Analyze昔はこの辺りにも田んぼが広がっていたものだ。
Rice fields used to stretch across this area too.
AnalyzeHere the speaker recalls a continuing state that characterized the area in the past.