And what would you hope to see? I don’t necessarily mean any single great historical event, just something you’d like to witness or experience for yourself.
My favorite choices, just off the top of my head:
[ul]
[li]The English countryside, any evening in 1943 or ‘44, as RAF Lancasters and Halifaxes warm up for their nightly mission over Germany. The only time before or since when you could hear literally thousands of Merlin engines ringing through the night.[/li]
[li]Over the English Channel the night of June 5/6 1944, just to get a look at the Normandy invasion armada as it embarks on one of the greatest endeavors in human history: the liberation of Western Europe. Like in Band of Brothers, but for-real.[/li]
[li]Le Bourget Airport, Paris; May 21, 1927. I want to be there to watch Lindbergh land after being the first to fly solo over the Atlantic. [/li]
[li]On board the Titanic, the evening of April 14, 1912. I’d shout “Iceberg, dead ahead!” to the crow’s nest at 23:35, shipboard time.[/li]
[li]Kitty Hawk, NC; December 17, 1903. The Wright brothers’ first powered flights.[/li]
[li]On board the Santa Maria the night of October 11/12 1492. Columbus’s first sighting of the New World, when things changed forever.[/li]
[li]Jerusalem, Roman Palestine; Passover week in what we would call 33 AD. I would love to see what really happened and if it bears any resemblance to what the account that’s given in the New Testament.[/li][/ul]
I’ve always been fascinated by the battle of Cynesophelae – where Roman Legionaires showed their superiority over the Greek Phalanx. I’d want to be viewing it from a helicopter (invisible, of course, to avoid disrupting the event.)
If I could keep going back, again and again, I’d like to observe the Battle of Shiloh – American Civil War – from lots and lots of different viewpoints, to try to put together the incredibly messy patchwork quilt. Like Gettysburg, it’s far, far too messy for anyone to see it all in only one pass-through. You’d really need to watch the same events from lots of different viewpoints.
Similar with the Crucifixion of Jesus. You’d want to be in a lot of different places, to see things from as many points of view as possible.
Seeing as I am of the female persuasion, my options would be limited. I could imagine riding the plains next to Gheghis Khan, possibly because I hoped I’d outrun him.
Vienna, 22 December 1808; London, 21 April 1749. The first public performances of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and Händel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks, respectively.
If I have to go back, myself, physically, without the use of super high tech, then, really, my sex would be only the very slightest advantage. I was presuming a lot of protections – e.g., an invisible helicopter – to avoid the gritty problems like getting caught in the crossfire at The Peach Orchard…or captured and burned as a witch!
If it’s a case of me, really going back in time, then I’m gonna set up a scam, taking gold back in time and buying “antiques” to bring forward again. A few trips, and I’m rich enough to retire.
You’d want to set up a nice safe vault somewhere and store the antiques there in their own time, for you to collect in the present. Otherwise they could easily be carbon-dated as obvious fakes.
My parents’ house, 1973. I’d tell myself to get off my ass, get into town and get a part-time job so I could earn some money, develop some self-respect and people skills, and study something in college that would bring in a paycheck, rather than studying music. Oh, and, once I’d gotten some money, ask Laurie out on a date.
At the premiere of Handel’s Messiah. Dublin, 1742.
With the Framers as the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were approved. Philadelphia, 1776 and 1787.
With George Washington as he surprised the Hessian garrison. Trenton, 1776.
With Washington as the British surrendered. Yorktown, 1781.
Aboard the frigate USS Constitution as she first put to sea. Boston, 1798.
With Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain and the 20th Maine on Little Round Top as they made their desperate bayonet charge. Gettysburg, 1863.
Sitting near the door to the Presidential box at Ford’s Theatre, so I could grab John Wilkes Booth as he slipped by. Washington, 1865.
With J.R.R. Tolkien as he began writing The Lord of the Rings (if I could do so anonymously, I’d send him a load of period-appropriate cash so that he could afford to focus on writing fulltime after that). Oxford, 1937.
At the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. London, 1953.
Near the podium for MLK’s “I have a dream” speech. Washington, 1963.
A few hundred feet before the Kennedy motorcade entered Dealey Plaza, so I could shout out a warning about a gunman in the Texas School Book Depository. Dallas, 1963.
1986 - work as many part-time jobs as I could while maintaining my school work and invest every dime in Microsoft. Try to convince my parents and friends to do the same.
33AD - seriously, who wouldn’t?
July 1969 for Apollo 11 - just a few months after I was born.
November 1963, Dallas - get a good spot on the Grassy Knoll. Bring a camera.
March 15, mumble mumble BC - Roman Forum.
December 7, 1941 - somewhere in the hills above Pearl Harbor.
Nevada, anytime in the 1950s-1960s - always wanted to see a nuclear test.
1947, Roswell New Mexico - 'nuff said.
Any of Julius Caesar’s triumphal parades in Rome.
Close enough to say “What was that?” - 50,000+/- BC, near the future site of Barringer Crater, Arizona.
Hundreds of others but those came off the top of my head.
