Thanks. I have to confess, though, that I stole the idea from a story in, I think, Analog from the 1980s, where a woman was writing SF in the early 60s in an effort to try to change attitude and mores in the future. Some of the stories she plagiarized from authors outright, but two of the stories she was mentioned as having written were, “Watergate,” and “Houston, We Have a Problem.”
I have this great idea for a story set on a giant ring circling a star…
Okay, so you read it, too. 
I’m sure I could figure out the whole work thing eventually, but DAMN, I have to go back in the closet? I guess I could go to SF or NYC and at least find other “known homosexuals”… but having to hide my life would drive me crazy…
If I were stuck in the US, claim there was a tragic fire in which I lost everything. Grow my hair out and look for a job in a library and/or teaching as an adjunct (my library job would allow me to locate a college that burned down with all of my record). Save my money and go to Israel. Work on a kibbutz in the Negev. Remain poised to buy a huge amount of stock in Xerox and IBM at the right moment. Fortunately I’m too old for anyone to think I should have more children. Fortunately I’ve already received tuberculosis treatment.
I might be missing something here, but can you really earn much working on kibbutz? I did not think so, but maybe I am wrong.
Jim
I would follow the examples set by Marty McFly and Sam Tyler, and muddle my way through, with the occasional attempt to utilise what I know of what’s ahead for my own gain.
Unfortunately, as I don’t really know anything about what’s immediately ahead circa 1957, it would be something of a struggle at first.
Damn, it’s just occurred to me that since I don’t know how to drive a stick shift, I’d be in a bit of trouble. Wow. (And come to think of it, while I’ve certainly used a typewriter on occasion, and I understand the general principles behind things like carbon paper, I’ll probably look like a royal incompetent during my first few days in the typing pool.)
I guess I’d need to shave my beard off, unless I want to be a Beatnik.
Oh, and on November 22, 1963, I’d walk up behind Oswald in the book depository and blow his brains out. Then we’d see what JFK’s second term is like.
Carbon Paper would take one shot to learn to use. Stick would take longer, but I suspect most of us would be better off in a city that in the burbs. In a decent city, you would not need to drive and it would be awhile before you could afford a car anyway.
Does the Op allow for this?
I would say, saving JFK is not alowed.
Jim
First thing I would have to do is high-tail it to Ohio and look up Bill & Lois Wilson. 
I could probably stay on their couch for a few days…
Not so much forbidden as uninteresting. I was mainly interested in how well we 21st century people would survive in the world of 1950s, which is why I thought to forbid “cheats” like predicting the future or taking advantage of 21st century technological know-how.
It sounds like many of us would not survive too badly, and I suppose its no surprise: on the lileks.com page, Lileks says something like, “don’t forget, these people had computers and nuclear weapons too.”
But given the difficulties that also have been pointed out here, I wonder if it sheds a new light on previous threads where folks speculated on adapting to past societies much more alien to our own.
I think I’d have a problem getting used to the way people dressed then. Men wore suits almost all the time. And based on what I’m seeing on the cable program Mad Men, it would be difficult to get used to the sexist and racist attitudes of those years.
What I’d like to do if I get transported that far back is to join up with one of the civil rights organizations of the time. (And I’d wait until 1962 and invest with Warren Buffett, although the investment wouldn’t pay off big for a while.)
I would realize that can’t be true, and that I must be in an alternate reality, because in the real 1957 I was not present.
Employers often asked to see your discharge papers. Veterans not having those papers were a big problem after WW1 and WW2.
And you wouldn’t use filthy language like “sucks”, young lady. :eek:
True. And I’d be heading for New York City anyway, because one of the few perks of such a situation would be getting to see young Bob Dylan perform in about four years’ time
Oh, that won’t be a problem. I can talk the patter - I may not have my own DD-214 anymore, but I served on the USS Virginia - oh, yeah, she wasn’t laid down til 1972. Well, I know shipboard steam plants… for ships that won’t launch til 1958, and knowing too much about the enginerooms of the Bainbride or Long Beach might not be wise, since both ships are still being built. I qualified Surface Warfare specialist, so I can talk weapon systems, like the Mk 26 missile launchers… which were another child of the 70s. 
Nope. Not going to claim to be a vet. Too many chances there for a one-way trip to the nuthouse, and a lobotomy.
Joanne Woodward, Elizabeth Taylor, Maria Schell, and Audrey Hepburn say, “Don’t worry.”
Don’t worry. By 1950, all Cadillacs were equipped with automatic transmissions, along with 94 percent of Oldsmobiles, 77 percent of Buicks, and 65 percent of Pontiacs. Other manufacturers had little choice but to follow suit.