As mentioned on another board (cafe since it deals with creativity and something like Island in the Sea of Time) ther’s a fun historical RPG actively recruiting on yahoogroups, called SHWI-ISOT. We started in 1800, and currently are beginning 1817. Any starting post would be saying you 'landed," let’s say, on today’s date in 1816, or at the start of 1817. We work to better the world, bringing with us only what’s on our computers, which become laptops,a nd 1 CD. (If interested, the mods are Vegard, John Trungove (raven_j@optusnet.com.au), or (when he’s available, he’s pretty busy soemtimes) Richard Williams (SVHO-C1@dpa.mod.uk) Feel free to join & ask questions of them.)
Anyway, that brings me to my present query - if you could go back in time to any era and stay there, as yourself (assuming all medical cnditions which would kill you back then are gone) where in time would it be and why?
Unless you forced me then I’d go to Bath in Britain back around … Oh let’s say 200, that seems a good year. Seems like a nice comfy time and place. I’d get to meet lots of interesting people. And ooh those baths looked good.
Well, first of all I want to say that I adore being a late-twentieth and early-twenty-first century type person, and I wouldn’t trade modern dentistry and the Internet and affordable international travel for anything … but London in the 1590s would be a temptation, particularly if I had the option of going as a male. So much excitement, so many great plays, and I bet the beer would be amazing.
but I’d go back to Sept. 10, 2001 @ NYC (that’d give me a day) to do WHATEVER I had to do to stop this madness.
We might at least get the WTC’s completely evacuated. Maybe stop the hijacks and everything that came after.
otherwise… in the spirit of the OP
If there was an actual Garden of Eden…I’d like to see it. BTW People lived a LONG time then IIRC, plus walk with GOD…lots of benefits. Maybe I could get him to fix me up with my ideal helpmate.
If not, then
Mediterranean region, I guess about 100BC I’d love to read what was kept in the Library at Alexandria. I could spend a lifetime just reading. Get a peek at the pyramids when they were really something to see.
Plus, with what knowledge I have of history and science I could probably do a lot better than some “Connecticut Yankee in King Arthurs court.”
(I hope there’s a way around the language problem in this OP)
When you get there, will you please tell me not to buy that polyester scarf-blouse with the squirrel pattern on it? I still have nightmares . . .
I’d go back to NY or Phila. 100 years ago. I love the architecture, music, clothing, of the period. And I could still earn a living, as a woman, writing and editing (hell, I could work for the same company I work for now!).
I don’t think I could do any “good,” though. How could I prevent wars or depressions? There were already lots of smarter people than I working on womens’ rights, and if I tried to take up gay rights, I’d wind up in the loony-bin.
First, being an Aviation Cadet in Primary Flight School at Rankin Aeronautical Academy in Tulare, CA. Learning to fly in an open-cockpit Stearman biplane with helmet and goggles and the whole nine yards at age 20.
Second. On the transport Liberty ship Haverford Victory retuning from Europe after WWII we could lay on the decks all day watching the sea life. Giant turtles; sharks; porpoises; purple sea-veil jellyfish; and so on. We had no duties, cares or responsibilities for a week. Who could ask for anything more?
Definitely ancient Athens. Everything happened within only a couple generations, and it would be wonderful to see it first-hand, and *possibly *help it continue longer than it did. It would be worth it, just to meet Aristotle.
My second choice would be to the time of Jesus, so I could become one of the apostles, and write my own Gospel (yeah, I’ve got a few questions to ask him).
Cool answers so far; fun to see the wide range. Yes, OP includes going back w/original knowledge. Indeed, in our game you get your computer as a laptop and the CD in it at the time or your choice.
Eve, don’t blame you for wondering what good you can do, even in game we’ve gone 17 years just to see slavery being phased out in only the upper South - we have to keep it plausible of course, that’s a shame, and more, but it was so ingrained; thankfully nothing as bloody as OTL’s Civil War will happen. And rights, well, things are very slow, though we do try. Few more republics, medicine being brought along slowly, but it’s really an exercise in true alternate history, and seeing just how much can be done realistically.
Back to the early seventies-perhaps to prevent some of the personal trainwrecks I’ve witnessed, avoid some of my own, invest in better stocks, spend more time focusing on the moments that I let slip away.
I would so love just to go back to my childhood, when life was easy, full of fun and love surrounded me… no clouds, no hassles, no stresses… Just live for each day and not worry about tomorrow.
