I was born in 1981, and frequently lament the fact that most rock music during my life has sucked. My father was born in 1947, my mother in 1956, and I’m jealous of what they got to see and hear. So, I’d like to have been born somewhere in that range, so I could see:
The Beatles
Led Zeppelin
Specifically, John Bonham playing the Moby Dick solo
The Who
Pink Floyd
Jimi
I mean, my generation has Pearl Jam and Nirvana. I’ve seen the former twice live, but I never got a chance to see Nirvana live. Other than that, what music of my generation will go down as great? Maybe Soundgarden, and maybe Rage or STP (before Weiland went totally nuts). How disappointing.
I would LOVE to be flying in the late 40s and early 50s. High-performance props are the norm and then the first jets make their appearance!
The greatest technological advances in aviation were happening at this time: jets, supersonic flight, early rockets.
You could take your P-51 down to Louisiana to pick up crawfish for the squadron. And when you ran out of gas and landed on a highway you didn’t have to worry about your career being over.
[Aviation alert] Imagine flying a P-51, F-86, F-100 and F-104 when they were NEW. [/Aviation alert]
Yes, give me my Air Force wings 45 years earlier than I got mine (1991) and I’d be thrilled.
The other problem, of course, is that you wouldn’t be Eve, you’d be Adam. How big a problem would that be for you?
As for me - for all the current problems I’d have to say now is when I’d choose to be alive. The “nasty, brutish, and short” issue has already been mentioned, along with sexism (when my grandmother was raising two boys on her own in the 1920’s she was paid 1/3 of men doing the exact same job - nor was it a secret. It was considered a right and proper state of affairs). On average, people live longer, healthier lives right now than at any other period in history. I have ample access to food. Freezing to death in the winter is highly unlikely unless I get really stupid. And that’s just the necessities.
Pilot141 your comments about aviation are well taken - but I remember talking to an Air Force recruiter when I was 18 who was quite up front about how, as a woman, the opportunities I had as a pilot in the Air Force (assuming I qualified for flight training) were extremely limited. If I had been around in the time period you describe I would not have had the opportunity to fly the aircraft you mentioned solely because of my gender, regardless of my abilities. Yes, there may have been a few token women… but for the most part they were barred from such cockpits. They were used to ferry planes in WWII due to manpower shortages, not through enlightened views of the sexes, and after that war they were expected to give up flying for good, go home, and produce children like good little brood mares. You know - marry pilots, not be pilots. No thanks.