Flora,
Why not crank it up a few years to the NYC of the 1920s? You’d have the vote, there’d be women’s job opportunities galore in the boom economy (heck, you could help Harold Ross start THE NEW YORKER!), those short frocks look more comfortable than whalebone corsets, you could live in the Village and practice free love!
On the other hand, I’d be DELIGHTED to have your company in pre-Prohibition New Orleans/Chicago…stick wit’ me, dollin’ an’ I’ll covah yuh wit’ jools.
Uke
The '20s? Feh! Give me those long elegant Gibson Girl skirts, waltzes, art nouveau “skyscrapers” of ten stories–you can have your modern flappers and bobbed hair and that Rudolph Valentino!
However, by 1910 I’d be in my 60s–too old to move to The Big Easy and open that bordello?
Rodd, of course you’re right, we’d all go nuts or get ourselves killed posthaste. “It’s just a show, you should really just relax.”
I was more or less kidding, Flora. As a professional historian I have always railed at the lack of insight (and rose-coloured goggle-wearing) that most people have about the past. Probably the result of 16 years of 10-year old kids asking “Ummmmm if like, Hitler, you know, were alive, and he had like, a ray gun, ummmm, would he, y’know, like win?”
There is a great book/movie waiting to be made about time travel, but it should focus on the incredible preparation and research anyone would have to do in order to i) be personally safe; and ii) not change history. Currency, language, the right kind of clothes, made of the right materials, with the right colour dyes, etc. There was a British TV series called “Goodnight Sweetheart” about a man who could go back to wartime London at will. It had some neat premises, as he goes to great length to avoid places he knows will be bombed, gets proper wartime ID papers, etc.
If I had to go back? I’d stay right here in Victoria, B.C., but go back to about 1950, when this place was a sleeply little town, with great weather, billions of fat salmon to be fished, and still with most of the benefits of 20th-century gracious living (plumbing, telephone, auto).
Minoan Crete about . . . um 2,000 BCE.
Indoor plumbing, Goddess worshipping culture, no evidence of military fortification, but lots and lots of merchant class activity.
I’d be pretty happy painting pictures of young girls leaping over bulls and joining in on all the fertility rites.
“Knowing others is wisdom. Knowing yourself is enlightenment.” - Lao-tzu, Chinese philosopher
Everyone who is taking this board seriously to any degree at all, I recommend reading A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain. The book, not any of the stupid movie versions. And not any wimpy sci-fi book either (except maybe Replay).
No, go for the original, by a master of the English language.
Plague? you don’t need that,just prick your finger. That’s why i picked post WW2 antibiotics. Somebody throw a bucket of cold water on papa.Sheeshe.Chat rooms, two clicks over and up one.
I dunno, I’m not much of a history buff, but I think I’d prolly bring a laptop back with me to circa 1950 and sell it off to the government or some corporation and then invest in some stocks that I know will go up and just live off of the dividends.
London circa 1600 – and I’d spend ALL my time at the theater.
“non sunt multiplicanda entia praeter necessitatem”
note the “.” at the end of PapaBear – someone is playing games and should be taken out quickly.
I’d go back to tomorrow and bet everything I had on the four-horse.
I feel more like I do now than I did when I got here.
uh…I meant yesterday…whew…man…somebody get me ut of here
I feel more like I do now than I did when I got here.
I would go to the late 1700s. I’d be a shoemaker and amaterur musician, strings not winds or keyboards(too expensive). I’d read Voltaire in the first edition.I’d show up after the palgue but before the industrial revolution. I would be a Deist.
Does the O.P. mean I would be automatically fit into the past society I chose- I’d speak the language, know the customs, etc? If I was thrown as I am now into the past anywhere but the U.S. within the last century, I would be up the creek.
But that would take all the fun out of it. Well, I suppose you’d have to fit in well enough so as not to be burned as a witch.
Uh, Just want to let everyone know, that’s not me.
I think I’d have to go with 14th century Hawaii. If I retained my 20th century knowledge of celestial navigation and geography, I could undertake a voyage to California and claim it as part of a Polynesian Empire that might be able to stand up to the Spaniards when they finally showed up a couple hundred years later.
I would go to colonial America, just before the revolution (which hopefully I’d live through).
Never regret what seemed like a good idea at the time.
The poster who used the name “PapaBear.” (note the period) has been dealt with. The posts were in violation of a number of the rules (like vulgarity and impersonation and harrassment and … oh, you name it.) The posts have been deleted, an e-mail was sent to the poster advising of same, and he/she has been banned from the boards.
Us moderators are only human. When you see something like that, please call it to our attention via e-mail, and we can take quick action. PapaBear, thanks for doing so.
It’s also a good idea to copy several Moderators or Administrators on the e-mail – we’re not online 24/7, not by any means, and we can’t watch everywhere at once.
We may have disagreements about the various shades of grey, but there IS black and white. We’re all in this together, in wanting to have boards that are fun, educational, and enjoyable… and your help is appreciated in the moderating process.
Either late 1800’s USA or late 1500’s-early 1600’s England.
There must be a lot of people who wish they could travel back in time to 1865 and keep Lincoln from being assassinated. The problem is, if you did this, you could never have thought about doing it…
I think Cecil touched upon this.