# If you get to ask one question for a person from the 1800s, what would it be? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 5, 2014, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-get-to-ask-one-question-for-a-person-from-the-1800s-what-would-it-be/682920 "2014-03-05T12:40:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![shijinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2014, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-get-to-ask-one-question-for-a-person-from-the-1800s-what-would-it-be/682920/1 "2014-03-05T12:40:07Z")
Happy Birthday Misao Okawa! she has been around since the last, _last_ century! > **[List of the verified oldest people](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_verified_oldest_people)** > > These are lists of the 100 known verified oldest people sorted in descending order by age in years and days.\[a\] > The oldest person ever whose age has been independently verified is Jeanne Calment (1875–1997) of France, who lived to the age of 122 years and 164 days.\[b\] The oldest verified man ever is Jiroemon Kimura (1897–2013) of Japan, who lived to the age of 116 years and 54 days. i wonder how much of her past does she remember? ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2014, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-get-to-ask-one-question-for-a-person-from-the-1800s-what-would-it-be/682920/2 "2014-03-05T13:33:50Z")
I’ve been around since the last century too. ---
**Author:** ![shijinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2014, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-get-to-ask-one-question-for-a-person-from-the-1800s-what-would-it-be/682920/3 "2014-03-05T13:59:44Z")
we’re in the 21st century. she’s from the 19th. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2014, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-get-to-ask-one-question-for-a-person-from-the-1800s-what-would-it-be/682920/4 "2014-03-05T14:11:16Z")
> [@shijinn](#): > > we’re in the 21st century. she’s from the 19th. Missed the last, last. ---
**Author:** ![shijinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2014, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-get-to-ask-one-question-for-a-person-from-the-1800s-what-would-it-be/682920/5 "2014-03-05T14:20:32Z")
quite something isn’t it? she’s born the same year as C. S. Lewis, who wrote The Chronicles of Narnia more than 60 years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Melchior](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Melchior](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melchior)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2014, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-get-to-ask-one-question-for-a-person-from-the-1800s-what-would-it-be/682920/6 "2014-03-05T14:32:22Z")
How bad was the smell, really? ---
**Author:** ![Winston\_Smith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e95f7d/32.png) [@Winston\_Smith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winston_Smith)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2014, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-get-to-ask-one-question-for-a-person-from-the-1800s-what-would-it-be/682920/7 "2014-03-05T17:48:54Z")
Only 7 of the 100 oldest living people were men. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2014, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-get-to-ask-one-question-for-a-person-from-the-1800s-what-would-it-be/682920/8 "2014-03-05T18:22:56Z")
I’d love to know, in HER opinion, what’s the single best innovation of her lifetime … and what’s the worst. ---
**Author:** ![Lukeinva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lukeinva/32/17872_2.png) [@Lukeinva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lukeinva)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2014, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-get-to-ask-one-question-for-a-person-from-the-1800s-what-would-it-be/682920/9 "2014-03-05T18:38:48Z")
> [@Winston\_Smith](#): > > Only 7 of the 100 oldest living people were men. ☹ Why is that? Do women ride men to death? ---
**Author:** ![Winston\_Smith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e95f7d/32.png) [@Winston\_Smith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winston_Smith)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2014, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-get-to-ask-one-question-for-a-person-from-the-1800s-what-would-it-be/682920/10 "2014-03-05T18:47:54Z")
> [@Lukeinva](#): > > Why is that? Do women ride men to death? You know why men die first? Because we _want_ to. ::rim shot:: ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2014, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-get-to-ask-one-question-for-a-person-from-the-1800s-what-would-it-be/682920/11 "2014-03-05T19:08:13Z")
“Where would you have stopped progress during your lifespan?” ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2014, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-get-to-ask-one-question-for-a-person-from-the-1800s-what-would-it-be/682920/12 "2014-03-05T19:17:58Z")
Was living all this time worth it? ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2014, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-get-to-ask-one-question-for-a-person-from-the-1800s-what-would-it-be/682920/13 "2014-03-05T23:07:22Z")
If I were to ask you if the road on the left leads to the tavern that is serving free ale tonight, would you say “Yes”? ---
**Author:** ![Flywheel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Flywheel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flywheel)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2014, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-get-to-ask-one-question-for-a-person-from-the-1800s-what-would-it-be/682920/14 "2014-03-05T23:30:07Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > I’d love to know, in HER opinion, what’s the single best innovation of her lifetime Saran Wrap. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2014, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-get-to-ask-one-question-for-a-person-from-the-1800s-what-would-it-be/682920/15 "2014-03-06T00:07:15Z")
“What were your hopes and dreams when you were 25 years old?” ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2014, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-get-to-ask-one-question-for-a-person-from-the-1800s-what-would-it-be/682920/16 "2014-03-06T00:16:38Z")
My grandmother, whom I’ve mentioned before a number of times, died in Novermber 2012, just short of her 108th birthday. She told me once there had been no such thing as “the good old days” She like indoor bathrooms, air conditioning, washers and dryers, refrigerators and freezers, and modern medicine. She was a breast cancer survivor, having undergone a mastectomy at the age of ninety-one. She said people weren’t any better or worse in the past, and that all she missed were friends and relations that had gone on before her. She wasn’t born in the 19th century, but 1904, and that’s close. I’d aske her, now, about the first time she voted in a presidential election. She did it 22 time in all, but that first time, 1928, would have been interesting. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2014, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-get-to-ask-one-question-for-a-person-from-the-1800s-what-would-it-be/682920/17 "2014-03-06T00:19:45Z")
We’ve read all the literature, fictional and otherwise, but what was it really like to be a teen back then? School, work, prelude to dating, recreation, etc… ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2014, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-get-to-ask-one-question-for-a-person-from-the-1800s-what-would-it-be/682920/18 "2014-03-06T00:22:55Z")
“Are you going to break the record?” (She just has to live six and a half more years. We’re rooting for you, Misao!) ---
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2014, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-get-to-ask-one-question-for-a-person-from-the-1800s-what-would-it-be/682920/19 "2014-03-06T00:35:39Z")
Odd that the 1st and 6th oldest living person were born March 5th. Happy birthday to Misao and Anna! ---
**Author:** ![shijinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2014, 11:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-get-to-ask-one-question-for-a-person-from-the-1800s-what-would-it-be/682920/20 "2014-03-07T11:00:38Z")
thanks for sharing, **Baker**. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-get-to-ask-one-question-for-a-person-from-the-1800s-what-would-it-be/682920.md?page=2)