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If you could time-travel...
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Where do I start? I'd go back to 1989 and make sure honey didn't marry that awful woman (1st wife), I'd go back to 2004 and make sure my father didn't shoot himself in the head, I'd go back to 1999 and make sure I didn't marry the Brit, I'd go back to 1994 and make sure they put grandpa back on his blood thinners after his bypass surgery so he doesn't have that stroke...
Oh, Amelia, I was thinking the science-fictiony thing about how you can't change the past so when and where would you go to observe. Changing the OP now so it's clearer, sorry.
If I can actually travel in time, one thing I’m definitely not going to do is hang around with any relatives. First thing I’m doing is checking out the future...the suspense is killing me when it comes to the next few centuries at the very least. Then I’m going back and checking out the very beginning of the universe to see exactly what THAT story is. Earth prior to humans would be something to see, and the dinosaurs would be a thrill.
After that, I’m all over the place: hanging out with Baudelaire in Paris for a while, mingling with 19th Century Russian literati in Moscow and St. Petersburg, seeing Charlie Parker on 52nd street in New York in the mid-Fifties, dropping acid with Jimi Hendrix, getting drunk with James Joyce in Trieste, travel to the time of Christ, and check out his power to cure my fucking allergies if he is who claims he is. I’d like to see Vesuvius blow, talk to Socrates, party with Caligula and Errol Flynn and Isadora Duncan. And while we’re at it, I’m looking to see how good a fuck Colette really is.
Whether I’m ever coming back to the Glen Beck, Sarah Palin, pseudo-science, intellectual fundamentalist, oligarchial America of 2011, that is the question.
Oh, well, pfft. If I can't change anything? Meh. I'd rather go forward than back, if I can't change anything.
I'd go a few hundred years into the future just to see what happens and then I'd go back about 1,500 years and be a warrior and fight in a shield wall.
Do I get to take a magical porta-potty with me, so I don't have to spend time squatting over a hole?
Good idea, Phil. Bun's gonna need one, eating meat-onna-stick-onna-street in ancient Greece. :)
can i get some shots so i won't get sick, and a translator so i can talk to people?i want to see the alexandrian library.
Thinking about unsolved mysteries right now. Like the disappearance of entire towns and legions.The grand opening of stonehenge.
Maybe visit Oscar Wilde, and marvel at his existence.
janine, yes and yes.Riëtte, oooh, maybe I'll go see what happened at Roanoke after I hang out with my grandmother.
If I time-traveled, yes, I'd want location travel, too. Or else I'd just end up in a forest near the lake.
RandomAnthony wrote: "If I time-traveled, yes, I'd want location travel, too. Or else I'd just end up in a forest near the lake."Hahahahahahahaha!!!! Very good point, RA.
I would hang out with Jesus, of course. I'd try to locate Atlantis. I'd find out why Stonehenge and all the pyramids were built.And I would definitely stalk both George Washington and Cary Grant.
Plus I'd check out the future, too. I want to see if I ever get my robot maid and flying car.
I'd like to see on original Shakespeare play.I like to meet Mark Twain and Charles Dickens.
I'd love a chat with Benjamin Franklin--such a versatile intellect!
And much, much more.
I would definitely try to hang out with Jesus. I think it would be interesting.
I would like to meet Mary Wollestonecraft, Eleanor of Acquitane, Elizabeth I of England, George Sand, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Alice Paul. I'd like to know my mom and her amazing sisters before they got married, I'd like to know my grandmother when she got the courage to kick out her spouse and get a legal separation.
Now that I've had my uterus removed (I would not have gone back further than the invention of the tampon otherwise.), I suppose I would quite like to go back and hang with the Bronte sisters a bit. Long walks in The Lake District and them telling me stories about Rochesters and Heathcliffs! I could dig that.
What guarantees these people would even talk to us if we turned up on their doorstep?
What guarantees these people would even talk to us if we turned up on their doorstep?
Rachel wrote: "I would definitely try to hang out with Jesus. I think it would be interesting."Do the two of you share a common language?
BunWat wrote: "Janine maybe we can time machine pool to the library at Alexandria, that's definitely on my list. Of course I have to learn how to read Greek first. Oh wait, maybe I'll go into the future and get a translation machine. "jammies has already promissed me a translator, so that's no problem.
I wouldn't mind going back to Ten-Cent Beer Night at Cleveland Stadium, Disco Demolition Night at Comiskey, or the Monterey Pop Festival the night the Who played.
I don't really care about 10 cent beer, but I'm totally THERE for the other two, Clark!!
Amelia wrote: "I don't really care about 10 cent beer, but I'm totally THERE for the other two, Clark!!"
OK, I'll drink your share of the beer then.
OK, I'll drink your share of the beer then.
Done!
(See Jim, I'm a great date! Honey's got a built in DD; I'd rather have a milkshake or a strawberry lemonade.)
(See Jim, I'm a great date! Honey's got a built in DD; I'd rather have a milkshake or a strawberry lemonade.)
Amelia wrote: "Done! (See Jim, I'm a great date! Honey's got a built in DD; I'd rather have a milkshake or a strawberry lemonade.)"
Shame on me for ever doubting it Amy. It will never happen again.
Mod
I would want to hang out with my younger self and just tell him to chill out some more. That and I would give him a little bit of money. I was so poor as a middle school student.
I would travel back in time and see all of the things that are no longer here. Ruins when they were new, I’d visit my grandparents (when they were young). I’d like to go back to say, medieval times or Rome 500 bc - but I’ve given this some thought and I’d most likely be a commoner in either place. Being a female commoner wouldn’t be so great. I’d be lucky to marry the village blacksmith, bearing children and working from dawn ’til dusk doesn’t really sound like fun. Can I be invisible?
I want to see Manhattan Island as it was before the Europeans arrived.
Hmmm, so much to see... I'll travel a bit with Aynge to Stonehenge and the pyramids, not just to see why they were built but how they were built. I'd also like to go to Atlantis. I'd take a stop at Easter Island to learn about the statues there, and find out how and why the Nasca lines were made. I'd travel back and find out how the crystal skulls were made and why they were made. There are a lot of these types of mysteries I'd like to solve.I'd also want to travel back to find out what happened to the Princes in the Tower of London.
BunWat wrote: "Helena wrote: "I’ve given this some thought and I’d most likely be a commoner in either place. Being a female commoner wouldn’t be so great. I’d be lucky to marry the village blacksmith..."Its ..."
Well, I chose 500bc in Rome because at that time Rome was one of the most important cities, with much building of temples, a bustling metropolis with persons from all over the ancient world (in my mind, anyway). I’d be able to see the Roman ruins before they were ruins and watch Rome being built. I would find that fascinating... As for the middle ages, I think I’d like to find out what was fact and what was fiction particularly concerning King Arthur. Then again, as someone else mentioned, it would be fascinating to visit the Druids, watch Stonehenge being built... so many places and times I’d like to visit. Since I can be invisible- or even fly- well, there’s no limit to where I’d go!
I would so love to do that, Bun. Even in modern times. So much history there.
BunWat wrote: "Interesting, Helena. I had imagined the High Middle Ages, which is somewhat later than Arthur and them. But yeah, the years after the Romans left Britain and the hill forts were going up would ..."
That would be fascinating- the thing that struck me most when visiting the UK was how incredibly old everything is in comparison to North America. I mean, you read about it, you study it, you see pictures, hey- with google earth I can virtually walk around almost anywhere I want- but I found it overwhelming once I was actually there. We’re wee babbies (as my Uncle would say) here!
Helena wrote: "BunWat wrote: "Helena wrote: "I’ve given this some thought and I’d most likely be a commoner in either place. Being a female commoner wouldn’t be so great. I’d be lucky to marry the village blacksm..."Remember, people were a lot shorter back then, so you would stick out. And then you have that problematic thing of knowing the language. You would also have the problem of travel. But suspending reality a little bit, I suppose it would be fun.
That's right--there are a ton of logistical problems associated with time travel. In addition to your shots, you would have to find a way not to stick out (since you would be taller than others). You would also need clothes. You would also need the translator. janine wrote: "can i get some shots so i won't get sick, and a translator so i can talk to people?
i want to see the alexandrian library."
Helena wrote: "BunWat wrote: "Helena wrote: "I’ve given this some thought and I’d most likely be a commoner in either place. Being a female commoner wouldn’t be so great. I’d be lucky to marry the village blacksm..."
Remember, people were a lot shorter back then, so you would stick out. And then you have that problematic thing of knowing the language. You would also have the problem of travel. But suspending reality a little bit, I suppose it would be fun.
Daniel wrote: "That's right--there are a ton of logistical problems associated with time travel. In addition to your shots, you would have to find a way not to stick out (since you would be taller than others). Y..."I'm only 5'2 so height wouldn't be an issue for me.
@BunWat- you'd probably be snapped up as a noblewoman of some sort. I imagine, being taller would go hand in hand with being well fed in comparison to the commoners. :)
5'3"...but I missed the small pox jab by a year or two. Good thing I'm sticking to the future! :)
Helena wrote: "Daniel wrote: "That's right--there are a ton of logistical problems associated with time travel. In addition to your shots, you would have to find a way not to stick out (since you would be taller ..."I actually never thought out it that way. I better find me a time machine quick.
BunWat wrote: "People were shorter in some eras of history but I'm five foot six, so frankly, I wouldn't stick out all that much. I know Mary Queen of Scots, Eleanor of Aquitaine and others were taller than I am."It's true! I bumped my head on the ruins at Mesa Verde.
I'd like to see dinosaurs. :)
I'd like to watch great performances - Pavlova dancing, Caruso singing, Beethoven playing his concertos...
Yes, I forgot about Easter Island Janice. What the heck is with those giant heads?I think I would try to cheer up Vincent van Gogh, and talk Mozart into rehab.
You can only observe, not change things (see Star Trek episodes et alia).
I would go to Elyria, Ohio, between 1926-1928 to hang out with my grandmother as a young woman. I've been told she was a real-life flapper, a giggly party girl who was a ton of fun, and I only got to see glimpses of that (she died when I was thirteen).