If you could go back in time...

[Bo Duke]

My friends and me were talking about this at lunch during work, and the question was, If you could go back in time, what century or decade would you choose, and why?

There were some funny answers, but also alot of great ones. I said that if I could choose when I wanted to live that I'd choose the 1950's. When I see movies or pictures from that era, they always seem like calm and laid back moments. Like the 50's were care free somewhat. There were cool cars, drive ins, and alot of other really cool things.

I'm kind of basing my assumptions sort of from the Outsiders and from Two Lane Black Top. That's about as close as I can picture it. Of course in the 1950's we didn't have nearly the luxuries that we have now. Morality was high, and respect for one another was taken sternly. I don't know I just think it would be cool.
My friend said he wanted to live in the old west, but I don't think I would want those kind of hardships.

What about you guys, do you have an idea about what time period you would choose and why you would choose that. This should be interesting reading.

[J Michaels]

When I see movies or pictures from that era, they always seem like calm and laid back moments. Like the 50's were care free somewhat.

Morality was high, and respect for one another was taken sternly.

I used to think the same thing. Then I thought, Yeah the 50s were great - as long as you were white and middle class, and a man.

Or if you were a woman happy not having opportunity outside the home, leaving you economically dependent on someone else, with whom you hopefully had a good relationship, cuz it was very difficult to get a legal divorce, and of course, if you did, how would you provide for yourself, since you didn't go to college, and there were few jobs that women could work for a decent wage. At least you could eat at any lunch counter, attend any school, drink at any water fountain, and stay in any hotel you wanted.

The 50s as most of us know them today, especially those of us who did not live through them, are a creation of idyllic portrayals in the media - TV, movies, etc. - that may have some resemblance to reality, but you must realize these portrayals are HIGHLY romanticized.

As for me, I think Ancient Greece would have been cool - if I could have been a philospoher or something. Soldiers, slaves, peasants - not so much.

I guess any time period is great as long as you were born in the right class, and terrible if born to the wrong one.

[ZappasXWife]

Great post J Michaels! I agree with your assessment entirely. While it is tempting to respond to the post as to what was the best time to be in, we are really only judging that time by media portrayal, musical and literary romanticism, and elderly people's clouded judgement. You know, like the way we forget about what holy terrors are kids were and what hell our lives were then when they grow up. The past always seems better somehow. But other things now are better too.

[Mikey Wax]

I'm kind of basing my assumptions sort of from the Outsiders and from Two Lane Black Top.

Two Lane Blacktop took place in the 70's I think. The car that was chasing them around was a early 70's GTO if I remember correctly. THEIR car was a bad ass '55 Chevy though. I do remember that. That's the one car I will own someday.

I'm not being a dick. I just like car movies.

[BDR]

• July 1947 — Roswell, N.M.

• April 1912 — Northern Atlantic (in a boat other than the Titanic)

• November 1955 — Hill Valley, Calif.

r:>)

[Colton]

I'd go back and get a job working for leo at the fender shop.

[f.sciarrillo]

I want to go back to being a 15 year old looking at daisy duke for the first time. She was my first love ..

Of course, I always wanted to go to the old west as well, late 1800's would be cool. Or the 1700's .. Getting to see things in history would be really fascination.

[metalchurch]

Bill S. Preston, esquire and Ted Theodore Logan hahaha, yeah!!

[songsmith]

Question: Do we get to know what we know now? If that's the case, I'd go back and relive my own youth in the late 70's and early 80's. Hell, I'd do it again even if I didn't know what I know now. Those were some pretty rough times financially, but I had so much fun!
I was just telling JP the other day about finding a cassette tape and burning it to CD for my friend, Doug Forshey. In 1983 or '84, we had a friend who moved to Philly, and because none of us were terribly good at writing letters, we simply hung out together and talked to a boombox like we were talking to him. I found one of these tapes in a box of old junk. It was Doug and I, before our first band was even fully formed, we'd had a few rehearsals, but hadn't settled on a name or direction yet. The narrative was interspersed with actual rehearsal recordings of the band.
As I sat and listened while I loaded it onto my computer, I actually cried. We were so naive, and dumb, but so full of wonder. The dream was the only thing any of us thought about, ever. On the musical interludes, we were just horrible, but anyone listening could hear how much fun we were having. Twenty-five years just peeled away. One of my favorite parts was us talking tech... we thought that since there were so many speaker cabinets at a concert (neither of us had ever seen a bar-band, and didn't realize bar-bands played covers, lol) there must be seperate PA speakers for each guitar, vocals, etc. We also agreed that we'd be signing a contract in a year, realistically. Obviously, that didn't happen, but it was SO cool to dream about it.
I'd go back and do all that again. Second choice: Nashville, mid and late 60's. Me, George Jones, Merle Haggard, and Buck Owens.------>JMS

[orangekick]

I'm fairly cool with now. If I had to choose a time though, I'd slide back about 20 years so that I was in my 20's during the 70's. Let's hear it for big amps, fast cars and all that.

[MeYatch]

I'd go back and get a job working for leo at the fender shop.

yes, coolest conceivable thing

[ToonaRockGuy]

I'd take a large sum of money (say, $250,000) and travel back to April 4, 1975 in Albequereque, New Mexico, where Bill Gates met Paul Allen and began Microsoft. Silent investor, baby. I'll be back in 30 years to collect my investment returns.

CHA-CHING.

[PanzerFaust]

September 1, 1939

OberGefreiter, Totenkopf Division

[HarleyRo1]

June 9, 1984 at 2:29 PM And I would have turned around and ran like hell out of the church!!

[Merge]

Wow!! I see Harley is really happy.

I would go back in time and buy some stock from Sam Walton.

[HurricaneBob]

I would go back to yesterday and not eat the hot wings and enchilada's and buy some tucks.

[ZappasXWife]

I would go back to yesterday and not eat the hot wings and enchilada's and buy some tucks.

Ugh thats nasty. Too much information!

[DirtySanchez]

I'd go back to the conception of George W. and make his daddy pull out.

[Jim Price]

I've thought about this from time to time when watching movies about a certain point in history; what it would have been like to live back then. But when I see how horribly people died from battles and disease as depicted in Braveheart, civil war or even World War II movies before the current age of medicine, I'm thankful I'm living in the times I currently am.

If I could revisit a time in my life, it would be the first eight years of my life, when my father was still alive. We lived in Sinking Valley near Sickles Corner, on a 40-acre parcel of land. We had a barn on the property, my father had a large pond put in, and we were surrounded by state game lands. I remember that my father wanted to go for hikes in the woods, but I was dead scared of forests in those young years and never wanted to go. Of course, hindsight is 20/20, and had I known that my father would pass away before I turned 8, I would have braved the wilderness and done those hikes. And considering how I now enjoy hiking, fishing and the outdoors, I would appreciate that 40 acres of land and forest a lot more now!

And another time I would have liked to have been alive was about 5 years before I was born; my father had an offer to go to Florida and get in on the early stages of the Disney theme parks as they were being planned and built. He wanted to do it, but my mother didn't want to move and talked him out of it. I wish I could have been there to sway that decision the other way!