Is There A Different Time in Which You Would Have Liked to Live??

[MountainDon]

A different time, and/or a different place?  And why?

At times I have wondered what it would have been like for me to have been born at different times in the past. This has ranged from the 1700's through to the very early 1900's. I love machines as much as I love history, so I gravitate towards the 1800's with the coming of the railroads, and later the automobile and airplanes. This was the time of so much of technologies development; the development of a practical camera, another of my loves, also began in the early 1800's.

However, there's usually something that causes me to rethink, and decide that all things considered, being born when and where I was is not such a bad deal after all.

As for the place to be born in and to live, I might have picked some place with more gentle winters than Manitoba, Canada, probably the west coast of Canada. Perhaps Vancouver Island.

[Redoverfarm]

I too have often wondered.  I hold onto when life was simpler.   So anytime in that time frame would be OK with me to get back to the basics.  Hard work I am accustomed to. 

As far as a location.  I am pretty well content where I am at.  Warm in the summer, cool in the winter, abundance of nature.   

[StinkerBell]

1880's. But I realize that it is a case in my mind the grass seems greener back then. Reality, it is not.

[glenn kangiser]

Maybe not for a full time thing but I would love to have participated in the Boston Tea Party and maybe a few tar and featherings...

... the giving end

[wildbil]

do we go back with the knowledge we have now?

I would probably stay right here in my own time. The earth hasn't changed much, just culture and society. I am free to live like any other time period, with the knowledge of sanitation, refridgeration, nutriton.

[Whitlock]

Location is right here. Born in 1830. That way I would of been here before the goldrush.

Now if that would of happened and I would of known what I know now

[MountainDon]

do we go back with the knowledge we have now?

No that would not be fair. You and everyone else around you would know no more than the common knowledge of the day. Plus when playing this mind game it's not fair moving up/down the social ladder.  

[Redoverfarm]

A few years ago I attended my uncles fathers funeral.  He was born before 1900.  At the funeral they started by saying what modern conviences which were not available when he was born.  To think that you lived through the modernization period. From no electric to solar, no telephones to cellular, no automobiles to space shuttle.  Can you just imagine the changes he saw in the 99 year & 7 months he lived.

[Sonoran]

do we go back with the knowledge we have now?

If you went back with the knowledge you have now, you may find it difficult to focus on the positive things from the time period because you miss all of the modern comforts that we have.  At least I would, I shouldn't speak for you.

But I definitley would like to live in the 1800's. The decade doesn't matter, as long as it's before the Industrial Revolution.  I like the idea of working for your families survival.  And I like the idea of a being "skilled" in many things.  (Napoleon Dynamite style)

In this time period, most people are specialized.  They can take care of your finances but they can't take care of themselves.    I like the idea of taking care of myself and living with my family. So, definitley the 1800's before things got real specialized.    Location: The Great Salt Basin. Well, I guess that puts me at about 1840's...and I probably would have moved there because Glen tarred and feathered me.   

[StinkerBell]

I suspect with this group of people if we went on one of those reality time period shows, we would shock them with our brilliance!

[glenn kangiser]

I'd have had to find Owl feathers for you, Sonoran.

Stink, they'd need shades, I'm sure.

[peternap]

That's an interesting question Don, and one I've often asked myself. At one time in my life, I thought 1870ish. But after a lot of thought, I have decided I'm happy where I am.

I have always gravitated toward doing things the old way. Still do but there are so many OLD periods that I enjoy, I couldn't pick one.

Whoever wrote "You can't live in the past, but the past can live in you" had it right. I have steel traps in the back yard that I cooked in walnut hulls yesterday. I have nearly a hundred steel snares that I did last week.

I have a forge and use it. I built all my own muzzleloaders and knives. I have at least a working knowledge of timber framing and have built my own house (s work in progress) with materials I sawed or otherwise processed myself.

I have land to roam and hunt. Whenever I want a new tool or toy, I try to build it.

Today, I'm going to an old fashioned hog butchering, just like when I was a kid.

Now on to todays perks. I have a truck and car so I can be in my beloved mountains or the piedmont and come back to the flatlands in one day ...if I want.
I have electricity to run power tools, TV, etc...when I want or need them.
I have a tractor to plant or work with.
I have an ATV (Note the singular expression ) to move around on and it's faster than a horse.

I really think I have close to perfection in my time period.

[wildbil]

I don't think I could stand watching my family die from typhoid, Tuberculosis, cholera, Diarrhea, sepsis from a simple cut, normal child birth, starvation, malaria, and smallpox. Given there is plenty to kill you now days anyways, at least we have a little more knowledge how to avoid it. I would definately go back to the 1700's to 1800's, but only to live with native americans(Iroquois). They seemed to appreciate their earth and use it more wisely than a lot of the bumbling european expansionists.

[ScottA]

Now will do. It's as good as any. 

[glenn kangiser]

I don't think I could stand watching my family die from typhoid, Tuberculosis, cholera, Diarrhea, sepsis from a simple cut, normal child birth, starvation, malaria, and smallpox. Given there is plenty to kill you now days anyways, at least we have a little more knowledge how to avoid it. I would definately go back to the 1700's to 1800's, but only to live with native americans(Iroquois). They seemed to appreciate their earth and use it more wisely than a lot of the bumbling european expansionists.

Current government is actively experimenting with most of these as weapons and who knows how many have been intentionally released in experiments for one reason or another..

The old days were likely better in this aspect if you weren't around others in cities.   My ancestors lost a lot of kids though.

[Whitlock]

Glenn I'm going to start callin you Chicken Little

[muldoon]

lifes what you make of it, I suppose I would end up staying right where I'm at. 

For those romanticzing about the 1800s - keep in mind they had financial crises and wars nearly exactly to the ones we are entering now. 

Mexican war, panic of 1857, civil war, long depression of 1873,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panic_of_1857
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panic_of_1873
add to that the huge outbreaks of influenze and cholera - no thanks. 

Life has been tough for a long time.  That being said, I would like to visit the 50s. 
Mostly for the cars and the music, think it would be a fun vacation. 

[Sonoran]

Yeah, and the Civil War was nasty...if I remember right there were 618,222 deaths, according to my text book.  That is more U.S. deaths then WWI, WWII, Vietnam, and Korea combined.  And like 400,000 amputees, but I never read that I think the teacher lectured it.

But still, I think there is always a downside.  And the comforts that we have today have a good way of pulling us away from each other. IMO. Some bring us together, but a lot pull us apart.  Old school life was very rough, but they had some beautiful things that we are losing today.

[MountainDon]

Well, years ago I decided that the here and now was a much better time to live than any previous time. The clincher was the tumor that developed in my mandible and slowly ate away at the bone from the inside out. There was no pain, no evident problems at all. But an x-ray at the dentist came up with "an anomaly". There's no way that would have been successfully operated on, treated in an earlier time.

That assumes that the tumor would have developed, that it was not caused by some modern day chemical. The doctors have no real idea what the cause was.

So I like today

[sparks]

WWII, at the controls of a P-51D.

[peternap]

Yeah, and the Civil War was nasty...

Uh Hem........War of Northern Aggression. There was nothing civil about it.

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

I used to think that I would like the 1800s, but hot showers are really nice.  I like my truck, too. 

[glenn kangiser]

Yeah, and the Civil War was nasty...

Uh Hem........War of Northern Aggression. There was nothing civil about it.

Damn Yankees...

[Sonoran]

[/quote]

Damn Yankees...
[/quote]

I thought you were from Canada?

[glenn kangiser]

No - that's Don.  I'm from my mother....

Just being a smart alek--- I'm from Oregon.

When I was trucking and stuck in a truckstop  in Paris, Texas, a lady with kids came in who obviously needed help monetarily and mentally.  Many of the guys offered to help her but she turned it down. 

One of the Texas drivers said, ""Probably a damn Yankee."  The wise thing to do in a situation like that being the only one there from the north was say "Yup, probably just a Damn Yankee," in your best southern drawl.

They  weren't actually that bad - just a bit of humor.