Take the "Time Travel Challenge!"

[LizzieMaine]

We talk and debate a lot here about "If you could go back, what would you do," so here's a chance to put it all into practical terms.

Suppose you could be dropped off at 9 o'clock in the morning of whatever date you choose at whatever address in whatever town or city you choose. You are given one complete outfit of appropriate period clothing, fifty dollars or your country's equivalent (about 12 pounds 8 shillings UK for example) in period currency, and one identity document -- an appropriately-forged birth certificate. You may bring nothing else with you.

You have one month to establish an independent basis of existence: residence, job, and any other necessary papers. What would you do, and how would you do it?

 

[Shangas]

Hi Lizzie,

You say you have one month. How long would $50 (quite a sizeable sum ca. 1925) be expected to last a person back then? Would it be a month? Or less?

That said...

Residence - Apartment.
Job - Secretary. I'm pretty well-organised and have very good typing-skills (an essential skill for secretaries back then).

What do you mean by 'other necessary papers'...such as what? Passport? Liner-tickets? Rick's letters of transit?

 

[LizzieMaine]

I chose fifty dollars as a good round sum that should cover basic housing, incidentals, and necessities for a month, more or less, depending on the specific era. But you need to be entirely self supporting by the end of the month.

How would you get the job? How would you establish your credentials and qualifications? How and where would you find the apartment? Where and how would you eat? What would you do about clothing -- remember, you only have the one outfit, without so much as a change of socks or underwear.

As for papers, this would vary depending on the era. If you went back to the war era, for example, you'd need the appropriate ration books and, depending on the country, the appropriate identity card. Americans expecting to work after January 1, 1937 would need to get a Social Security card. Men would also have to get their draft status sorted. You'd need plausible stories to explain why you haven't already done these things.

As I say, a challenge. Could it be done?

As long as we're dealing with metaphysics here, let's also add the option of being whatever age you choose when you arrive in your era -- with the stipulation that you must be at least 21. And there's no guarantee that you'll be able to return to the modern era at the end of the month, so this could be for keeps.

 

[sal]

Interesting proposition Lizzie.
This will require some thought

 

[brothelcreeper]

Interesting proposition Lizzie.
This will require some thought

+1

 

[brothelcreeper]

I'm fearing anything I come up with will be terribly naïve and childish in comparison with the answer Ms Maine is surely sitting on, itching to give. :bounce:

 

[Shangas]

I bet she's got it all worked out and is just sitting there, waiting for us to finish giving our assinine responses before showing us all up for the chumps we are.

 

[brothelcreeper]

I bet she's got it all worked out and is just sitting there, waiting for us to finish giving our assinine responses before showing us all up for the chumps we are.

Someone should hijack this thread into "What is Lizzie's answer going to be?".

 

[LizzieMaine]

Not at all -- this is a legit proposition. See if you can work out how to do it -- if it helps, there are plenty of cases of people who "created new identities" for themselves in the Era by faking their deaths or disappearing in one city and moving to a new location to start over. What's being suggested here isn't too far afield from that, but it does require thought and planning.

Besides, it's also an opportunity for some creative storytelling. Just how *did* you show up on the streets of wartime Manhattan with no ration book, no draft card, and no known past?

As for me, I'd go to New York city in mid-1936 -- it'd be easier to start fresh in a big city than a small town where people might wonder about a stranger -- and take a room at the Barbizon or the Martha Washington, good inexpensive hotels for women, and try to find a job thru an employment agency, probably something in retail -- probably the easiest course for a woman on her own. I'd also buy an inexpensive portable typewriter and start submitting freelance radio scripts to small stations in hopes of landing a continuity job -- again, a field largely dominated by single women -- and we'd take things from there. In December 1936 I'd apply for a Social Security card the same as any other citizen, and thus get it legitimately. I wouldn't need a drivers license, because in New York city, who drives? That's as far as I've gotten with it, so I'm interested in what other folks might do.

 

[Flicka]

Hmmm... I was thinking along the same lines - 1936 was actually the same year I was pondering. I was also thinking a bigger city, which for Sweden narrows down the selection to one (1) - Stockholm. I know my way around both present day and historical Stockholm, so I think that would be a good idea.

I'm not exactly sure what documentation I would need in Sweden at that point. We didn't get out personal identity numbers until 1947, so that would make it simpler, but I don't think we had birth certificates. We relied on public rolls instead, so if your birth wasn't recorded in them, you could be in a pickle. But if I could get a 'personbevis' instead of a birth certificate, that would be enough, I think. A 'personbevis' is a certified copy of what supposedly is registered about you in the 'church books' where you were born or resided and if you had one of those, you could get registered in a new place (if the public rolls or 'church books' didn't match, I'd be in trouble if someone took the trouble to write to my previous residence/place of birth to check it out, but as long as I seemed respectable, they likely wouldn't do that). I'm 95% sure you could get an ID card or a passport if you had a 'personbevis' and someone was willing to testify to who you were. If I got to the point where I needed one (which I wouldn't straight up), I think that after a while I could scrounge someone up who'd believe they knew who I was.

I do know places you could get used clothes cheaply back then. I don't know the exact addresses, but I do know enough to ask my way to one.

I'd find a place to stay in the Klara part of town, I think. It wasn't a very respectable neighbourhood (but better than say Old Town), but was central and had plenty of guest houses and probably the place where it was least likely that anyone would ask questions.

I was thinking about what I could reasonably do for a living - I'm a lawyer and that really wouldn't do me much good in another era (especially not without a diploma, but honestly, my knowledge wouldn't exactly be up-to-date). Retail or waitressing were the only ideas I had. I could probably manage working us a maid or a nanny, but I'd need personal recommendations for that, I think. Plus going into service is something I'd only do as a last resort.

I think I'd be aiming at learning stenography and brushing up on my typing so that I could get some sort of secretary job or similar. I do know the names of some night schools/correspondence schools in the era, so with enough diligence, that could work out. And then... I think... I think I might try to get a foot through the door at some newspaper, and then try to be allowed to write a piece or two. In fact, I'd probably beg, whine, eff, or kill to do that. It wasn't easy for women journalists (or journalists altogether), but on the other hand, nobody cared about formal education. As long as you were literate and ambitious and didn't frighten easily, you stood a chance. At least I have a huge vocabulary!

I'd love to be a journalist in the 30s and 40s. Absolutely love.

That's as far as I got, but it was a lot of fun!

 

[Big Man]

I'd go back to the Burke/McDowell county area of western North Carolina in the year 1903 and be 25 years old. I'd get a job as an attendant at the State Hospital in Morganton. I was born in Burke County and worked for 30 years at Broughton Hospital (it was called in the early years "the State Hospital"). I know a reasonably amount of the early history of the hospital and surrounding area, so I should be able to "fit in" without too much trouble. By working at the State Hospital, I'd have a place to live, as at that time one of the requirements of employment there was to live at the hospital (room and board was part of your compensation).

Not even taking into consideration the "changing the past thereby altering the future" argument, I'd like to meet and get to know my grandparents who were both working at the State Hospital at that time. Who knows, I may make a career (again) working at the State Hospital, or after a few years there, buy a piece of land with the money I'd saved and go into farming.

 

[The Wolf]

I suppose I would go back to 1946. Try to get work picking apples in Santa Rosa. Use the old chestnut of my luggage was stolen on the train somewhere between San Francisco and Santa Rosa. All I have is the clothes on my back and some emergency money I had pinned inside my vest. Read up on everything in the newspapers at the old stone Carnegie library downtown. I might not bother getting a licence, just use public transportation.
I'd sound my evenings listening to the radio, such as lost episodes of Sam Spade and A Man Called X.

Sincerely,
The Wolf

 

[Pompidou]

I could probably join the Beatnik movement and not stand out too horribly. That said, if there were a time machine right here, right now, I'd probably just max the dial to 12/31/999999999... and try my luck.

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

I'd want to land somewhere out west at about the turn of the century. Maybe Montana or Idaho. I'd of course get some art supplies and paint landscapes and portraits. Also I would go prospecting for gold and gems in places where I already know they would be found.

 

[scottyrocks]

Well, if I could make one small change for myself – ridding myself of diabetes, then I can go from there.

Seeing how I am always drawn to rural life, I would take myself back to the 1930s, probably, to a rural environment and look for work on a ranch. I know how to ride. And herd.

I don’t think I’d need much in documentation. I get the feeling that if you show up and show what you know, then an available job was yours.

Since this is fantasy, my second choice would be to be plopped down in the middle of Bedford Falls. Yes, I know it’s in a movie, but this has always been my idea of the perfect small town. I don’t know if men were commonly teachers back then, but that would be the first place I would look for employment – at the local school. From there, I’d have to see where destiny takes me.

 

[LizzieMaine]

You'd probably have better luck in the West, I think -- to teach in a town the size of Bedford Falls in 1947, you'd need to be able to present educational credentials, if not from a college than from a "Normal School." You might be able to get into a smaller one-room type school in an extremely rural town during that era without such certification -- but you'd still need to have references of some kind. Perhaps after establishing yourself in the West you'd know someone willing to give you a letter of recommendation to the Pine Ridge Board of Education, which might be enough.

Male teachers were not uncommon in the Era, although they were more common in secondary schools than in primary schools -- but secondary schools tended to be more rigorous in the qualifications they'd require.

There was still a lot of "under the table" work going on even after the war -- paid in cash, no questions asked, no Social Security reported, so the ranch idea has much merit.

 

[scottyrocks]

Yes, I guess presenting late 20th century NYC teaching credentials wouldn't go over well in 1930's Bedford Falls.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I'm surprised nobody's yet suggested the Gary Sparrow expedient of making friends with a printer -- someone willing and able to perhaps forge certain necessary and helpful documents. There were plenty of skilled forgers around in the Era -- especially during the war era, when the country was awash in counterfeit ration coupons and the like. It wouldn't have taken too much poking and probing to come up with someone willing to do a little job for a small financial consideration, and since the instant-verification culture of the Internet didn't yet exist there's a pretty good chance you could get away with it. Of course, if you *did* get caught, you'd better have a good backup story ready -- "I'm a time traveler from the 21st Century" might have landed you in what was quaintly known at the time as "the Laughing Academy."

 

[Atticus Finch]

I’m afraid that I would have a tough time making a go of it in any other time than the present. Even if I could blend in, I'm not sure how I would make a living. I doubt that practicing law would be an option. There would be the obvious problems…such as having a post golden era date on my law license, and no yesteryear association with any state bar. But a larger issue would be that the law, itself, evolves quickly enough that in order to practice in the past, I would almost have to “un-learn” the current law from scratch…if that makes any sense.

I don’t know. I’m a half-way decent carpenter. Maybe I could make a living as some house builder’s helper. That might allow me to go about the past relatively un-noticed...if I somehow remembered to keep my mouth shut. And I know enough about the markets that I could probably supplement my living by investing. Especially since I would be able to very accurately predict general rises and falls in those markets...and I would have more than a normal insight as to which assets might do well in the future.

AF

 

[Undertow]

This is a great exercise.

As others have mentioned, starting in a big city would be much easier, and starting west would also help quite a bit. To eliminate the need for an established wardrobe, I'd go somewhere a little warmer, maybe San Francisco. Let's say circa 1937.

I think the most important priority would be three fold - Food, clothing, shelter. I would get a hold of a small efficiency apartment, preferably somewhere uptown where I could hop mass transit and/or walk. I'd purchase some underclothes, a mending kit (aka needle/thread), one extra dress shirt, one alternate ties, a pair of heavy denim jeans, two casual cotton button down shirts, and a pair of decent boots.

Food is going to be difficult. Give a man a fish, feed him for a day? And yes, men can live on bread and water, but they thrive on meat...

So my first choice of employment would be a meat market, a butcher, a fish monger - something low-skilled and which would require nearly no education or credentials. Even if the manager isn't willing to give me mediocre cuts of meat for lunch/dinner, I'll be sure a couple cuts don't get to waste (by placing them in my belongings and cooking them at night over the gas stove).

This should at least establish me for the month. Meanwhile, I'll be looking to befriend various bakers and grocers - fresh foods are often "wasted" when they go stale, so there's nothing wrong with helping out a friend in need, right? I scratch their back, they scratch mine. It's a bit of petty theft, but it gets the world to turn. I'd also be looking into making friends that wouldn't mind acting as references for my future employment chances in offices, etc.

Naturally, my back story would be something of a mystery and I'd keep as such if at all possible. It would include a fire on the family farm destroying everything but what I'd already owned. Seems a cow nocked over a candle in the barn - yep, caught the whole darn farm on fire. Now I just need to get copies of my paperwork is all...