what if you could travel back in time but could never return?

[Paisley]

Women's suffrage advanced more quickly out West than it did in the East. Women were buying homesteads while their eastern sisters were still fighting for the vote.

I too have read Sowell's Odyssey and other works. I gather that he thinks that things like juvenile delinquency, etc. were caused by changes in attitudes and assumptions, not women working.

Some people love staying home a raising a family...it would make me miserable. I do like going to the office and coming home to a nice, quiet house.

 

[jamespowers]

Women's suffrage advanced more quickly out West than it did in the East. Women were buying homesteads while their eastern sisters were still fighting for the vote.

I too have read Sowell's Odyssey and other works. I gather that he thinks that things like juvenile delinquency, etc. were caused by changes in attitudes and assumptions, not women working.

Some people love staying home a raising a family...it would make me miserable. I do like going to the office and coming home to a nice, quiet house.

I didn't say Sowell said anything about women working. His mother had to since his father died when he was young.
I suppose you have the choice of staying single now rather than being thought of as "an old spinster back" then though. There were single women without families then too.

Regards,

J

 

[reetpleat]

I'd have to agree. The materialism in this world has increased exponentially. So the related social problems have worsened at the same pace.
I would be more than happy to let the wife stay home and take care of the home and kids while I went off every day and did my husbandly duty.
I was pretty much raised in this same sort of traditional family environment, and I turned out okay.
I think that both parents being driven to work has had dire consequences for families.

Yes, but now we have more choices. Even the choice to work and let your wife stay home. If you wanted to move down south or to a rural area, work hard and live with the kind of amentities they had back in the day, work hard at home too and even live off the land, you could do fine. We don't need to embrace the materialism of today.

 

[HadleyH]

C'mon now folks!

Work or not work I'm still going to use my return ticket to th 20s.:rage: lol

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

Work or not work I'm still going to use my return ticket to th 20s.:rage: lol

Come with me to Egypt and help me dig for antiquities. Nice work if ya can get it.

 

[reetpleat]

since there would be no comming back, I would take my life savings back in time with me and retire

because with the value of a dollar being much more back in the old days, I would be a very rich man if I went back with all my money

and I could research what to invest my money in before going back

so I would be assured of making money

Good luck trying to spend your new notes. Of course, you could buy antique coins, but that might set you back a bit. Better just take your knowledge or gold.

 

[reetpleat]

Just tell the folks at the bank that your uncle was a miner or something, left you all this bullion in his will. Take all your vintage hats and clothes too.

Are you kidding. Do you think I am going to bust my ass to aquire a bunch of old wore out expensive mediocre vintage clothes, and work my ass off to buy a restored car/

When I hit 1945 I am going to finance a new cadillac convertible, then heading straight to Macys for some spectators, belted back suits, white floannel slacks and then of to the Stetson shop for a few nice numbers.

 

[MrNewportCustom]

Stay for good? Not on your life!

If I could go back in time, I'd visit the twenties, thirties and forties on a regular basis. And knowing how the theory of time travel works, it'd be like travelling on comedian Steven Wright's "Air Bizarre, where you leave on Monday and return on Friday. . . . That way, you still have the weekend.

I'd go back to experience the life of the past; drive the cars, taste the food, and visit with such people as Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler and other detective/noir writers, and learn all I can from them. I'd also try to get in on the Algonquin Round Table and chat with Robert Benchley and Harpo Marx. That'd be fun! Learning everything I could from them would be a boon to my mystery and humor writing.

I've often seen myself working in my home, sitting at a keyboard or improving my photography, rather than the forty-hour-a-week warehouse toil I currently endure for minor ducats. I love being at home - a homebody, as NicolettaRose said - and would rather be here where I can better control my future and my environmrent (air conditioning is another reason I'd not want to stay in the past.)

In short, I would use my trips to the past for relaxation and improving myself and my writing skills. But I wouldn't want to stay. Not for more than a week or two.


Lee
_________________________

"Say what you will about me! I comprehend very little of it anyway!" - The Tick

 

[Paisley]

I think if Marc Chevalier were here, he'd advise us to go to Chile.

 

[Aloysius]

I'd be a Saracen.

 

[Lincsong]

Most any era before the 1980's. Women still marry creeps, but at least, if they are violent creeps, they have a fair to middling chance of getting help and getting away from them. Women still get exploited today, it is a fast-paced world and frightening sometimes. Sometimes I think people haven't learned much of anything.karol

What about the men who married creeps? The men who were drafted only to get a letter from their wives that "you won't believe this, a beautiful baby was left on the doorstep. I decided to keep her. And can you believe that she has my eyes and nose?" or the Men whose wives demanded the paycheck and gave him an "allowance". Or the wives who told their husbands; "don't think I'm going to go to work, you will have to get a second job, and don't even think of buying a new car every two years, because I'm not going to allow that. A new hat??? Where are you getting the money for a new hat?". Both sexes can marry creeps.

 

[Lincsong]

January 20 1953 to January 20 1961. The Eisenhower years. The economy was expanding faster than at anytime since the 1920's. I like the music, the cars, the homes and the clothes better. The professions were easier to get into, unlike today where the regulations make it very difficult to pass the bar, get licensed etc. Businesses were less regulated and easier to start up. But, the taxes were burdensome as all heck.:rage: In the movie Hole in the Head where the narrator describes the three men he says of one; "he's so rich he paid over $1 million in taxes"

In reading some of the flashback pieces in Forbes magazine (I'm a 14 year subscriber so don't ask me which issue) some of the articles from back in the late teens and twenties lamented that too many women were entering the workforce, putting off marriage and being career oriented. So getting married, staying home and such was more an upper middle class thing that the children of doctors, lawyers, engineers enjoyed not necessarily an option afforded to the factory workers.

This reminds me of the incident of the man in Poland who went into a coma in 1987 and just came out of the coma. He was transported through time.

In any era, people have to deal with the cards dealt with them, and make the most of the opportunities afforded. Even today, let any schmuck from off the street walk into a private club in San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, New York City or Malibu and see if all those "enlightened" folks of today who talk of "equality" and "fairness" and who despise the past are welcoming and accomodating to him in their private clubs or will they quickly point him in the direction of the service entrance? Some of the most homogeneous places in America at this minute are zip codes in Marin County, Oakland, Berkeley, San Francisco, Malibu, Aspen and New York City.

 

[Fletch]

After reading my hometown paper on microfilm, if I really couldn't ever come back, I think I'd pick Ames, Iowa, in the 1930s. In many ways, I got the feeling, it was a lot like Ames today, just smaller, slower, and folksier. I could handle it fine.

Being a college town, it was a relatively enlightened place, worlds away from the strife and upheaval of the day. Of course everybody was a little poorer than they had been, but they were a self-reliant bunch, and no one starved.

There was even a little progress.

Main Street at 12:30 a.m., 1929, showing off the new "electroliers" (lights to us). No, of course they still rolled up the sidewalks at eight.

Main Street by day in 1930. The Tilden Store was a locally owned and operated department store and grocery that also ran a small clothing factory. The streetcar line to Iowa State campus had just been replaced by buses in '29. But we thought that was progress at the time.

Lincoln Way at Grand Ave. (JCT US 30 & 69), 1936. Looks peaceful, but this was a grade level crossing of the Chicago & North Western R.R. and the junction of a primary east-west and north-south highway. Every few years some knucklehead would try to beat the train. I'm not sure they all made it. [huh]

The same intersection in 1938. It's still there except for one of the two railroad bridges.

Main Street again in 1939, looking the other way (towards the municipal powerplant.) It looks a lot like this today, except the storefronts and the cars are tackier, and the powerplant is loads bigger, with condensers and the like.

George Shuey's Iowa State dance band of 1933. They look like they could kick it out, tho ISC was a fairly bluenosed place at the time and sweet 'n slow probably made up most of the playlist.

Bandshell Park, built in 1935 with the help of the WPA, was the pride of the community. The Bandshell was described by prominent copnductors as the best facility of its kind in the country at the time. I just played there with the Municipal Band last week!

 

[K.D. Lightner]

I know some men who married creeps, broke their hearts, sent them "dear John" letters, ran off with other guys, left the guy with little children to raise, etc.

There have been bad marriage choices in all of history. It is just somewhat less difficult today (but still difficult) for women to get away from men who are physically abusive.

In my mother's day, the woman could do so if she had a strong support system, i.e. big, strong brothers. And if she told the truth.

karol

 

[Nashoba]

I don't think I would go if I couldn't come back. I would definately go back to the 40's though but only if my husband went with me.
I found it interesting all the comments made about women's rights though. I was laid off from the police dept I was working for 2 months before I got married in 2002. I was 21 and that was the last job I held outside of my home. My husband is very traditional and while if I wanted to go back to work outside the home he wouldn't stop me, he really does feel that he is responsible for being the 'breadwinner'. I do run my home, the finances, and my schedule. And I also run a successful business from my home and volunteer (pretty much full time) for the Marine Corps. My mother worked full time when I was growing up and I was a latch key kid. She had a hard time when my husband and I decided I wouldn't find a new job after I stopped dispatching. She felt that she had worked so hard to show me that women could be successful in the workplace but that she regretted she couldn't have been around more when I was a kid. I told her that I respected her for teaching me that I could do anything I wanted, but reminded her that I had a choice. It means more to me in this day in age that I have a choice as to whether or not I want to work outside the home. Though my husband would never stop me from working, I really enjoy the freedom that being a housewife affords me. I am able to travel on a moment's notice which has come in handy helping friends going through nasty divorces or needing to be moved out in a hurry. My husband makes decent money, we certainly aren't rich but we have a roof over our heads, heat in the winter, a/c in the summer, food on the table and there is love in our home. I don't think that my marraige would be as strong as it is or I would be as happy as I am if both of us worked simply to maintain a higher standard of living with more expensive things. I understand that cost of living varies depending on where you live. That's part of why we left California. And while I miss it, I'll never look back. I think it all comes down to what works for each person. There are days when I think about going back to work, but I have so much opportunity and freedom now that I'm not sure I would want to.

 

[Foofoogal]

http://homeparents.about.com/cs/familyfinances/a/bothwork.htm?terms=earn+money+working+from+home

While I do understand sometimes it is necessary for both people to work I do believe the choice is not as easy as it used to be and this is where I personally fault womens lib. Gloria Steinem is a member of the Socialist party and while I have no way of knowing if regrets are in order I think it was Pollyana thinking at best gone so awry. Current statistics speak for themselves on the family state.

There has always been bad women and good women, bad men and good men.
I saw a show one time that it cost a women at least $18,000.00 a year to go to work with day care, clothing, gasoline, car costs and stopping off to get fast food. This was quite a few years back and the closest thing I could find was the link above.
With the internet hopefully choice truly can be given to women now.
http://www.fathersforlife.org/pizzey/anti_fem.htm

 

[Paisley]

I know some men who married creeps, broke their hearts, sent them "dear John" letters, ran off with other guys, left the guy with little children to raise, etc.

There have been bad marriage choices in all of history. It is just somewhat less difficult today (but still difficult) for women to get away from men who are physically abusive.

In my mother's day, the woman could do so if she had a strong support system, i.e. big, strong brothers. And if she told the truth.

karol

This makes me think of the spoof of the song "Pennies from Heaven" called "Benny's from Heaven." "I know Benny's from heaven 'cause Benny's not from me."

When my sister's husband hit her, our brother cleaned his clock...only to find out he hit her because she'd been running around. Sometimes creeps marry each other.

 

[Erik]

So many interesting times to choose from...

I'd go back, try to meet Jesus, and turn my attentions toward where ever catches my fancy. There aren't many poor choices wandering from that region.

 

[NicolettaRose]

I would no go anywhere. I like living in 2007.

 

[Diamondback]

Ditto--I'm too dependent on technology--who knows if 1940s electricity would run my laptop, never mind the spare-parts problems!