whats the closest thing to Traveling back in Time? to get a feel of times past?

[green papaya]

Since actual time travel is not possible yet, whats the closest thing you can do to get a feeling of what it must have been like back then?

here are a few things I can think of that kind of make me get the feeling of going back in time:

1. Old photos, old movies, it's a true a picture is worth a thousand words, even old paintings or drawings, but actual photos really capture the moment and memories can last a lifetime.

2. listening to old radio or news casts from the golden era

3. collecting historical artifacts and holding them and feeling the history, it's like owing a piece of history

4. revisiting old historic places, old buildings, old childhood home or places you havent been to in years will bring back old memories, family trips you use to go a long time ago.

5. thinking about the foods your grandma or parents use to make, or trying to recreate the same foods from old family recipes.

6. Living history, actually dressing up in the clothing styles or historical military uniforms for reenactments.

7. collecting and firing old surplus or historical firearms, and experiencing the feel and enjoyment, kind of like bringing the old warhorse back to life.

8. restoring old cars and try to make them like they use to be and preserving the history and get that feeling of nostalgia.

 

[Stanley Doble]

Depending where you go in the world you could find yourself in a society that is 20, 100, even 1000 years behind the times.

In natural settings you could find places the same as they were millions of years ago.

 

[Stearmen]

Ride the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad. For that Golden Age feel, take a ride in an open cockpit biplane, over farm land!

 

[BobHufford]

Get on the "Naked and Afraid" reality show ...

 

[vitanola]

Sit in the living room and listen to H. V. Kaltenborn on the Radiola, or put a new roll on the Pianola.

 

[2jakes]

I went to visit my 4th grade elementary classroom
which surprisingly is still standing in the neighborhood
where I grew up.

Although the wooden desks & floors with the blackboard
& greenboard were still there.


The whole room appeared so tiny
as if shrunken with time.

I bent down to tie my shoe laces.

Looking up--- I noticed the room was
now the size as I remembered as a kid.

I began to notice details around the classroom.

The odor of pencil sharpener shavings,
brown book covers, crayola colored drawings
on manilla paper of pilgrims & Thanksgiving
feast pinned to the cork bulletin board,
bottles of Elmers glue, the school bell clanging
for recess or lunch-time,

faded initials carved on old varnished desks
of long ago loves.

...and I was once again back with my classmates ....
in the fall of 1955.

 

[St.Ignatz]

Go to a real barber shop. Get a real haircut and a hot towel shave. Now get your shoes shined and have a cup of coffee at a counter with maybe a piece of hot apple pie with a slice of orange cheese on top. Ah the good life.

Tom D.

 

[de Stokesay]

+1 for the barber shop. I actually get my hair cut in one of these establishments every three weeks, but don't get the shave done there. I do this myself at home using one of my ivory-handled, 19th century straight razors or my WWI-vintage Gilette open-comb safety razor. This too fits the bill for a time travel experience, as does writing with my 1937 Parker Vacumatic fountain pen (which I do every day), or paying for goods in a store with actual currency notes, not plastic.

de Stokesay

 

[LizzieMaine]

Defrost your refrigerator.

Chip a bar of Fels-Naptha into an old Miracle Whip jar with a cheese grater.

Gap your points.

Copy your letters with carbon paper.

Organize a sit-down strike.

 

[Fading Fast]

Defrost your refrigerator. - It might be cheating, but I found a hand-held hair dryer makes it so much easier

Chip a bar of Fels-Naptha into an old Miracle Whip jar with a cheese grater.

Gap your points.

Copy your letters with carbon paper. - I do not miss this one bit, never anything but messy

Organize a sit-down strike.

------------

 

[LizzieMaine]

Go on the Ration Book diet.

Limit yourself to three gallons of gasoline a week.

Make your own clothing. Patch it when it gets worn. When you can't use it anymore, cut it down to fit your kids.

When your sheets wear out, cut them lengthwise, hem the cut edges, unhem the former edges and sew those edges together, and continue to use them.

Don't buy anything you can scavenge for free.

Use It Up, Wear It Out, Make It Do -- Or Do Without.

 

[hatsRme]

Use It Up, Wear It Out, Make It Do -- Or Do Without.

This must be an old New England thrifty yankee expression. I heard it many times growing up in VT, and then drove my own kids crazy with such philosophies. Thanks, Lizzie,,

 

[green papaya]

try not using your air conditioner for a summer during a heat wave and experience what it was like back in the good old days

also make sure to remain fully dressed with slacks , suits, hat, and long dress for women, no ankles showing

I heard some people only bathed once a week, usually on a Saturday night or Sunday

 

[Rudie]

Past life regression. It's a revivification of a previous life. It's not the same for everyone, but there are people who get a very detailed experience, including the visuals.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I heard some people only bathed once a week, usually on a Saturday night or Sunday

You say that like it's a bad thing. Saves water.

 

[green papaya]

also since they didnt have air conditioning back in the Old days , they used to build houses with extra high ceilings so the warm air would rise and help keep the temperature a little cooler, I use to live in an old wooden two story house built back in the 1870's- 1880's and the temperature was extra hot upstairs during the summer, so we had to sleep downstairs during the summer to try and keep cool

and the walls had no insulation , so it was very cold and drafty during the winter, I remember going to the dining room on a cold day and you could see condensation when you breath or talk because it was almost like being outside.

some of the doors still had the old skeleton keys, so living in an old house is kinda like experiencing some of the past or old days.

 

[2jakes]

My grandmother’s house had high ceilings & windows with one rotating GE fan.
But growing up without a/c system in the house, I didn’t know the difference.
The breeze from the window was fine.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Nobody here has central AC in their house --- if anybody has it at all, it's a shabby old window unit covered with bird crap they bought at Sears in 1987. We don't need it in a part of the world where the temperature rarely rises above 80, and then only for a couple of weeks each summer. I still use an electric fan with a bowl of ice cubes in front of it.

 

[2jakes]

..... I use an electric fan with a bowl of ice cubes in front of it.

Same principle --- different location.

I have ample room inside the grill section where I apply the bags
to keep her cool when the average is 98º to 100º in the summer.

 

[vitanola]

Go on the Ration Book diet.

Limit yourself to three gallons of gasoline a week.

Make your own clothing. Patch it when it gets worn. When you can't use it anymore, cut it down to fit your kids.

When your sheets wear out, cut them lengthwise, hem the cut edges, unhem the former edges and sew those edges together, and continue to use them.

Don't buy anything you can scavenge for free.

Use It Up, Wear It Out, Make It Do -- Or Do Without.

A more prosaic "Feeling of traveling back". This afternoon I was stacking and ironing table linens on the Mangle. Not a particularly favorite occupation, but a necessary one.