Would you rather live then or now?

[Wild Root]

Yeah, that would be nice! I would miss my family and dear friends if I was to leave for a long stay in the past. So, I feel there is a good reason why I was sent to earth at this time and place. I just feel I missed out on a great generation.

Root.

 

[Angelicious]

As many have said so far, I'd like to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there...

If I'd been born there, great. But going back..? I'd lose much of what gives my life meaning.

1) Assuming everything is transported "as is", with no magic fairytale wand that makes everything perfect, I'd be ostracised as an unwed mother. Poor, non-Christian from an Irish-Catholic family, often-outspoken, opinionated, stubborn, lacking that calm sweetness that's considered "ladylike" in most modern periods of history... All my check boxes are empty in the Golden Era Lady Of Quality test. Maybe I would have made an okay guy at the time...

2) At that time, it's almost certain I wouldn't have had the chance to go to University - and I love study!

3) Assuming I did somehow go to university, I would have been studying something "appropriate" for a lady - certainly not Political Science, and if I somehow could have studied it, I wouldn't have been allowed to apply it in a practical way. There goes my membership in the NZ Institute of International Affairs!

4) Most stories I have from friends/family on their time in the 30s/40s centre around ignorance/innocence. Maybe it's just me, but I like having worlds of ideas and information at my fingertips! I can see the attraction of the simplicity and peace that goes with a quieter, slower lifestyle, but sacrificing knowledge and creativity for parochialism just doesn't ring my bell. I like informed choice better than uninformed assumption.

5) Many of the things that attract me from that era are things I can choose to incorporate into my current life - I can be slower, peaceful, stylish, polite, straightforward, etc. if I choose. If the world around me isn't so, that's only my problem if I let it be.

I study many eras of history anyway - I'd be no more likely to fit in the 1930/40s full time than any other time or place I study. (Am I making the assumption I "fit in" in the 2000s?)

 

[Quigley Brown]

If you were given the chance to travel back to the 30s you would have to know beforehand that once you did you would not remember the future. There's those science fiction stories where people traveled back with the knowledge of the future and affected the future by making slight changes (accidently or not). Remember the Star Trek episode where Bones goes back to the 30s and falls in love with the peace advocate woman (played by Joan Collins)? Spock and Jim go back to find him and create a microfilm machine that shows future newspaper headlines. She's supposed to die. If Bones prevents her death the woman's peace advocacy keeps the U.S. from entering WW2 and Hitler would take over Europe. So bringing your knowledge of the Internet back to the 30s could have an effect on the future.

 

[missjo]

I think that if timetravel is ever possible its only possible between 2 (or more) stations, so you wouldnt be able to travel back in time before that first station was build.
I also think that history is unchangeable, so you could go back in time to try and change the future, but it didnt change so we already know you either didnt travel back in time or simply failed.
And if timetravel is ever possible you would probably be more of a tourist, an observer then someone who really interacts with the past.

But if...and...maybe...I'd go back to 1930s london with the results of a few dograces memorized and then make some money at the races...

 

[scotrace]

Now

Because we can live in the present, and visit the past. We do it every day. Root is a great example.
If I had lived in 1935, I'd be in a wheelchair and diapers for life. As it is, I'm perfectly fine, fit and healthy, thanks to modern surgical techniques.
In 1935, one of my children would have serious, life-threatening difficulties that are easily managed today.
Typhoid, polio, whooping cough, tuberculosis. All more far-reaching than AIDS.
And I'm not giving up the ability to, for example, talk to Paddy or BellyTank instantly and FREE, in exchange for snail mail only. Not to mention my iPod. Thousands of golden era songs, not just the ten discs I can afford in 1935. And if I get the notion, I can put a 78 on my Victrola and hear the original sound anyway. (AND, if I want, I can put an Edison Cylinder on one of my other phonographs to hear what 1900 sounded like)
I can watch Cab Calloway sing and the Nicholas Brothers dance on my computer anytime I please. All absolutely astonishing!
But.
Back then you get:
Trains! MUCH more attractive cars! Hat stores! Betting on Seabiscuit live! Women in seamed hose and actual lingerie!
Still, all things considered, he 21st century is the place to be, if I can't be in the 25th...
Because we can enjoy the best of all worlds, and welcome all races, religions and cultures to the table.

 

[Michaelson]

The town I grew up in essentially did not change from the 30's until the mid 60's, so I grew up in spirit and practice of the time period. That said, I could comfortably get along in the 30's simply because I was raised with the simple pleasures of getting lost in a book for entertainment...listening to the radio and letting my imagination fill in the details...I've got a diversity of interests, so I could have been either a railroader, watchmaker, gunsmith, or car mechanic, as I've been learning a lot of tricks with my 1950, and they were pretty simple mechanical items, as well as gardening, so I could have farmed with no problem, raising my own food. I've been doing that since I was a kid.

What I WOULD miss would be air conditioning. I was raised in a pre Victorian house that had no a/c until after I left for college, and I have NO fond rememberances of laying in a perspiration soaked bed in the summer heat until I passed out from exhaustion every night. But, you DID enjoy those cold breezes that escaped from shop doors when you walked downtown, so the simple pleasures were really enjoyed to the max...those things we flat take for granted now, or completely ignore. THAT'S why the kids are so bored today...the simple pleasures mean nothing now, and THAT'S what we've lost.

So, I'm on the fense on this one, I'm afraid, as I don't have to imagine what it was like....but would I want to go back?....

Regards! Michaelson

 

[missjo]

1. I would not be going through the actual Depression Era

Sort of depends where you lived and your background, changes are the depression didnt influence your life that much or actually made it better.
Not everyone was unemployed.

2. I would not have a sweetheart doing battle in WWII

True, but there are enough wars going on at this moment your sweetheart could be fighting in and back then the reasons he was fighting for might have at least been better.

3. I have the computor

True, I love my pc too but on the other hand, I think it wouldnt take long for me to learn to live without one again.

4. My Job will be here when the war is over if I choose it to be.

Good point, of course it depends on the kind of job you had and wanted.
Mind you, I want to go back to the 1930's, IF I decide to stay trough the waryears as well, I'd leave in 1945.

5. I can wear flats, open toed shoes with unpainted toenails, no stockings, go out with wet hair, wear trousers, not wear a girdle (especailly when I'm pregnant some day), not wear lipstick,

For lowerclass people this was very common, especially when war came.
As a wartime housewife I wear any shoe I can get my hands on (even mensshoes after 1944, even wooden shoes and shoes made of car tires), stockings are impossible to get a hold off (mind you I love wearing stockings!), and without stockings you dont need a girdle (I dont mind them at all) and lipstick was a luxery, a friend of mine had one single lipstick for the entire year of 1943!

have no petroleum on my eyelids,

What was that for?

not sleep in curlers, not have it electrically curled... on and on and on...

Well it all depends on your style, if you want to look pretty a certain way you have to suffer.
I have long straight hair, never had a curler, ever, simplyu put it up with a few pins, 3 minutes of work everyday, easy!

6. I have an electric vaccum cleaner, refrigerator, dish washer, and cleaning aids.

I also have a electric vacuum cleaner...from the 1930's!
Mind you I usually use the broom, much faster, even then my modern vacuum cleaner.
People back then did have a fridge, here in Amsterdam even more then in many other cities, but people back then didnt really need one anyway.
Shops in every street, fresh goods everyday.
I've never had a dishwasher in my life.
Cleaning aids?

7. If I want to watch my favorite classic movies I can put them in my DVD player as often as I want, AND pause them if I have to go to the bathroom.

True, that was a unheard of luxery back then, only the superrich and famous could do that with film.
Mind you, going to the cinema wasnt as much a pain as it is today.

10. I have an electric machine that does straight stitch, zig zag, decorative stitches, and another one that finished my edge seams

Yes but back then most of us would have learned how to do that ourself and it would have been MUCH cheaper to have someone make clothes for you.

11. It is normal for a woman to drive a car

In big cities of western countries women drivers werent that uncommon.

12. Childbirth

I dont want children but yes today its less dangerous and painfull to have babies.

14. I have the option to travel back and forth between time eras with little difficulty (do you really think the people in the 30's and 40's had regency, 1700s, renaissance, and victorian re-enactments with any form of accuracy?)

They thought they were accurate, Ive read articles on a people trying to live as they did in prehistoric times but according to what they thought that era was like with their 1930's brains, nothing like what it was like according to what we think it was.
But yes, proper great reenactment thingies was rather unheard of back then.

1) Assuming everything is transported "as is", with no magic fairytale wand that makes everything perfect, I'd be ostracised as an unwed mother. Poor, non-Christian from an Irish-Catholic family, often-outspoken, opinionated, stubborn, lacking that calm sweetness that's considered "ladylike" in most modern periods of history... All my check boxes are empty in the Golden Era Lady Of Quality test. Maybe I would have made an okay guy at the time...

Well this would have depended on where you lived, being a unwed mother like many you could have simply moved to a new town and changes are nobody would know you there, nobody would find out about your past and you could tell everyone a more acceptable story about why there was no husband.
And being the way you are you would have been very welcome in most areas of big cities, not a lady perhaps but a woman of the people, you would have been queen of the neighbourhood.

4) Most stories I have from friends/family on their time in the 30s/40s centre around ignorance/innocence. Maybe it's just me, but I like having worlds of ideas and information at my fingertips! I can see the attraction of the simplicity and peace that goes with a quieter, slower lifestyle, but sacrificing knowledge and creativity for parochialism just doesn't ring my bell. I like informed choice better than uninformed assumption.

Yes both ways of live have their good and bad sides, I like knowing a lot but on the other hand it can be very unpleasant to know about everything thats going on in far away countries, not bein able to do anything about it.
There are plenty of things on CNN I something wish I hadnt known about or hadnt seen.
Also I think that if I had lived in a big city I wouldnt have felt I had to sacrifivey knowledge and creativity.

 

[missjo]

Because we can live in the present, and visit the past. We do it every day. Root is a great example.
If I had lived in 1935, I'd be in a wheelchair and diapers for life. As it is, I'm perfectly fine, fit and healthy, thanks to modern surgical techniques.

If I was born only a few years earlier I wouldnt have lived to see my first birthday, VERY modern techniques saved my life.
On the other hand they are now using Medieval techniques again to heal people..

And I'm not giving up the ability to, for example, talk to Paddy or BellyTank instantly and FREE, in exchange for snail mail only.

I also love being able to talk to people all over the world, back then though I would have known more people in my own street.
Today I know people living from far away countries, back then I would have known my neighbours...

Not to mention my iPod. Thousands of golden era songs,

Yes thats very nice indeed but back then you could also hear them on the radio all the time and in cafes and bars everywhere.
And of course having it not at your fingtertips can be part of the charme.
I remember saving my pocketmoney to buy a record for the first time, I had heard it on the radio a few times and loved it.
The magical feeling of owning the record and then playing it as often as you wanted, lovely!

not just the ten discs I can afford in 1935.

Second hand they werent so expensive and many people traded them.

Trains! MUCH more attractive cars!

Ah yes, they looked so nice!
were in a vicious circle, we had nice traincars, to avoid them getting dirty and vandalized we made them more practical and cheaper, now people dont like them anymore and care less about making them dirty or vandalizing them, so we keep making them more and more practical...
I wonder what would happen if we would go back to very nice traincars, would people stop vandalizing them?

Hat stores!

Hurrah for those!
Ive got one here in Amsterdam, sadly the hats are too modern.
They also make 1920s reproduction hats and have nice gentlemans hats, but toooo expensive.

Women in seamed hose and actual lingerie!

hey we need something to keep our stockings up afterall

Because we can enjoy the best of all worlds, and welcome all races, religions and cultures to the table.

Mmmh personally I could do with a tabel without any religions and I wouldnt miss other cultures very much.
Either way, the big cities of its time had their fair share of other cultures, religions, etc.
My wee country was especially tolerant towards people with other lifestyles.

 

[Quigley Brown]

Well, if you went back to WW2 with the knowledge you have today would you do your best to try and warn the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (perhaps through the press) to leave their cities before the A-bomb is dropped? (they both get obliterated, but there are not as many human casualties) Or would you just be an 'observer' looking good in your suits, ties and hats and driving a fine 1940s automobile?

 

[missjo]

Well, if you went back to WW2 with the knowledge you have today would you do your best to try and warn the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (perhaps through the press) to leave their cities before the A-bomb is dropped? (they both get obliterated, but there are not as many human casualties) Or would you just be an 'observer' looking good in your suits, ties and hats and driving a fine 1940s automobile?

Depends on if one could use history at all, I think one cant.
But yes, being there at that time I would have tried to avoid civilian casualties whereever I could.
Difficult to see how I could warn the japanese, the emperor wouldnt even meet me, his civilians wouldnt care about a mad european woman running about the place warning them and the allies wouldnt take my warnings serious either, they probably would arrest me for being a spy.

 

[PrettyBigGuy]

Now, definately, now!

I agree with the "rose colored glasses" comment about how we see "the Golden Era". When one is unsatisfied or feels helpless to change things that they don't like about the present, glorifying another time is not uncommon. Why do you think romance novels and costume dramas are so popular!
Now, me being a caucasian male and good American, I would have gone off to war like 2 of my great uncles did (my grandfather and his 3rd brother were both machinists and more useful for the war machine stateside). If I made it home alive and reasonably intact there was a good living to be made, but the threat of the diseases mentioned in other posts were always around.
But, as some of the ladies have posted, there were all kinds of social constraints to put up with (See Lauren Henline's post! Yikes!). For people of other ethinic groups such as blacks and asians things were still pretty horrible in the "Golden Era" and the only civil rights that these people received were when someone signalled before turning their car to the right!
It's great to have The Fedora Lounge so that we can discuss the finer points of the old days, but before you head back o 1938 in Doc Brown's DeLorean, make sure you have a roundtrip ticket because it wasn't all cool cars, big bands and Lindy Hoppin' cuties!
PBG

 

[Lauren]

I posted my answer to the question and I meant no offense to those who would rather live in the past. We were asked for our opinions and it seems to me we should have been free to express them without critique. I would like to say, however, that I gave a general spectrum of the late 20's through the 1940's. I suppose I should have read the question more carefully

Wildroot and missjoeri, In speaking of pants I meant the early 1930's, which I'm sure you know that the average women would not have worn pants except in the case of beachwear and loungewear (like pajamas). And I would choose stockings over leg paint. If I were lower class and the clothing I stated was used I certainly would not have had any electric conveniences that I posted. My grandparents still had an icebox, and many vaccum cleaners were pushed around to collect dirt, not electric. And I do recall in an earlier post that it was not common for women to drive themselves. I admit that none of my reasons are ultimatums, but denying that they existed in some form between the 20's and 40's is silly.

 

[missjo]

For people of other ethinic groups such as blacks and asians things were still pretty horrible in the "Golden Era" and the only civil rights that these people received were when someone signalled before turning their car to the right!

Quite right, mind you racism like you had in america right up to the 1960's was something we didnt see much overhere, the few blacks we had were rather populair and exotic.
We had many people from other cultures living here but besides the common racist remarks they had pretty much the same rights everyone else had.
But I realise it was pretty special and just plain luck for them who lived in Holland.

It's great to have The Fedora Lounge so that we can discuss the finer points of the old days, but before you head back o 1938 in Doc Brown's DeLorean, make sure you have a roundtrip ticket because it wasn't all cool cars, big bands and Lindy Hoppin' cuties!
PBG

Well its not just the cool cars, music and men I like about that era, but I do agree that many people only look at the glamourous side of that era.
Living the common retro life quickly cures that.

 

[missjo]

I posted my answer to the question and I meant no offense to those who would rather live in the past. We were asked for our opinions and it seems to me we should have been free to express them without critique. I would like to say, however, that I gave a general spectrum of the late 20's through the 1940's. I suppose I should have read the question more carefully

When discussing a subject I thought it would be okay to have a look at a few points and share my opinion, i wasnt offended and didnt mean to be critical!
Just sharing my ideas about certain subjects, I apoligize if it came over a bit pushy or rude.

Wildroot and missjoeri, In speaking of pants I meant the early 1930's, which I'm sure you know that the average women would not have worn pants except in the case of beachwear and loungewear (like pajamas).

Yes, I havent worn pants in ages, wouldnt miss them much

And I would choose stockings over leg paint.

I love stockings, wear them everyday.
Before the war they were pretty cheap, leg paint is more a ww2 thing and by then (at least here) bare legs and socks were quite acceptable for women.

If I were lower class and the clothing I stated was used I certainly would not have had any electric conveniences that I posted.

Quite true, but most items we cant do without today werent much needed for most back then.
We cant live wiuthout a refrigirator, many would have found it hard to understand why they would need one.

My grandparents still had an icebox, and many vaccum cleaners were pushed around to collect dirt, not electric.

Yes I know those as well, luckily here in Holland the government started promoting the use of electrical apliances and they became cheaper and cheaper and even available for the middle-lower-classes.
But I could do without one, even in my 1930's dusty household, I rarely use it.

And I do recall in an earlier post that it was not common for women to drive themselves.

I think there were just not many cars, also the situation would differ from country to country.
I think overhere people in the late 1930s wouldnt look up if a woman drive by.

 

[K.D. Lightner]

A lot of women were not socialized or encouraged here in the States to drive cars. At least not in the midwest. My mother did not learn to drive until she was 40, went to work, and felt she needed to learn. Many of her female relatives and friends did not. She had an ongoing battle with my father, who did not want her to drive, either.

Years later, when my father was sick, guess who drove him back and forth to doctor's appointments, rehab therapy, to the store, to relatives, etc., etc.? And guess what happened to those non-driving women who outlived their husbands? They had to sell their homes and move into the city, or go live with their kids. My mother is 86, lives alone, at least for now, and still drives.

When I was a wee thing, my parents had an ice box, a coal burning stove in the living room, an outdoor toilet, and no phone. Mother did not have a washing machine for years, she had a washboard and tub, just as her mother had. My parents weren't poor -- my father was hard-working, lower middle class and cheap.

Re: time travel, a favorite subject of mine as I like time-travel sci fi stories, remember there is always a moral in those stories: don't mess with folks back then, you could be changing history for the worse by trying to better it. It would be a temptation to meddle and you would almost feel a moral obligation to do so.

Missjoeri touched on something I once read about time travel from Steven Hawking. He said he could prove that time travel would never be possible, ever. When asked how he knew such a thing he stated because no one from the future has ever come back to visit us.

Of course, maybe they have and -- here's the other part of it both for visitors coming to us and we traveling to other eras, past or future -- like Cassandra of old, no one will believe us!

karol

 

[Biltmore Bob]

If one could travel back in time the whole time space continuum thingee would be damaged just by the appearance of the individual.

 

[missjo]

If one could travel back in time the whole time space continuum thingee would be damaged just by the appearance of the individule.

Yes unless they discover a machine that stops that from happening

But if I went back in time people wouldnt notice me, besides me being tall (im 6ft) I'd blend in.
Silently look around, make photos, notes and make sure to be in the right place at the right time to be a witness of something important happening.
I guess that if timetravel is already going on we wouldnt spot the time-tourists either.
Then again...who knows how many of them are locked up in out mental hospitals?

 

[Angelicious]

As a wartime housewife I wear any shoe I can get my hands on (even mensshoes after 1944, even wooden shoes and shoes made of car tires),

As late as 1968 my mother was wearing shoes mended with car tyres, and was teased mercilessly for it. I applaud those who can make do with little, but it's not something I would actively choose.

and lipstick was a luxery, a friend of mine had one single lipstick for the entire year of 1943!

*L* An entire year? I rarely have a lipstick last less then a year...

In big cities of western countries women drivers werent that uncommon.

Here in NZ they were fairly uncommon. I recall my grandmother was considered "fast" and innappropriately independent because she eventually got her license.

I was 15 when my mother got her license. I still don't have mine, for various reasons. Being without a car is fine - if you have an on-call chauffeur or a brilliant public transport service.

Well this would have depended on where you lived, being a unwed mother like many you could have simply moved to a new town and changes are nobody would know you there, nobody would find out about your past and you could tell everyone a more acceptable story about why there was no husband.

That sounds convenient, but blows the whole "Life in the 30s/40s was more wholesome because you still had extended family & values like honesty and integrity" theory out of the water.. I'd hate to have to give up my life to pretend to be someone else. I hate lying in general.

Also, I'm speaking as someone in a country with a population smaller than that of London - and it would have been even smaller in the 30s/40s. "Nobody knows you there" doesn't apply very well.

And being the way you are you would have been very welcome in most areas of big cities, not a lady perhaps but a woman of the people, you would have been queen of the neighbourhood.

Thank you! I do see what you mean - I could have done it, but it wouldn't be something I'd happily choose.

Yes both ways of live have their good and bad sides, I like knowing a lot but on the other hand it can be very unpleasant to know about everything thats going on in far away countries, not bein able to do anything about it.

I like to think I can do something about it, however small. That's why I'm studying the subjects I am, and have joined the groups I've joined.

If I didn't know about things like war crimes, corruption, and injustice, then I couldn't study them and search for ways to improve the situation.

Also I think that if I had lived in a big city I wouldnt have felt I had to sacrifivey knowledge and creativity.

Well, as I said, I live in a small country which was even smaller at the time. In some ways NZers have always been freer than their British (and sometimes even European or American) counterparts - but in other ways, we are only just finding our freedom, independence, and creativity with the turn of the millennium.

Thank you for your thoughts, Missjoeri.

 

[MK]

.

The main reason I would not choose to live in the golden era is what came after. If I was 25 in 1940, I would have been 55 in 1970....and very unhappy and frustrated at what a lot of the world had become. I was born in 1962 and remember in the lare sixties not understanding why older were so upset by what the young generation was wearing, listening to and doing. Now I understand. They saw it go from Glen Miller to Jimi Hendrix.

Drugs, "free sex", nudist camps, psychedelic(sp?) clothes, hip huggers, bra burning, Woodstock.....no wonder they thought the world had gone to hell in a hand basket. Their world of style was traded for that? I glad I didn't live in the golden era. When it was over it would have broken my heart too.

 

[missjo]

The main reason I would not choose to live in the golden era is what came after. If I was 25 in 1940, I would have been 55 in 1970....and very unhappy and frustrated at what a lot of the world had become. I was born in 1962 and remember in the lare sixties not understanding why older were so upset by what the young generation was wearing, listening to and doing. Now I understand. They saw it go from Glen Miller to Jimi Hendrix.

Drugs, "free sex", nudist camps, psychedelic(sp?) clothes, hip huggers, bra burning, Woodstock.....no wonder they thought the world had gone to hell in a hand basket. Their world of style was traded for that? I glad I didn't live in the golden era. When it was over it would have broken my heart too.

For living history events I have written a fake biography, my character is born in 1912 and dies in 1946, so no hippie trauma for me