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Would you rather live then or now?

K.D. Lightner

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,354
Location
Des Moines, IA
Missjoeri -- Lordy, in your alternate biography life you don't even make it to 40! Dying so young!?

You could have tagged another 20 years on and still missed the hippie trauma.

karol
 

missjo

Practically Family
Messages
509
Location
amsterdam
K.D. Lightner said:
Missjoeri -- Lordy, in your alternate biography life you don't even make it to 40! Dying so young!?

You could have tagged another 20 years on and still missed the hippie trauma.

karol


Im not so keen on the 1950s either ;)
I wouldnt mind being born earlier but I wouldnt want to be too old during the war with all those lovely dashing young flyboys :cool:
 

Hondo

One Too Many
Messages
1,655
Location
Northern California
missjoeri said:
Quote: Originally Posted by PrettyBigGuy
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.

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.

Damn! I kind of forgot about those things, the ugly side of human beings. Remembering this is a fantasy, I think my time machine would, would be like the film “Ground Hog Day� but instead of at the end of every day, repeating the next day, it would be 1938 and at the end of 1948, it would revert back to 1938, sounds kind of strange but were all living in a fantasy, could we also change it to please to our liking? People would be color blind or at least kept silent to them selves. This opens up a lot of possibilities like that “StarTrek� episode, I think a new title for the episode would “Tomorrow never Knows� (yeah the Beatles were ahead of their time) but any time traveling, you were to stay never to return, your plans were arranged at the beginning, giving you clothes, money your not sent back broke or poor. Would this chance the future? And who’s to say you would live to 1970’s and be about 55? Unless all this was just a short visit, but what if you were single, went back to 1941, met a gal, then you told her you had to leave, she wanted to go with you, you took her back to the future and she quickly got old, wrinkled skin, whoa… were talk’n science fiction and scary possibilities, I think there was a movie or show like this but can’t recall the name.
Wow I really enjoy this subject from all here, quite interesting and sad :cool:
 

Oscar Tong

Familiar Face
Messages
76
Location
Vancouver, BC, Canada
RE: 1930s or present

Ooh, that's a tough one, Matt! On one hand, the pace of life was slower in the past. People, I think, would have been more inclined to comply with the rules and regulations of society, practice etiquette, and generally be polite and courteous. In addition, the clothes would have been vastly superior to what major clothing manufacturers shove down our throats today.

On the other hand, as a person of Chinese descent, Americans and Canadians alike, I would imagine, would have persecuted me. Moreover, I would have been misdiagnosed, ill-treated, and misunderstood, since it would have been another decade before Hans Asperger discovered Asperger's Syndrome, and another six decades still before psychiatrists recognized Asperger's Syndrome as a real and legitimate condition. Furthermore, diseases like polio were still a threat at the time. My asthma might have killed me. (It's under control, now.) Finally, what would I do without computers and the 'net?!

Which era would I prefer? Come to think of it, I'm not really sure.
 

Angelicious

One of the Regulars
Messages
190
Location
Rainy ol' New Zealand
Oscar Tong said:
People, I think, would have been more inclined to comply with the rules and regulations of society, practice etiquette, and generally be polite and courteous.
Well, on one level, I agree with you. Standards of courtesy have certainly, regrettably, fallen over the past 50 years. :( Often nowadays I try to be polite to some people, and they look at me strangely, as though I'm uptight or OCD. :p Some even ask me who the Hel I think I am, putting on airs like that! :eek:

Also, since there was often less variation in local society (on the macro level), there were arguably fewer questions that needed answering, and so less confusion about what was "right" or "wrong". When you know exactly what is expected of you, it's easier to comply. (On the other hand, since at that time some expectations included ignoring domestic abuse, plutocratic/sexist/racist rules over meritocratic ones, and ostracising or harrassing anyone who didn't fit into the local norm, I'm quite happy here with my statutory rights and humanitarian conventions.) ;)

At least, I don't remember many of my grandparents' stories including a Pleasantville-style aura of peaceful elegance and old-fashioned courtesy! :rolleyes: I guess it depended on how and where you grew up...
 

shamus

Suspended
Messages
801
Location
LA, CA
I think Angel hit it on the head... It all depends where and when you want to go back. If I go back as a rich white man in New York City, then yes, sounds great. If I go back as a poor black sharecropper in Alabama... well might have to think about it.

What we know of that time by the movies and books of the era. People of that era went to movies and read books to escape their life as we do today.
We also hear stories from the people who lived there. They don't tell you about the bad, just the good.

But on the other hand this thread was not meant to go into such detail and thought.
 

scotrace

Head Bartender
Staff member
Messages
14,392
Location
Small Town Ohio, USA
Grandfather

Mine was born in 1898, died in 1992.
He used to say, "people talk about the good old days. Well, you can keep 'em. We worked like dogs."
He worked at a steel mill for 49 1/2 years, also had an awning business on the side much of that time, and sold fireworks seasonally.
He was a handsome fellow - pencil moustache, thick hair to the end, dressed well, loved to buy shoes mail order, wore a couple of rings on each hand.

Remember, you didn't go to work, come home and hit the recliner. You shoveled coal into the furnace, tried to figure out what was making that ticking noise in the single family car, mowed the yard without a power mower, etc. Stay at home wives worked constantly, cleaning, cooking, laundry, all without the benefit of Swiffers, Lean Cuisine, or 30-mode programmable Maytags.

How about you, Mr. Deckard? Is a devout capitalist better off in 2005 or 1935?
 

Andykev

I'll Lock Up
Bartender
Messages
4,119
Location
The Beautiful Diablo Valley
It is nice to dream, but it is nicer to live today.

This post Scotrace, is the nail on the head. My "POP" was born in 1899, and he died in 1981. He served in WW1 and WWII, and was many things in between. Was a chauffer, a boilermaker, a ships store keeper, worked in a cannery, ...
Anything to make a living. They didn't have much, and appreciated what they did. So I like the perception of the "slower pace" and all, but it was a dog's life.
Few could afford a car, and fortunately, the trains, trollys, and busses were plentiful. Meals were cheap by todays standards, and everyone smoked and drank (ok the Irish family I knew).

I still think the Rose Colored Glasses filtered out "Colored" , non WASP, and non-MEN in many things. We have come a long way, with Civil Rights, voting, equality, understanding of the "crippled" , oops, I mean Handicapped..see what I mean?

The glass ceiling has been broken, conventions undone, and mixed race couples or same sex couples today do not turn heads.

My other grandfather, used words like "dirty hippies" and "darkies" or "colored"...but those terms were not mean, however they are horrible today. And I think for the better.

People worked very hard, for very little. Think of your average day, and of the conveniences you enjoy. Go back? Try that TV show that was on last year, what was it? Pioneer House? Could you really go back for say a month, and NOT use anything or do anything that wasn't invented or used before, say 1940? Fat chance. You'd have to log off the FL for too long :p
 

K.D. Lightner

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,354
Location
Des Moines, IA
Andykev and Scotrace -- You both nailed it with descriptions of what my relatives told me about the "good old days." There are so many things we take for granted today:

...that our children will not die of some creepy "childhood disease" (my parents worried incessantly when I was a child about polio; we were all relieved when we received our first Salk vaccine. There was measles, mumps, smallpox, scarlet fever, diptheria, and on and on ad naseum). Adults also died of things that do not kill us so quickly now: my father's parents, who I never knew, died quite young: he at the age of 24 in 1916 during a polio epidemic; she died at the age of 26 in 1919 during the Spanish flu epidemic, died of pneumonia. My father lived to be 85, my mother is still living and in decent health at 86. And so many people I know who are alive now would have been dead even 20 years ago of heart attacks or some forms of cancer.

...that we can buy what we want, when we want. Does anybody remember layaway? Or second hand stores? (If my grandfather wore fur felt hats, it is because he got them at the Salvation Army. Rich folks would die and leave their fancy clothes to the SA. Nowadays, a vintage shop scarfs them up before they ever hit the aisles!)

...credit cards, my mother wishes they had never been invented; on the other hand, if your car breaks down in the middle of Kansas and you haven't carried lots of cash with you....

...that you will have some sort of income when you retire (unless you let the politicans take it from you); that you will have some sort of medical care for seniors (unless you let the politicans take it from you). I will be retiring from my job next month and will get both a pension and social security.

...that you will know events and things that happen in the news within just seconds, rather than hours or days. That we have become the "Global Village" McCluan envisioned. it makes us safer, even with the murderous intents of terrorists and some countries.

... and that we still have the chance to fight to save the ecology, we can still continue with the struggle for equality for all people, and that we fight for things now that only a few understood back in the golden era.

... and that life might have been "golden" then for fairly well-to-do white heterosexual men and fiercely independent women, who had excellent health and did not get in any bizarre accidents, nor miss their computers, cell phones and credit cards. Everyone else was pretty downtrodden and worked their kazoos off for very little money. Try washing your clothes just once in a washtub. Try chopping wood for two hours a day to keep warm in the winter, or shoveling coal, or heating buckets of water so you could take a bath -- and you only took one on a Saturday night, so you would be clean and sparkly for church the next morning.

... and remember, that $20 hat you now covet would have been a lot of dough back in the 1930's. You would be making a few bucks a week. Not until the war would you have had more expendable income.

I figure the grass is always greener and people in all ages have talked about a golden era. Some folks in the thirties probably wanted to go back to the gay nineties, or the frontier era, or...?

karol
 

Oscar Tong

Familiar Face
Messages
76
Location
Vancouver, BC, Canada
:eek: (Oscar slouches back under his rock in shame over his naïveté.)

whiteflagani.gif
 

Vladimir Berkov

One Too Many
Messages
1,291
Location
Austin, TX
I am not really sure. It would be really great to live in 1930 until you get heart disease or diabetes or polio and then the fun ends really quickly.

I am assuming that we are talking about a time machine type scenario here, not one where we were actually born in the past and grew up knowing nothing of the year 2005.

Medical issues aside I think I could get used to not having a TV or computer in time, I am not really worried about getting bored or even earning a living. They needed lawyers in 1930 just as they do now, right?

The thing I think would be most important is what would happen to all my friends and family. Would they go in the time machine too? Because if they didn't and it was a one-way trip then it would be pretty bittersweet to get to experience the 1930s but never getting to see any of my friends or family ever again.
 

missjo

Practically Family
Messages
509
Location
amsterdam
Ok im gonna have a look at your message and give my view on some of your points, not to cause a fierce argument, just sharing my thoughts and how some of these points would cause me to go back to the 1930's or not. ;)

K.D. Lightner said:
...that our children will not die of some creepy "childhood disease"

Yes quite true, but it was like that for many many centuries, children dieing was part of life, its somewhat of a new situation that so many children stay alive.
On the other hand compared to a few decades earlier the 1930's were already much healthier to live in and if you lived in a modern western city changes of your child surviving were pretty good.
But I dont have kids, i dont want kids, so to me personally thats not a reason not to go live in the 1930s ;)

...that we can buy what we want, when we want. Does anybody remember layaway? Or second hand stores? (If my grandfather wore fur felt hats, it is because he got them at the Salvation Army. Rich folks would die and leave their fancy clothes to the SA. Nowadays, a vintage shop scarfs them up before they ever hit the aisles!)

Well again that is only if you would go back to the 1930s and live as a poor person, people with jobs, middle class and higher, would be able to get clothes, they became much cheaper because of machine production.
Also I grew up in the 1970's and my parents had enough money, yet we often bought second hand clothes, something I kept doing.
Even before my 1930s passion started I think I only bought 1 item of clothes 100% new in a shop.
It never bothered me.
My father had to wear the clothes worn by his older brothers after they grew out of them.
It didnt bother him either, many children in school couldnt afford nice clothes anyway.
It was usually the ones that were send to school in shiny new suits that the kids made fun off or that didnt get any friends.

...credit cards, my mother wishes they had never been invented; on the other hand, if your car breaks down in the middle of Kansas and you haven't carried lots of cash with you....

I've never ever had a credit card and dont need one either.

...that you will have some sort of income when you retire (unless you let the politicans take it from you); that you will have some sort of medical care for seniors (unless you let the politicans take it from you). I will be retiring from my job next month and will get both a pension and social security.

Yes that is a VERY good point, here in holland we didnt get general social security for the over 65's till 1956, before that socialism changed many other important things but in the 1930s Holland wasnt that advanced yet.
A terrible thing for a modern society.
Unless your family loved you and had some money life was hell at that age anyway, mind you not many people got that old.

...that you will know events and things that happen in the news within just seconds, rather than hours or days. That we have become the "Global Village" McCluan envisioned. it makes us safer, even with the murderous intents of terrorists and some countries.

I dont like that, it makes me feel powerless.
I dont want to watch live how thousands are dying of hunger, I dont want to look into the faces of dying children, see soldiers fight, places be bombed.
In the 1930's all these terrible events would have been radio reports or newsstories about a place very very far away.
It would have been easier to shut it out.
Not very politically correct, I know, but having grown up with in this small world I sometimes long back to the time when my country was a bit of a island simply minding its own business.

... and that we still have the chance to fight to save the ecology,

Yes but in the 1930s this struggle wasnt so urgent, also today were too late anyway.

... and that life might have been "golden" then for fiercely independent women, who had excellent health and did not get in any bizarre accidents, nor miss their computers, cell phones and credit cards.

Yep, thats me!

Everyone else was pretty downtrodden and worked their kazoos off for very little money. Try washing your clothes just once in a washtub.

Done it been there washed the t-shirt.
I dont even have a washing machine.

Try chopping wood for two hours a day to keep warm in the winter, or shoveling coal,

No problem, I wouldnt have to (many households in amsterdam had gasheaters in the 1930s) but I wouldnt mind.
I grew up with a coalheater, loved making a fire everyday, carrying coal made me strong.

or heating buckets of water so you could take a bath --
Many households already had hot water overhere, I dont take baths much anyway, im a shower person.

and you only took one on a Saturday night, so you would be clean and sparkly for church the next morning.

Well I wouldnt go to church but I dont take weekly baths, too many!
I wash everyday though, simply with a bedstand or take a shower.

... and remember, that $20 hat you now covet would have been a lot of dough back in the 1930's. You would be making a few bucks a week. Not until the war would you have had more expendable income.

Yes but some things were cheaper too, I dont need many luxeries, I dont have a steady income, never had, dont need one really.
As long as I can pay my bills and eat I dont need a steady income with lots of money.

I figure the grass is always greener and people in all ages have talked about a golden era. Some folks in the thirties probably wanted to go back to the gay nineties, or the frontier era, or...?

Well here in Holland we dont call it the golden.
And yes although for many people it wasnt a nice era at all, but besides that everytime I speak to people who lived trough it I realise that the things that were bad about that era usually wouldnt have bothered me or that the things that were good about that era outway the bad.
To me anyway.
I like the idea of knowing everyone in my street, today I know just the neighbours, never speak tot them though.
I like the idea of people owning the streets, not the cars.
I like the idea of people being more social, going to little cornershops in stead of supermarkets.
etc.
Every era has its good and bad points, so far I can live with most of the 1930s bad points.
Perhaps because I lived in a 14th century medieval museum city for quite some time recreating medieval life and have done some survival training.
You soon realise how easy it is to live without luxery, obsessive hygiene, etc.
Remember that we look back on history as one of the most spoiled generations ever!
 

missjo

Practically Family
Messages
509
Location
amsterdam
Vladimir Berkov said:
I am not really sure. It would be really great to live in 1930 until you get heart disease or diabetes or polio and then the fun ends really quickly.

I wouldnt want any of those today either!
Life changing diseases usually tend to make your life less fun.

Medical issues aside I think I could get used to not having a TV or computer in time, I am not really worried about getting bored or even earning a living. They needed lawyers in 1930 just as they do now, right?

I do think lawyers had a very different way of working back then though so you might need some re-schooling.

The thing I think would be most important is what would happen to all my friends and family. Would they go in the time machine too? Because if they didn't and it was a one-way trip then it would be pretty bittersweet to get to experience the 1930s but never getting to see any of my friends or family ever again.

I guess if timetravel becomes possible most of us wouldnt get a one-way ticket.
I'd like to see my family and friends again too.
But you should look at it as emigration, like moving to another country.
 

missjo

Practically Family
Messages
509
Location
amsterdam
Vladimir Berkov said:
Btw, it is neat to see you found this place Miss Joeri. I remember you from way back on the RKKA and Civvies lists.

Ah yes, havent been ok RKKA list for ages, own the civvies list though ;)
 

Lauren

Distinguished Service Award
Messages
5,060
Location
Sunny California
If time travel were to become available, and as widespread as jumping back in forth in time with multiple people, do you not agree that the world would be filled with people unsure of their surroundings? You would get plenty of "daytrippers" who would turn time into a sort of disneyland event. Changing the course of time would alter where we have come, in my opinion, in a negative way. If you were to have lunch with your great grandfather when he was a young adult- suppose he even fell in love with you and married you instead! You could wipe out entire generations of your lineage! And to say that we have the foresight to set restrictions, learn about the time era, and dress in period styles is not particularly an argument, since if it became available it would most likely first filter through the upper classes, and I know how arrogant and demanding high class tourists can be. Most people have no wish to better themselves or alter themselves to "fit in" and altering a twenty first century mindset to mould into the twentieth century or older will produce gaps and uncertainties. While time travel is fun to think about, I don't personally believe it is possible, unless we make it our personal world around us in this current age. And I personally think it's better that way.
 

Lauren

Distinguished Service Award
Messages
5,060
Location
Sunny California
Well again that is only if you would go back to the 1930s and live as a poor person, people with jobs, middle class and higher, would be able to get clothes, they became much cheaper because of machine production.

We could, however it is important to remember that in the US it seems we could have a very different life in the 30's than in Europe because of the depression that hit in 1929 and didn't really let up until the beginnings of WWII. Overall the depression was a very difficult era for people living in the United States but we learned to make the best of it. What was highly encourages was home dressmaking and making over a frock from previous fashions to fit the current styles, and buying dresses that would be cut on lines that would work for a number of years. The availability of ready made apparel did happen in the late 20's (where you could buy anything readymade. I'm sure you know about the shirtwaist factories of previous decades). The 1930's posed a great threat to the quality texile industry in the form of cottons, linens, etc, because the cheaper textiles such as rayon and acetate could be bought in fashion prints for little cost, thus resulting in a blur of the class distinction of clothes, but little surviving that is considered wearable (and by this I mean that what is left is generally silk, cotton, wool, etc because clothing of other materials were not stored properly and are not as strong as the other fibers). So while we could have looked remotely fashionable for little cost, we would not have the variety of clothing we have today within our price range. Seperates to mix and match, of course, were very popular as they could supply a variety of looks.
And production on looms was done by machines, but I'm sure you are aware that the job was mostly done by small women and young children, as they could crawl under the machines if any problems arose. It was very hazardous work! And the sewing machine was around for a long while, but still all those women had to cut and sew by hand. This shows an availabilty of low wage labour as a mean for supplying a larger household income, which can show how hard things really were for those of lower classes.

I dont like that, it makes me feel powerless.
I dont want to watch live how thousands are dying of hunger, I dont want to look into the faces of dying children, see soldiers fight, places be bombed.
In the 1930's all these terrible events would have been radio reports or newsstories about a place very very far away.
It would have been easier to shut it out.
Not very politically correct, I know, but having grown up with in this small world I sometimes long back to the time when my country was a bit of a island simply minding its own business.

I do agree with you on this one. I like to know what's going on, but seeing images often makes me afraid in a situation in which I have little or no ability to change.

You are very well educated, missjoeri. It's nice to know what it was like for our sisters overseas during the 30's.
 

missjo

Practically Family
Messages
509
Location
amsterdam
Lauren Henline said:
If time travel were to become available, and as widespread as jumping back in forth in time with multiple people, do you not agree that the world would be filled with people unsure of their surroundings?

I think that at first it would be very very expensive, also it would soon be regulated.
We cant have people going back and forward all the time.
Also it might not be healthy, so in the end it will only be made available to well trained researchers/observers.

Changing the course of time would alter where we have come, in my opinion, in a negative way.

I think that you cant change the past, even if timetravel was possible you would either have no influence on your surroundings (perhaps thats what ghosts and aliens are...people from the future) or you will fail trying to change anything.
If you go back and kill your grandfather you wont be born so you cant go back to kill your grandfather so he wont get murdered by you so he will live on so you will be born so you can go back in time to murder him....eh yeah right.
So IF its ever possible and your going back in time to kill granddad, you already know you will fail, so perhaps your run over by a horse and kart just before you try and kill him.

If you were to have lunch with your great grandfather when he was a young adult- suppose he even fell in love with you and married you instead! You could wipe out entire generations of your lineage!

Good idea, hehehe


And to say that we have the foresight to set restrictions, learn about the time era, and dress in period styles is not particularly an argument, since if it became available it would most likely first filter through the upper classes, and I know how arrogant and demanding high class tourists can be. Most people have no wish to better themselves or alter themselves to "fit in" and altering a twenty first century mindset to mould into the twentieth century or older will produce gaps and uncertainties. While time travel is fun to think about, I don't personally believe it is possible, unless we make it our personal world around us in this current age. And I personally think it's better that way.

I also think it isnt possible and if its ever invented we'll need a basic timemachine to start with and we couldnt go back in time to an era before this machine was build, we need a station to travel to.
But if it was invented it would cost a lot of electricity, it would be dangerous, expensive, etc.
Just like the first space-journeys.
I think that at least in the beginning there would be no danger of just anyone using it.
They would send scholars and observers to important historical events, only for a short time, only healthy well trained people, etc.
But as soon as timetravel would become more common i agree we might have a problem.
 

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