Your Time in History?
Have you ever wondered what it would have been like to have lived in another time in History that would have suited you and your talents more?
Of course you would have to be able to ignore the fact that life expectancy might not have been so great and also medical practices might not have been quite the same at that time as they are now.
As someone who loves Maths and Statistics with a great fondness on Puzzles and codes I feel my perfect time would have been during the second world war with the Code breakers of Bletchley Park. I think being part of that group of people would have been very special. I would also have met one of my heroes Alan Turing, one of the greatest minds of his generation and a tortured soul. The work at Bletchley Park was estimated as ending the war in Europe two years earlier than it otherwise would have and saving 14 million lives.
I am interested to hear other Senior Chatters Members thoughts.
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Thewalker. I do thank you for writing this blog, but my answer is a definite NO. I realized some years a ago that I was born and have lived the best time in history in a country that has wonderful opportunities for many people. Many people come to our country for that reason and our country is very enriched by them and we can experience a lot of other customs and traditions in one large city in which I chose to live. I am female and birth control was easy and available for the first time in history. Electricity was everywhere and so were indoor plumbing and labor saving devices and women’s rights reached a humane level.
A’s for math and puzzles, the technical age and information age is in full swing and I love information. I am sure there are all kinds of codes to be worked on and have been. As for Alan Turing being a tortured soul, he was homosexual when that was a crime and punishment was imprisonment or chemical castration. Alan Turing had chemical castration and that was his thanks for all his brilliance and contributions yet to be made. Homosexuals are now having legal marriages in the US today. Alan Turing was a beautiful man and a science and math genius and he was subjected to barbarous treatment.
I was born during World War III and it was the best time for me. Child labor was not allowed and education was compulsory. More humane right, and civil rights expanded and millions of people lived with basic needs met and opportunities and a future of possibilities. I study history a lot and it isn’t pretty. I am not sure what country you lived in but I studied a lot of countries and few were better than they are right now. I am not good at math or computers but I am sure I would have gotten into computer programming and would have had a field day with computer possibilities. I did Take a class in computer programming and it helped me understand the workings of a computer.
I do appreciate your blog and the opportunity to explore history.
Correction World War II.
I’m glad you added that bit. I got a bit worried that the US/North Korea relations had taken a further turn for the worse.
Just a typo, but it is a concern. I hope our present history is a blip and not a trend.
Well after it was due Gordon Brown then Prime Minister of the UK made an Official Public apology for the way Alan Turing had been treated and Queen Elizabeth gave him a posthumous pardon in 2013,
A pardon for what?
For his conviction for Gross Indecency
What did he do? Who pardons Briton for their barbarous laws against homosexuals? America had bad laws also, that is why I like our modern era.
He was convicted for homosexual activity. The law was the problem, not the man. The US has adopted British law and we started changing the law in the 60’s. I knew I liked this era.
I have lived and seen many of the things you mentioned, Very good writing also. Len
Hi Walker,
I agree with all that Rosinbloom has pointed out.We live in the best of times and the worst of times and it has always been so. Looking back at different periods we can see the advantages and attractions of the period but somehow the horrors of the age seem to fade and we tend to gloss over the anxieties of the time. History tends to be written round the lives of the wealthy and privileged which colours our perceptions of the time. The lives of the lower classes were most often brutish, hungry, miserable but mercifully short on the whole. Death was an everyday occurrence for everyone, life was lived in constant fear of the afterlife. There was no freedom, most people lived under the weight of their King’s, Lord’s Bishop”s wants. you had to think along tramlines of the accepted thinking of the time or else!
The lack of medical care has been pointed out but think about it, most women died in childbirth, no eye glasses, if you lived long enough you would have been in a perpetual fog.No dentistry and poor hygiene and nutrition made it even worse. A young man could fall from a tree and break a bone, no big deal today but then if you did not die you were a cripple unable to earn a living . Removal of a bladder stone could be done by a surgeon in the 17th century but the surgeon had 3 minutes to do the surgery, any longer and the patient died of shock. All this without the benefit of anaesthetic or painkillers. If we could be whisked back a century or two, I don’t think a body of this century would last a week in previous times, our immune system would be overwhelmed by the bacteria and viruses of that time. A lot of history was lived during religious wars, the West had their own Isis only 500 years ago. Remember it is within memory that women were considered property of father’s and husbands, up till about 30 years ago, a woman was not considered a- person- in Canadian Law !
So all considered I’d rather live now warts and all.
I would however love to visit past times in an invisible protective capsule, so I could see what the 10th century Britain looked like. Look at ancient Greece, the Nile in ancient times. See the great ancient trees of America before settlers cut them down. Was the sea round Newfoundland really so full of fish, that great shoals impeded boats? Perhaps if man gets far enough out into space and looks back, that will be possible??? Oh well I don’t think I’ll be here to experience that and that is another blog…. I am so curious I want to know where science will take us….if we don’t annihilate the human race first………
Thank you Rockflower and Roseinbloom for your replies but I guess I didn’t really put across the part of my blog I was aiming for. i agree that living today is far easier than previous eras. What I was trying to ask was wouldn’t you have liked to have gone back to a point in time where you would have been part of something exciting and new and you might have written your own page of history. Maybe at NASA during the moon landings, at the discovery of penicillin, discovering the genome. etc etc. That aside thank you for your points. As for a 10th Century Briton, that’s my look first thing in the morning. 🙂
Rockflower, I misspelled Britain and I do not understand a 10th century reference.
I agree with all that you say,rockflower, except America still has huge forests left.
This question has been raised before, but it’s always interesting to see the replies.
For me I think I’d like to be in the hills above the British lines at Isandlwana just so I could see how, with all the technical advantages, firepower etc they had, that they managed to screw it up so royally.
Have been to Isandlwana, Rouke’s drift and the river crossings After this the British army changed the ammo boxes to be able to be opened with a blow from the butt of a rifle, as the ammo boxes were locked and couldn’t be opened That and considerable out numbering by a brilliantly lead disciplined army.
If you are into SA battle sites Magesfontien Anglo -Boer war , first use of trench warfare , by the Boers the success of this lead to influence the use of trenches in the 1st World war, You can climb a hill to see the trenches still. The combination of the trenches with an army who had grown up not eating if they didn’t shoot the game = excellent marksmanship. The bright uniforms of the Scottish regiments The result a complete rout for the British was foregone This war changed uniforms to khaki the dye coming from India, Less important to hide the blood than not to get shot in the first place.
I think this subject was meant in a more light-hearted way. We’re all aware of the disadvantages of the past -that doesn’t make it any less fun to imagine living in another time! That being said, I’d like to have lived in the 1890’s, in California, when the constraints of Victorian fashion were dissolving, leaving women with more comfortable fashion choices, the railways expanding, and adventure in education and traveling so much easier.
I’d want to learn how to run a vineyard, and live by the sea.
Thank you Ms K. sounds Idyllic.
Ms.k
I take a look at history very serious. I see us currently slipping backwards
I may be too serious for some
Hi Roseinbloom………… I do know you have wonderful square miles of forests, my son works planning the optimal care and production of some forests on your East coast. But there are old photos of early logging in Tennessee etc the size of those felled trees !? the girth of them larger than anything cut today. Those trees must have been hundreds of years old.It was the same in Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, great pines were cut to be masts of sailing ships and in Newfoundland we only have a few stands of native pine left and none of great size. When those pines were cut spruce took it’s place. I’m only being a bore about this because I have a great feeling for trees and a reverence for ancient trees so forgive me. Pioneers had to do much just to survive and they did not think of the long term cost of what they did, too busy just living.
Rockflower, nothing to forgive, trees are essential to the life of humans on this earth, we must have sufficient oxygen producing trees and plants to exist. We have set aside large national parks but some are allowing the trees to be cut. Our current president seems to not look beyond his nose.
Sorry Walker, I misunderstood you……so There are many people in history I should like to meet and converse with. I should have liked to be with Darwin on the Beagle, I would like to have seen what he saw and talked with him……would I have liked being on a small ship in close confinement with the crew for months???? I don’t know about that LOL! I should have liked to be with Florence Nightingale as she took up the fight with the British army command and won. You know we have a couple of dentists, one in Boston , USA I believe who pushed the idea of painkilling drugs for their patients and those early brave surgeons who started the whole field of anaesthesia. It was in Liverpool UK that public health people drew the connection between bad housing and disease, I’d have liked to be with them fighting to push a reluctant city to build the first public housing. I should have liked to talk to Mr. Chippendale, just where did his design ideas spring from? Same for William Morris. I should have liked to talk to John Constable, he was one if not the first artist to do oil paint sketches out side. Everyone knows his famous finished studio paintings….I’m not interested in those. The quickly gone oil sketches are so full of life and vibrant they could have been done yesterday. I could go on so many characters I’d like to visit ….Christian Dior, his clothes where sculptures, not easy comfort to wear, I’m sure but beautiful. This list is just skimming my list…I’d need a life time or two to visit all…….
Now, When I read the Books of Jane Austin and when I studied 18th century history I wish for the conversation that was was an art form and the major source of entertainment. Even in the 60’s here when we were young people gathered and conversation and debate was our primary activity. I still miss that 60’s and 70’s era.
I am happy for technology but people being together just to explore each other’s minds does not happen. I googled a lot but sometimes you would like to hear it from a person. Senior chat fills a gap and I am glad we have it. I don’t know what growing old would be like without my internet connection to the world.
So agree with you Rosinbloom…….I miss civility, people are so rude and that goes for people in public life as much as anyone, Indeed it is those in public life that push this behaviour. I miss conversation, one reason I like this blog section of Chatters it that people are prepared to delve into a subject a bit more. I am definitely not a “tweet” type. I think those days when people would read to each other, write long letters and have “Conversation” with a capital C….would have suited me just fine. Jane Austin is a favourite of mine, her writing so elegant and spare, not one unnecessary word, words not compounded to make them sound more impressive. Love it. It seems now that so many people cannot exchange ideas without losing their tempers. They seem to have no notion that one can totally disagree with someone on a matter but still respect and like them. I also find the excessive use of swear words so boring, it is just absolute laziness and pathetic…..Ok we can keep on blogging LOL!
I think we have to seek opportunities to find like-minded conversationalists. that’s one reason we joined this site. Book clubs, hobbyists, church groups, the flower club etc. offer stimulating companionship and conversation. I’m a member of a Jane Austin society, a tea lover’s group and writer’s groups. Otherwise, when I tell someone I’m an Anglophile, I get …”What kinda phile?” LOL
I’ve read this blog with interest and I’ve come to the conclusion that although the idea of time travel is quite appealing , for the most part , I’d like to stay firmly where I am right now but would like to knock 20 years off my age and lose the irritating stiff joints that , dare I say it , old age brings. The future fills me with a certain amount of trepidation but I think the world will roll on regardless inspite of human frailties.
Just back to the 60s will do me………more freedom, discipline still allowed in schools, no competitiveness for latest techy gadgets, less crime, less importance put on material possessions, more community spirit,……..yes we have moved on in the medical field, but a lot of those drugs are now being used to treat problems brought about by a more sedate lifestyle caused through inactivity, labour saving devices, fast food, processed food so a sort of a double edged sword really………and lets be honest here, the 60s era has music that is still played constantly today, it stood the test of time……..and the fashion, what had a big as impact as the mini skirt, daring times indeed…….
Nice choice Starlette. An era where people still talked to each other, backdoors were seldom locked and a sense of community still existed. Get your Mini Skirt on I will get my drainpipe trousers and we’ll go off to a Kinks concert. Hehe
Don’t forget the Brylcreme, string tie and were good to go……meet you under the clock at 7pm……lol……..The Kinks will do nicely
especially on a Sunny afternoon……
The Brylcreme and the string tie were a certainty. Perhaps we should meet at Waterloo Station to see the Sunset. Ha.
Nice to dream, however, that each of us.have had the opportunity to come to birth and live to our ages if quite magnificent. I’m grateful.
I too enjoyed the 50’s and 60’s – life was more enjoyable. Technology has happened too fast and has taken over the simple things of life. I am glad that I was born in the 1940’s and hopefully will be gone by the time technology has really taken over the world. Robots are being developed now to take over human jobs. I don’t want to live in another era. I would have liked to have had the opportunity to develop my abilities that I didn’t find out about until my late 50’s, when I attended University, but the timing was not right and I ceased after the 2nd Semester. I know in my heart that I have missed out on achieving something great. I would have liked to have made an impact in my own history.
Bit off post but would anyone change gender as they go back in time? I would like to be a Victorian, but not poor and not female Men really did have it better.
I would like to be a man for a time in any era……….soooooo many reasons why…lol…..