Time Travel: If you could, would you?
If you could and would time travel, what era would you travel to and why?
My answer to that would be I’d like to check out the early 1700s through the early 1900s in Southeast Michigan to meet my mom’s side of the family and then the same era but the UP of MI to meet my dad’s side of the family... mainly my dad’s great grandma, Alphonsine LeBeau. I suppose it would be kind of neat to meet my 8th and 10th great grandmother Annonantak [baptized as “Catherine” prior to marrying], but there would be a language barrier. She was Ouendat / Wyandot [Huron for the derogatory term] and married a Frenchman... well, technically three Frenchmen; I’m related to her through the first and third marriages and lived in Canada.
See, my mom’s family settled what’s now the “downriver” area, which is south of Detroit starting in 1701. They traveled down the St. Lawrence River with Antoine Cadillac. I’ve known 6 of my great grandparents; only one being a great grandfather. My family is famous for women living a long time; often outliving multiple husbands. I would love to meet my great-great grandmother Sophia McCoit (nee Bourassa). She looked tough and from the verbal stories, she was and that she “wore the pants in the family” too.
It appears that both sides of my family bucked society in some way. I love that about my family. My great aunt Franny, whom I also wish I could’ve met, never married or had children. She had been in love once, but he never returned from WWI. It’s not that she didn’t have her suitors... she even told my mother that she wasn’t dying a virgin. She just never fell in love again. So, as a steno clerk in Detroit, she had her own home with some luxurious things, including her first brand new car in 1910. Of course that was unheard of in those days. My great grandma Jo and my great grandpa Armand often went camping and fishing. You think that my great grandma wore dresses? Most certainly not! She wore overalls and was barefoot! My other great grandma [that died when I was 16], Blanche Mae [aka Granny] and my great grandpa John [aka Pappy] were 3 years apart in age; SHE was older. They “lived in sin” for a year before my Pappy turned 18 and they got married. Oh... she was Catholic, and he was Protestant, which was a big no-no then too. My dad’s dad, my grandpa Hank married my pregnant grandmother. She got pregnant by her first husband, but he left her right after she got pregnant and her family [except her mother] disowned her. I also had family that helped slaves escape to the north... there’s a lot of little things that I found that I thought were pretty cool.
However, considering that I met my great grandmothers, Josephine, Blanche, Amelia, and Dorothy and my great grandfather John, I feel pretty lucky. I would love to meet the people that raised them as well as those great grandfathers that I hadn’t gotten to meet.
**NO POLITICS**
This goes along with my ancestry article in a few ways.
1 word, ROSWELL.
In the 60's - there was a little hill overlooking a little field of oats ripe and ready for harvest. I would give a year of my life to sit there for just a couple of hours again - watching the wind turn the field into ocean waves.
Must've been quite a beautiful sight that heightened all the senses.
At that age I had never seen an ocean. With due respect for those who grew up by the sea - I prefer my field of oats.
Woodstock with wet weather gear and an all access pass.
hey man, that brown acid is a bad trip ...
What's cool about time travel is that I already know to avoid the brown acid.
(you do recall that I brought Frog Togs from the 21st century knowing it would rain).
"Sherman, set the WayBack machine."
-- Dr. Peabody
Oops! Mr. Peabody
Yes I would time travel if it were possible. To see my dad once more, my husband once more and my son once more
Sorry to hear about all of your losses. That's seriously rough. I'd love for my kids to meet my grandfather. I found out I was pregnant with my daughter the day of his funeral.
Being a shapeshifter I time travel quite often.
I would go back to the early 1900’s. I would love to meet some of my earlier ancestors. I have a million questions for them.
Early 80's
Why? I have a feeling I know the answer, but I want to hear it from you.
Lived in Oklahoma City at the time and it was quite an experience in the city. And it wasn't just famous for the stockyards. Graham Central Station was one of my haunts. And Wednesday was always ladies nite? They let the ladies in at 7:00 in one part of the huge place and then the guys got to come in at nine.
So of all the events in history, you would time travel back to ladies night in a Oklahoma City bar?
No. To the times. There was much more in that period of my life that was revisit worthy. Racing weekends in Texas, Colorado, Kansas, Georgia, New Mexico and others. And at the time I was in my first plant manager job at a pretty young, for the position, age. It was a time of pretty much foot loose and fancy free living.
Hell yeah! Lol first forward to get the next lotto numbers and after that to the past to see all the great civilizations, events, the evolution of our and other species, geological changes, planet formation...well I guess everything
The "adopted one" [my daughter's 19 yr old boyfriend] basically said the same thing.
I agree.
I love BBC films about the evolution of our planet and everything on it. It would be fantastic to find the "missing" link. LOL!
Over the years archeologists keep finding more and more "missing links".
BBC does the best documentaries
Which is fantastic that so much has been preserved to discover and study.
However, in the spirit of the topic of this discussion, wouldn't it be the ultimate experience possible to time travel and watch it all unfold personally?
I'd like to go way back and observe the dinosaurs for a day or two.
Go to D.C. and visit the Senate gallery.
If I could time travel and bring back some items, these are a few I would.
Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig rookie cards, autographed if possible.
The first barbie dolls
One of the limited hand written copies of the Declaration Of Independence. A few years a man came across one in a souvenir shop which he bought for 25 bucks. It sold at auction for a quarter of a million dollars.
A complete set of the first Star Wars figurines.
Stock from Microsoft when it first hit the stock market.
Art from Andy Warhol, MC Escher, Toulouse Lautrec, Geigher (Alien), Picaso, Rembrant, and DaVini before they became famous.
A Ming vase
First edition books of many famous authors.
A Gutenberg Bible.
Ancient coins.
I would also buy some prime real estate in Malibu, Martha's Vineyard, etc to be held in trust for me.
That's good thinking... I can't imagine that it would change the past, thus changing the future by doing those things.
It wouldn't change the past I don't think, but it would sure affect my future bank account.
Sure would!
I'd like mine at Pt. Dume looking out over Zuma Beach...
So you would time travel simply out of greed?
No. I would also travel back in time to solve some of the mysteries still going on today.
Amelia Earhart's death
King Tut's death
The Kennedy assassination
Things like that.
I would like to go back and take a week long walk with John Muir.
My genealogy has been traced as far back as King John I of Scottland and to William Wallace as well and beyond onto France. I would love to go back and witness the Battle of Stirling Bridge and to visit Stirling Castle.
How many times have I posted on articles here, "Please, beam me back to the 1950s"? It was the happiest time of my life, the least complicated, my best years in school, and at least the world around me was not experiencing the chaos that exists today.
For me personally I would like to return to An Khe, Vietnam on July 18, 1968 for that one day only. No details. It is a personal cross.
Had a USMC Huey shot out from under me and made a hard landing in a dry rice paddy outside DaNang. That was my first choice but I decided I would not care to relive that. Like you, that day is too personal a matter for me.
I know that effing hurt. Sometimes it hurt just landing a touch too hard.
Thank you for your service Ed
Absolutely, I would want to go back to my great great grandfather's era and get a better understanding of some of my more ancient genetics (but still recent enough to be relevant). I would love to see what life was really like in the 19th century (as long as I get to return to the present).
300,000 years looking for the first hairless hominins
I would love to travel back in time just to discover truths, both within my family tree and also in some of the more high profile historical events. If one could indeed travel back in time, it would most likely be as simply an observer, which of course would avoid the paradox would one somehow change the course of history. But to be a fly on the wall in so many historical events would be highly enlightening.
Anyone catch the German science fiction series "Dark" on Netflix? Might change your mind about wanting to travel in time, if you could indeed interact with, or change, the past. What would a paradox look like? Splintered universe? Alternate reality? Potential elimination of one's own existence?
November 9th, 2010.