If I had a time machine...

[GrumpyDave]

I'd like to make two stops. Well maybe four. Richmond, Atlanta, New York and Philadelphia. To see how the contract/supply system worked.

[Becky Morgan]

It may sound silly, but I'd love to go back to this corner of Belmont County on the day the 15th OVI came home. Or, come to think of it, maybe a week or so earlier, when we got the word about when they'd get here. Can you imagine what it must have been like with the guys away so long?

It would have been interesting to be here the day the riders came from Moundsville to tell everyone about the call to arms. I wonder, though; looking around the crowd, would I be tempted to sidle up to some of them and say "You might want to think this over before you go"?

The "ghost" idea appeals to me. Since I can't be an actual participant in reenacting, and I'm on permanent kabuki status due to family complications anyhow, it would seem natural to go and look without interfering. Doubt I could handle being in a hospital area, even though at my age I'd be a likely candidate for a nurse.

[Spinster]

All-

I must admit, I'm somewhat suprised about most people taking Choice 2 over Choice 1. I'd figured if one could go back in time, knowing what you do now in the modern world today, one would like to live there permanently.

I'd go for choice 1, except for one small point---I'd have been dead as a rock before I ever got to see a thing, assuming the same body and life circumstance I have now.

Lets see, I would have:
(1) Died at birth in the course of a breech delivery
(2) Died at age 18 months of the fever that went though town (and in modern life, folks in our town did loose 75% of children between the ages of 6 months and 3 years. A number of the remaining children were rendered profoundly deaf.)
(3) Died at 8 in a carriage wreck. (okay, it was a car wreck)
(4) Died by 18 of consumption
(5) Died in childbirth after 3 days of fruitless labor.

All this, and not one of the many vaccinations I've had would have prevented it.

Still and all, like Bill O'Dea, I hold "Time and Again" as one of my all-time favorite books. Not many years after it came out, I spent several hours just looking at the facade of the Dakota.........and wishing.

[LindaTrent]

I did choose option 1.

If I were able to go back in time, I wouldn't want to be able to remember the 20th and 21st century. It would bother me too much knowing what's about to happen and having no ability to stop it. Image being dropped into the Gettysburg area with enough time to save the lives of all those men, but yet not be able to affect the coming events. That would be more than I could bear.

However, I would like to be able to remember enough of the pre-war knowledge that I have so that I'm not a total goof. I'd at least know what kind of fruits, vegetables, livestock, etc. would be typical, especially if a veil just rose and I found myself in my township, county and state sometime between 1857 and 1865, or something like that. Just my luck, I'd fall back in time to 19th century Russia, or some such.

I also would want to experience it in both the best of times (peacetime) and the worst of times (wartime), not knowing the outcome of the war, not knowing about modern medicines and such... To me, 3/4ths of going back in time would be to experience the feelings and emotions of the people, which I couldn't do if I maintained my modern knowledge. If someday I managed to fall back into a time machine and return to the modern world -- I'd want to retain the knowledge from the past so that I could use it to educate people on what it was like to live in that time and place, and bringing back the clothes on my back would be cool too. But if I never found my way back to the 20th or 21st century that would be okay.

If I could control just one thing it would be that I'd want Hank to come along with me and be my husband in the 19th century. I couldn't imaging having such an adventure without taking my best friend. And I know he'd enjoy it along with me.

My mother, siblings and all might miss me, but they'd know I'm okay, just in another dimension. I guess my dog would have to stay here since he's not a period breed, can't contaminate the past.

Linda.

[Hank Trent]

If I could control just one thing it would be that I'd want Hank to come along with me and be my husband in the 19th century. I couldn't imaging having such an adventure without taking my best friend. And I know he'd enjoy it along with me.

Awwww.

I'd pretty much agree with what Linda said, and of course would like to go back with her, too.

In addition to all the points that others have mentioned, I'd just like to add that I think it'd be interesting to watch time go by. Being focussed on the Civil War era, we tend to forget how quickly those four years would pass. If I'd gone back in time the year I started reenacting, by now I'd have talked on a telephone and seen electric lights. Movies and recorded music would be just around the corner, and within a normal lifespan, I'd see cars and airplanes and wireless telegraphs. I might just live long enough to die on the Titanic.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net

[BillO'Dea]

Mrs. Lawson, I'm glad we have Time and Again in common.
Now, dont tell me ever since you saw the time travel movie, Somewhere in Time, with Chris Reeve and Jane Seymour you've had a strong desire to go to the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island too? lol
best regards,

Bill O'Dea
Salt boilers mess / 122nd NY

[Spinster]

Yes sir.

Of course, I also labor under the illusion that I'd have Jane Seymour's hair.

[Micah Trent]

Awwww.

I'd pretty much agree with what Linda said, and of course would like to go back with her, too.


Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net

Okay, so who is getting the brownie points here between the hubby and wifey???

LOL...couldn't resist!

[westphalia]

If theorists are correct, and one cannot actually change or influence past events, but only be an observer of them, imagine the fortune you could amass. You'd know precisely what companies in which to invest, what properties to buy, what inventions should be financed and supported, etc. You'd be a masterful gambler, if you lived long enough to bet on the World Series. You'd be the world's greatest psychic - a Criswell, if you will, only talented.

That said, are not investments and speculation "influences" on historical events? If so, then the only way you could go back would be as a ghost, really. It's interesting to ponder.

I voted to go back permanently, too, ghost or not. It stinks here.

[Secesh]

I wish I could have shaken Lincoln's hand...