time machine

[Urban Coyote]

No thank you. I’ll start here. I wouldn’t mind living the 80s and 90s over again

YES!

 

[dracer]

None of us are tough enough.

and I am one of them

 

[Youngblood]

Even with all the dangers to face, it would be hard to pass up on the true freedom of those times.

No building permits, hunting and fishing licenses, taxes-especially property tax (govt rent). Just to name a couple.

Seeing the amount of game and unspoiled and undeveloped nature. Herds of buffalo, salmon runs in damn near every stream. The American Chestnut trees still alive. Seeing indians in their traditional ways.

Id would go. I might die fast but id die in a real “Free Country”.

 

[Daveboone]

I didnt read through all the previous....but folks forget the horribly high birth mortality rate (for both the infant and mother), not to mention childhood death rate, the huge number of folks who died early from diabetes, heart conditions, pulmonary issues, mumps, measles, etc. Death by seasonal exposure, common every day workplace injuries resulting in death, dismemberment or slow poisoning, sepsis from simple easily avoided infections from splinters, ingrown toenails, tooth infections, common ear infections, etc. Even the well to do ran many of the same risks....there is a great depiction in the movies "John Adams", of his sisters battle with breast cancer...she being strapped down on the kitchen table, to be literally filleted by the surgion without anasthesia......
I am the first male child in my family to live past 59. Dad and grandfathers, going back as far as we are able, were all dead by then. Dad was colon cancer, but it was usually put down to "old age", or heart condition. All smoked, all seldom went to the doctor for preventive care. Several chronic alcoholics in the group. Year 59 was stressful for me....My best friend and wife took me out on my 60th birthday to celebrate getting past it!
The good old days? No such thing. Simpler days? maybe.

 

[Daveboone]

Walking through the old cemeteries here, many kids died before they were one year old. The local cemetery has a listing of how everyone met their end, disease was a big factor.

the many small marker stones in old cemeteries are of unnamed children, and many, many more were buried in back lots, stillborn.

 

[Tenring]

We can never go back to or forward so all is irrelevant . Hate to be a party pooper but it’s fun to imagine.

 

[ernbar]

One thing I have been thinking about is by someone going back and changing something that may even look to be inconsequential may in fact alter the future. I remember watching the Star Trek episode “Tomorrow is Yesterday” where the F104 pilot was beamed aboard the Enterprise due to a time warp. That was a problem cause his son would lead the first mission to Mars some years into the future so Kirk and the boys had to figure out how to return the pilot back to his time. Great storyline.

 

[smokepolehall]

If i could have been born in 1750 in NC, instead of 1950. Then yup it would suit me fine. To know what i know & some how took a trip back. Not to good ya know. I am already busted up & totally disabled. That would be the pits

 

[MezcalCharlie]

I like this thread and some of the comments but I think the tendency to glorify the past and long for the good old days is a common emotion throughout our history. I’m sure there were Centurions in the Roman Army complaining about the quality of recruits and how the standards were slipping, just as you’ll find in any VFW or NCO club today. I remember when, in the 1960-70’s we just threw garbage out of the car. McDonald’s, beer bottles and soda bottles. Trash was everywhere. I don’t miss that. A river, the Cuyahoga, actually caught fire and burned in 1969. The 13th time it had caught fire due to pollution. And smoking! Everyone and everything stunk like tobacco. Non smokers in a bar smelled like Humphrey Bogart. I don’t miss that. I do miss reservations for dinner, dressing for it. No baseball caps or cargo shorts. The phone book, the wall phone and no phone when you were out. They just couldn’t reach you. That was a peaceful, wonderful experience. Anyway, each age has some good and bad right? Enemy the black plague had low unemployment, right?

 

[JimFlint]

I would just long enough to leave myself a note in a safe deposit box with instructions to buy as much Apple, AT&T, GE and Costco as I was able, one year after the IPO. Yes, it would be fun to be able to get back before things got all messed up with technology.

 

[Ohio Rusty]

Too many of us would be dead long before we reached our present age. Heart attacks, strokes, cholera, etc. I suppose life might be good while it lasted but those folks had their own problems and might have wished they had lived in an earlier age.

I'd be dead. I had unexpected heart issues at 50. (Heredity). Without modern medicine, I'd be long rotted away by now.
Ohio Rusty ><>

 

[Zapadach]

No thanks, I will stay right here with all the modern advancements we have specially in the medical field. Back then a simple cold or a cut was enough to punch your ticket.

Let's see....medical advantages..... well doctors giving pills rather than telling their patients they have to stop eating the junk they eat. No more house calls, or that exercise and diet will cure the majority of ailments Americans suffer from. Do you know, before 1914, very few of Americans suffered from heart disease, except congenital problems, as in the case of Robert E.Lee. I think I would do just fine 200 years ago, don't forget everyone were not trappers or mountain men. Just before the Civil War 80 percent of Americans lived on farms. They were eating home grown food, and Americans did not become a beef eating society until after the Civil War. They ate barn yard meat and vegetables from the kitchen garden. Or they hunted wild game on the Woodland areas by the farm. How do I know I wood do fine 200 years in the past ? Because I live like that now, I have not been to a doctor in over 20 years, and when I did go to a doctor, it was for a DOT physical required by my employer and the law. My blood pressure is great, my energy is great, I take no pills of any kind, and I still enjoy a sip of bourbon occasionally. I exercise several times a week, and I am stronger than many men half my age, and I am just shy of 70 years of age. Sorry for the rant, but I truly believe most people are selling their lives short by buy into all the crap the medical business tells them.

 

[Rob M.]

A kit ?! .....ok

 

[Rob M.]

I'd be dead. I had unexpected heart issues at 50. (Heredity). Without modern medicine, I'd be long rotted away by now.
Ohio Rusty ><>

Me too bud ....I had three herniated discs at age 41 . One fell out onto my siatca nerve paralyzed my left leg ....I screamed for almost a week at 3 different hospitals until emergency surgery finally came .... Was excruciating. In the 18 th or 19 th century they'd have just given me a pistol ....

 

[Cayman like]

Let's see....medical advantages..... well doctors giving pills rather than telling their patients they have to stop eating the junk they eat. No more house calls, or that exercise and diet will cure the majority of ailments Americans suffer from. Do you know, before 1914, very few of Americans suffered from heart disease, except congenital problems, as in the case of Robert E.Lee. I think I would do just fine 200 years ago, don't forget everyone were not trappers or mountain men. Just before the Civil War 80 percent of Americans lived on farms. They were eating home grown food, and Americans did not become a beef eating society until after the Civil War. They ate barn yard meat and vegetables from the kitchen garden. Or they hunted wild game on the Woodland areas by the farm. How do I know I wood do fine 200 years in the past ? Because I live like that now, I have not been to a doctor in over 20 years, and when I did go to a doctor, it was for a DOT physical required by my employer and the law. My blood pressure is great, my energy is great, I take no pills of any kind, and I still enjoy a sip of bourbon occasionally. I exercise several times a week, and I am stronger than many men half my age, and I am just shy of 70 years of age. Sorry for the rant, but I truly believe most people are selling their lives short by buy into all the manure the medical business tells them.

Congratulations. Not everybody the same.

 

[bpd303]

I remember when, in the 1960-70’s we just threw garbage out of the car. McDonald’s, beer bottles and soda bottles. Trash was everywhere.

There are still plenty of pigs, today still doing that.

 

[Youngblood]

Dont forget, many, if not most basic health issues are due to being fat. Guess what? You would not be fat living in those days, no microwaves or frozen processed foods and a physically demanding lifestyle.

 

[The Crisco Kid]

Let's see....medical advantages..... well doctors giving pills rather than telling their patients they have to stop eating the junk they eat. No more house calls, or that exercise and diet will cure the majority of ailments Americans suffer from. Do you know, before 1914, very few of Americans suffered from heart disease, except congenital problems, as in the case of Robert E.Lee. I think I would do just fine 200 years ago, don't forget everyone were not trappers or mountain men. Just before the Civil War 80 percent of Americans lived on farms. They were eating home grown food, and Americans did not become a beef eating society until after the Civil War. They ate barn yard meat and vegetables from the kitchen garden. Or they hunted wild game on the Woodland areas by the farm. How do I know I wood do fine 200 years in the past ? Because I live like that now, I have not been to a doctor in over 20 years, and when I did go to a doctor, it was for a DOT physical required by my employer and the law. My blood pressure is great, my energy is great, I take no pills of any kind, and I still enjoy a sip of bourbon occasionally. I exercise several times a week, and I am stronger than many men half my age, and I am just shy of 70 years of age. Sorry for the rant, but I truly believe most people are selling their lives short by buy into all the manure the medical business tells them

 

[Myers16]

Yes most of us have lived long enough to suffer for our youth. My case jumping out of perfectly good air planes and trying to tough through a broken back and a badly injured neck. At 64 led to a stroke and neck decompression surgery and the Dr lined up to do the back Keith rods and plates like they did the neck. Yes I would loved to have seen the west after the war of Northern aggression. Might have been with Custer who knows but it might have been better dying earlier in “good old Days”.

 

[kyron4]

At this point in my life I'd rather live 6 months in 1820 and die with all the experiences I could have, being okay if I was killed by a bear, an arrow, or dysentery ; than trudge on 20 more years in the modern world as my body slowly brakes down and becomes a husk of what it once was.

Wow, I guess I'm feeling a little morbid tonight. Been a long week I guess.