Could you survive?

[1961MJS]

Yep, nobody has patience. Instant gratification is the name of the game. Now, lack of ambition is an issue, too. In my department at work, there's 8 of us. Two, including myself, wish to make it onto something else in life. The rest sit there talking about how they will spend the next 50 years working there. My co-worker and I are just there to earn some money to get established and then either go to college or start a business or something of the like.

Hi Tom

I strongly suggest that you go to night school or take online classes. Don't give up the day job. My kid is taking 8 hours a semester and working full time at a bank. They let him flex hours, and half or more of his classes have been online.

Later

 

[AtomicEraTom]

Going to discuss some schooling this week.

Hi Tom

I strongly suggest that you go to night school or take online classes. Don't give up the day job. My kid is taking 8 hours a semester and working full time at a bank. They let him flex hours, and half or more of his classes have been online.

Later

 

[Carl Miller]

Im sure I could find work as a gas/diesel mechanic back then.

I'm going to school now for CAD, CAM and manual machining. My current job pays just enough to cover bills and lets me play with my hours any way I want while I go to school. I am very fortunate compared to many others in my area still looking for work.

 

[TomS]

I'm a police officer, and been at it for nearly three deades. There would be some changes, most of which would make my job *easier*. In the 1930s there was a level of respect afforded a cop, both by society and the courts that doesn't exist today. Of course, as an occupation we worked hard at earning the public DIS-trust, but thats another matter.

 

[Stanley Doble]

At least the world would make sense. Roosevelt wouldn't let them get away with all the crazy goings on we have these days.

 

[kiwilrdg]

I'm a police officer, and been at it for nearly three deades. There would be some changes

The British TV show "Life on Mars" springs to mind when I saw your post. He was sent to the '60s (before things got stranger) but some of the things would be similar. (I didn't think the American version covered the changes as well)

 

[HadleyH]

There is no reason why I shouldn't survive! So the answer is yes, I would survive just fine!

 

[Edward]

The British TV show "Life on Mars" springs to mind when I saw your post. He was sent to the '60s (before things got stranger) but some of the things would be similar. (I didn't think the American version covered the changes as well)

1970s, but yes... I've not seen much of the US version, but what I did just didn't grab me. Felt like watch something glossy and Starsky and Hutch rather than gritty and The Sweeney. That's not to say they didn't do the US 70s well - but it was a very different pop culture experience for them.

 

[kiwilrdg]

Sorry, I was thinking the wrong decade. They had some things in the US version that were anacronistic that confused me (aside from the whole plot).

The thing that I liked more was the police work. I was trained by and have retired police officers working as deputies in my division. Some of my guys were rookies in the early '60s so the contrast hits home. I think they had old cops working on the scripts because some of the friendly little things old school cops do to get people talking (not hitting someone with the phone book) were used by the period guys.
Perhaps one of the hardest things for people to adapt to would be the form of social interaction. Kind of like the way people from the US going to France insult people without knowing it by going into or leaving a restaurant without saying a general hello or goodbye to everyone in the room. The farther removed the culture, the harder the little social changes would be.

 

[Hunter_aka_Scotty]

No difficulty for me. I already make historical clothing for a living so I would just set up shop as a tailor.

 

[Justin B]

I'd be quite alright. I know the printing business (running a press and shooting plates), also trained as a mechanic specializing in classic (though working on them when new would be a trip!). And if all else failed, there's always the military.

 

[kiwilrdg]

I thought about the original question and I think anyone who posts here would have to say no because saying yes to"could you continue to live in the way in which your accustomed" would mean you are not using a computer, which is clearly wrong.

I have several marketable trades but I would need a lower position because of the business learning curve. I would not know or understand the supply network that was being used and the recording/financial aspects of any job so it would take me some time to get the hang of things.

Even something as simple as a road trip would mean a challenge learning the types of routes because there was not a standardized system of road numbering/naming/color coding before 1956.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Though strangely, finding a job in 1937 (even in the middle of the Depression) would be a little bit easier than today because back then they didn't demand a ton of credentials for a job that a kid could do.

 

[Stanley Doble]

H L Mencken said any man who knew his trade, had read 50 good books, and wasn't afraid of ghosts could be successful in America. By that standard this crowd would have no trouble.

One thing that might be a little shocking is the generally lower standard of living. Someone with a good job like a skilled tradesman or lower middle class white collar worker, would have a less lavish lifestyle than some welfare families today. But would have been considered well fixed in the thirties.

 

[Hunter_aka_Scotty]

I grew up with out a computer, I still don't own a cell phone. I wouldn't miss either a bit. Heck I don't even miss them when at reenactments and I will go all the way back and do 1640's stuff.

 

[kiwilrdg]

I have noticed in my reenacting that the later the time period the more stuff you need. I can fit a viking camp in an old VW beetle, 1600s takes a full sized car, Victorian takes a van, for WWII we need two pickup trucks (for a camp, not a combat area bivvy).

I can't say I would or wouldn't do better in the past based on reenacting because I have a choice. When it is reality there is less choice in what you can have.

In my military career I was in situations where I was away from everything (sealed environment) for months and it is not the same as a short reenactment that you can make stop. But it can actually be easier at times if there is not a choice in the things you are doing without.

 

[Hunter_aka_Scotty]

I have noticed in my reenacting that the later the time period the more stuff you need. I can fit a viking camp in an old VW beetle, 1600s takes a full sized car, Victorian takes a van, for WWII we need two pickup trucks (for a camp, not a combat area bivvy).

I can't say I would or wouldn't do better in the past based on reenacting because I have a choice. When it is reality there is less choice in what you can have.

In my military career I was in situations where I was away from everything (sealed environment) for months and it is not the same as a short reenactment that you can make stop. But it can actually be easier at times if there is not a choice in the things you are doing without.

I agree!
However employment would be a cinch considering I would just continue to do what I already do for a living, make historical clothing.
Every time I do WW2 Displays it seems like I get everything out, discover I can't take it all and start cutting things out.

I grew up cattle ranching, one place I lived and worked there were virtually no modern conveniences, they had an out house which I enjoyed using as odd as that may sound, oil lamps only, no phone, no TV but there were electrical outlets and you had to start up an outside generator to run the Vacuum cleaner or light up the single solitary Christmas light sized light bulb hanging from the kitchen ceiling. Living in a simpler way is completely natural to me.

 

[Mr. Hallack]

Oh I could. My main skills are sales and customer service. Any job that required that (dept. store, car salesman, etc.) Yup. Don't need modern technology

 

[kiwilrdg]

I don't think anyone would be able to maintain the lifestyle they have now.

Getting a period equiviant lifestyle would be fairly easy, but the standard of living today is so much higher that the rich of the '30s had a lifestyle much like one can have on welfare today. We just have so much more stuff now. Everyone seems to realize that people have more than they need today, but we still have it.

We might be happier with less, but that is not "to live in the way in which your accustomed".

 

[David Conwill]

the rich of the '30s had a lifestyle much like one can have on welfare today

I hate it when I'm in line at the grocery store and the guy in front of me, wearing a Palm Beach suit, pays with food stamps then goes out and climbs into a coachbuilt Duesenberg!