What time period would you live in, and where, if you had to for one year?

[Widebrim]

(If there already exists a thread like this, my apologies to the bartenders, but I haven't seen one...)

Okay, we talk (write) a lot about the past, and express opinions on our favorite eras for clothing, automobiles, music, movies and everything else, but...If you had to go back in time to specific period of the 20th century, and stay there for the period of one year, which would it be, where, and why? In this "fantasy," let's just assume that you have a home and job (of your choice) waiting for you, so as not to get bogged down in how you would survive/fit in, etc. Don't forget, though, you have to go back in one year, so try to include how this would influence what you do during your stay.

 

[scottyrocks]

I seem to remember a thread just like this because I had contributed to it.

 

[Widebrim]

^^Could be, but I couldn't find it.

 

[Widebrim]

Interesting that so far every time period has votes except 1914-18...And please include a few lines as to why you chose that time period.

 

[LizzieMaine]

January, 1937. Flint, Michigan, so I could join the Women's Emergency Brigade. I wouldn't have much time to shop.

 

[esteban68]

Ok I'll go for the 14-18 period, 1915 to be precise so I could hopefully help or even avert the deaths of my two great, great uncles who died on the 5th and 14th November that year in Belgium whilst serving with The Sherwood Foresters, the results of their deaths plagued my grandfather's close family of that time in many,many ways for years.

 

[Shangas]

I voted for the Depression; 1929-1939. A lot of the things I collect (or covet) were manufactured during this era.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

Give me the fifties. The cars, the early fifties fashions were great, the narrower brims and lapels of the latter part of the decade do little for me, though. Television and radio were fantastic, as well.

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

I've lived in all of the three latter periods. I wouldn't trade today for any of them! When I was a kid in the early 1960's, I dream of things like what my iPhone turned out to be. And no Internet! Forget that!

 

[GoldenEraFan]

I chose 1945-1950. Every car being produced was beautiful, Boogie Woogie music was king, animated cartoons were in there prime, streamline moderne or "art deco" was still going strong and the war was over. If I had to choose an exact date I'd say January 1st 1947.

 

[Widebrim]

Give me the fifties. The cars, the early fifties fashions were great, the narrower brims and lapels of the latter part of the decade do little for me, though. Television and radio were fantastic, as well.

Gee, why am I not surprised? And I can see you in a 1958 Buick, Tom, with a mountain of chrome on it...

 

[Widebrim]

Ok I'll go for the 14-18 period, 1915 to be precise so I could hopefully help or even avert the deaths of my two great, great uncles who died on the 5th and 14th November that year in Belgium whilst serving with The Sherwood Foresters, the results of their deaths plagued my grandfather's close family of that time in many,many ways for years.

That is interesting and sad, Esteban. My great-uncle was gassed during the Great War, while serving in the U.S. Army, but he did survive.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

One of my favorites, as well as the '58 Olds or a '59 Cadillac lol

Gee, why am I not surprised? And I can see you in a 1958 Buick, Tom, with a mountain of chrome on it...

 

[3fingers]

I voted 1945-1950. I actually had this conversation with my grandfather many years ago. He liked this time because he said that is when he actually started to make money. (He was a farmer) He made it through the depression, then the war came. I also love the cars, the clothes and the movies and radio from this time. I also think that this was possibly the beginning of the end of what we refer to as the golden era. Life started changing rapidly in the 50's.

 

[Widebrim]

^^I was tempted to choose the time period, too. So much was going on after the war, and I think you're right about it being the beginning of the end of the Golden Age: The meteoric rise of television set sales, the end of what has been called the Big Band era, the beginning of a mass movement to the suburbs, the New Look in fashion for women, more realism in English-speaking movies (as well as Italian neo-realism...), the start of court challenges against studio parent company movie theater chains, new designs in automobiles (starting with Studebaker in 1947), and so on.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Maybe this might be for another thread but where would you want to live in the time period of your choice?

 

[Widebrim]

^^Although this thread also does ask where you would live, I suppose there could be another one which just specifically asks that question.

I would either live in LA or NYC or both, before going into the service...

 

[LizzieMaine]

If I couldn't be out fighting in the heart of the labor movement, I wouldn't mind being right here. This was a bustling town in the late thirties -- almost a third more population than it is now, the center of commerce for the whole mid-coast region of the state, with three theatres, a fine downtown department store, four drug stores, half a dozen good restaurants, three big hotels, a dozen gas stations, a burgeoning local manufacturing industry, excellent housing, railroad connections to the whole east coast, and no smirking irony of any kind. By any standard by which I myself would judge such things, it was a better place to live in 1937 than it is now.

 

[GoldenEraFan]

Some visual reference for why I chose the 1945-1950 period

 

[AtomicEraTom]

As for where, I'd be happy right where I am. If somewhere else, maybe Milwaukee or the surrounding suburbs. Knowing what I know now, I could be a lucrative businessman in that area.