Would you rather live then or now?

[Matt Deckard]

1930's or 2000's

 

[shamus]

Interesting question Matt,

You open many doors of thought on that one...

Would we be interested in the modern fashion of 1930 or would we be drawn to the 1850's if we lived in the 1930's?

Many of us have no skills to make a living in 1930. Only 2000.

Would be able to afford 1930?

I like living in 2000 with the thoughts of 1930 on my mind. Although I wouldn't mind visiting.. for a spell.

 

[missjo]

I would love to live in the 1930's, I think I would actually prefer it to todays world but just in case I would keep my return ticket to 2005.
Because no matter how much one thinks one would like an era, you wont know what its like to live there untill you do.
I am realistic enough to realise that I could go mad with frustration within a week and that I simply might not fit in.
My history teacher always said; The past is just like a far away country, a different language, different culture, different habbits but the same people.
And just like I would love to live in the Highlands of Scotland I wouldnt be suprised if I missed the flatlands of Holland after a while.

 

[K.D. Lightner]

I think I would live today. The cities were less crowded, then, and I am sure some things were much neat and nicer than today. Cars, Hollywood, pace of and simplicity of life, beauty of scenery, quality of clothes, music, natural food, unspoiled kids, less stress, etc.

But, there were diseases people died of then that they don't now. The racism, sexism and ignorance of many people in that era would get to me.

People who lived at the time of the depression told me how frightening it was to never have enough work, enough money, and sometimes enough food, and to watch while Hitler ascended to power, wondering what the future would bring.

Very few people attended college, certainly not working class folks. My mother reported that out of her h.s. graduating class (1937), two went on to college -- both wealthy, both males. One made it through, the other didn't. My father got through 10th grade, then dropped out to go to work. At least he was able to find work.

Everyday gadgets we have become used to would not exist. You would have a radio, maybe, but no TV, and no computers. We would all not know each other! I love my computer, it is like having a public library in my living room and every question I've ever had I have found at some point on the net.

I will stick with the Millenium....

karol

 

[missjo]

But, there were diseases people died of then that they don't now.

True but today we have other diseases that take their place, AIDS for instance.

The racism, sexism and ignorance of many people in that era would get to me.

True but that does depend on where you would be, for instance in big cities like Berlin and Amsterdam it wouldnt be much worse then it is today.
For instance homosexual in some ways had it easier in 1920s Berlin then for instance in modernday Dallas.
And of course sexism works both ways, I would go nuts when men expect me to nothing but be a housewife, but today there are many women who go nuts because they want to be a housewife but feel pressured by society to have an career.
And for children today life has so many more pressures then it often had back then.

People who lived at the time of the depression told me how frightening it was to never have enough work, enough money, and sometimes enough food, and to watch while Hitler ascended to power, wondering what the future would bring.

True but here in Holland 1/3 of the working population was out of work, that ment that 2/3 of working population did have a job and many people forget that for people with a job in many cases life became easier because of the depression.
I talked to a lady who never even knew there was a depression going on till it was finished, her dad had a little shop and to them life went on pretty much as usual.

Very few people attended college, certainly not working class folks. My mother reported that out of her h.s. graduating class (1937), two went on to college -- both wealthy, both males. One made it through, the other didn't. My father got through 10th grade, then dropped out to go to work. At least he was able to find work.

Quite right, education has become much more available to the masses, little bit of social progress there that had a huge impact.

Everyday gadgets we have become used to would not exist. You would have a radio, maybe, but no TV, and no computers. We would all not know each other! I love my computer, it is like having a public library in my living room and every question I've ever had I have found at some point on the net.

Yes I too like my computer, but would I really really really miss it?
Im not sure, especially not if you live in a closeknit community, a neighbourhood where there is always something happening, etc.
I love my tv as well, but when I go on holiday within minutes Ive forgotten all about these things.
Also some gadgets I wouldnt miss at all...personal stereos, mobile phones, modern soundsystems, cars, cars and cars, etc

Any era has its good and bad points, there were things about the 1930s that were fantastic and some were awful, some I would give anything for to experience, others I would give anything for to avoid!

Just a trip on a zeppelin alone would be worth inventing a timemachine , hehehe.

 

[K.D. Lightner]

Now that is what I would really like -- to time travel. Then, I could go back and enjoy the neat things about the 30's, or any era, and return to the present. Think of all I could write about!

karol

 

[Biltmore Bob]

I would live in the 30s, yes, in a heartbeat...

I have no special skills, I was a Marine, I was a Cop, I am a dog trainer...all skills that could have easily have made me a living in the 30's.

 

[missjo]

Lets make a pact, if any of us get their hands on a timetravel machine we swear to let all the others here have a go as well

 

[Feraud]

I prefer the present to enjoy the best of both worlds!
If anyone does have a time machine, give me a call...

 

[missjo]

I think I sort of have a timemachine...afterall my house is early 1940s decorated, I have a old radio with a hidden mp3 player that enables me to listen to 1930s broadcasts, etc.
When I feel like it I can spend a few hours in the past...sort of...
All I need now is a handsome dreamboat to sit in the smokingchair so I can bring him his slippers and newspaper

Heres a short movie of me preparing for a evening indoors during blackout;
http://www.hab3045.nl/ill/verduistering.wmv

 

[Brad Bowers]

Just a trip on a zeppelin alone would be worth inventing a timemachine , hehehe.

As long as it wasn't the Hindenburg's last flight!

I'd like the best of both worlds, I guess. A lot of times I think we'd be better off without most of our modern technology, but I remember writing on an old Remington manual typewriter, and now remain quite content with my PC.

I prefer train travel to flying, so I would have been happy back then. Cities still had (somewhat) reliable mass-transit systems, and had not ripped out all of their streetcar tracks.

Neighborhood markets. There are still a few around, and they are true gems, but for the most part they are gone.

Brad

 

[Biltmore Bob]

My father is in his 60's, he was born in the late 30's, good health. My Grandmother was born in 1898, old but otherwise good health. My Father In Law is in his 70s and fought in the Pacific in WWII, good health too. The list goes on. My point is that these folks were born and lived through the 30s, living with the medicine of the times and they survived. I think I'd be alright.

 

[flat-top]

Hmmm.....when people tell me I was "born too late", I always wonder if that's accurate. I mean, would I be as passionate about The Golden Era if I were actually living during it? Would I even know it WAS the Golden Era? Probably not! I enjoy living in my romanticized version of the past, where I can pick and choose what suits me.
And just think about it...there will be some "retro" guy in 2055 dressing like and wishing it was 2005!
flat-top

 

[Wild Root]

Good topic!

Well, if I had to choose to live now or then I would say then! I’m an artist and I mostly know how to draw the old fashioned way. I can’t get a good artistic job today because I don’t know all the programs that they want me to know. I would love to work for an advertising agency or maybe for Disney back in the old days. I feel with my know how and skills I would be rather well off! I am aware of the sickness of that time but you also must look at how some people lived back then. Most sicknesses were found in the poverty stricken slums in big cities. Medicine wasn’t as good as it is today but, I think if one was to eat right and work hard they could avoid most illnesses.

About cars, I have fallen in love with my old car. I love the way they handle and drive. Slow they may be compared to today’s lightweight jobs but, I hate plastic cars! If you want life to slow down, just drive a 30’s or 40’s car every day! Also, some of our modern conveniences have made life a little busier! We have all these things to make life simpler, but do they really do that? We have become slaves to our possessions and TV isn’t a help at all. Now, if I lived in say 1936, I would be overjoyed to just sit at home after work with the family and listen to the radio. Ones imagination can paint some really swell pictures if it’s given a chance! And on the weekends I’d take the lady to catch a movie at a beautiful art deco movie house! People didn’t go to far out side of they’re city back in those days. If they left, it was on a train. I love trains and wish I could travel by them the way my grandparents did.

If you were to have the skills you have today and go back to the 1930's ha, You would be ok! You could invent some great things and make some good cash!

In the words of Bing Crosby, give me the simple life!

Root.

 

[Hondo]

Yes Good Topic.
________________________________________________

Two sides of every coin, my father grew up after the great depression, his family couldn’t afford to support him, went to live with his god-mother; finally got GED in his late 50’s.
Back then when there was “popular war� more jobs, trades were opening. Lucky one’s were well off to continue education. I’d say late 30’s and early 40’s.
I’m an artist at heart not my trade, so I’ll agree with WildRoot, on styles, clothes, autos, films and music. Sure there were racisim, discriminations, diseases, it was FDR that said we have nothing to fear but fear it's self (I think) I would tend to agree. Stay postive in frame of mind.
“Some kind of innocence is measured out of years� this applies to the Golden Era. I do especially love the woman, glamour of this era, times change. Time machine? we have that, its called a brain and memories, growing old gracefully is tough and sad.
I'm not to crazy about todays world, younger generation doesn't seem to know much about history, I live for today and for those nolonger here.

 

[MrBern]

Ever see GoodnightSweetheart?
It was a BBC comedy about a guy in the 90s who finds a timeportal to wartime London. He's unhappily married & unemployed, but finds love, fun & excitement in a pub in wartime London.
It was a scream watching him balance his double life.
And there was often a moral to the story.
In one ep, he fakes his own suicide to remain in the past.
But after a solid weekend, he's bored, hungry, lonely, annoyed & frustrated, so he returns to 90s London , where his bestfriend says, " Ah so it was a nice place to visit , but you wouldnt want to live there."
Between food rationing, no tv, bombings, gossiping landladies, he really didnt have a good time being stuck there 24/7.
Incidentally, he started a business selling antiuqes in a shop called Blitz&Pieces.
But I woudlve loved to have been a photog back then....
-bern

 

[Thunderbolt]

Hmmm.....when people tell me I was "born too late", I always wonder if that's accurate. I mean, would I be as passionate about The Golden Era if I were actually living during it? Would I even know it WAS the Golden Era? Probably not!

Remember the old saying, you don't know what you had until you lost it? I think the only reason we recognize the golden era for being...well golden, is because it has faded away. The style has changed so we notice the time change. If things like style, technology, the arts, politics etc. was the same now as it was sixty-some years ago, we wouldn't really notice the time change as much other than generations of families going by. I think it is because of these changes of style, technology, etc. that we think so much time has gone by. Durring the middle ages, several hundred years could go by but the conditions would still be the same. Now, 20 years can go by and we think its a totaly different world because we advance so rappidly these days. So in a nut shell, I am not necisarily attracted so much to the time but rather to the style. I wish our computers were made of wood, like the radios back then. If the early 21'st century took on the technology of today, but with the style, courtisy, temperment, manerisms (you know, all the things we love)of the golden era, I'd say forget about going back then. But since we're time traveling here, can I go to Post WWII 1940's or early 1950's instead of the 1930's? I want to cruise and get a burger at the drive-in. :hamburger

 

[Lauren]

Now.

1. I would not be going through the actual Depression Era
2. I would not have a sweetheart doing battle in WWII
3. I have the computor
4. My Job will be here when the war is over if I choose it to be.
5. I can wear flats, open toed shoes with unpainted toenails, no stockings, go out with wet hair, wear trousers, not wear a girdle (especailly when I'm pregnant some day), not wear lipstick, have no petroleum on my eyelids, not sleep in curlers, not have it electrically curled... on and on and on...
6. I have an electric vaccum cleaner, refrigerator, dish washer, and cleaning aids.
7. If I want to watch my favorite classic movies I can put them in my DVD player as often as I want, AND pause them if I have to go to the bathroom.
8. I can jump time eras with accuracy of construction (IE. the Victorians DID NOT have reverse rolls, bullet bras, and zippers)
9. I am free to use the fabric content and amount of yardage I want to when sewing
10. I have an electric machine that does straight stitch, zig zag, decorative stitches, and another one that finished my edge seams
11. It is normal for a woman to drive a car
12. Childbirth
13. I am not an old maid at 24
14. I have the option to travel back and forth between time eras with little difficulty (do you really think the people in the 30's and 40's had regency, 1700s, renaissance, and victorian re-enactments with any form of accuracy?)

I'm sure I could think of more. And I'm sure I do not have to list the glorious things about the era, since you already know

 

[Wild Root]

Hey Lauren, you do remember electric refrigerators and vacuum cleaners existed back then. It's not the cretaceous period we're talking about.

There were plenty women drivers! Who drove cars wile the men were at war? There were a few women taxi drivers too! Women wore plenty pants back in those days. I'm kind of surprised, you know this! I enjoy most of the modern toys of today but if some one asked if I wanted to go and live in 1936 or what not, I'd say sure! Where do I sign! I hate the modern mentality and the politically correctness today. I feel we have lost a few freedoms because of a sue happy society. I understand that the lady's had it a little rougher back then but, I have talked to lots who wouldn't trade their experiences for anything. There are pros and cons to every thought but, I have really given it some serious thought and I feel I would fit in right nicely in the late 30's or early 40's. Plus, I'm over the age of the draft and well, I wouldn't be going to war when that time came. I would have a nice little job painting propaganda posters or something!

Any way, I use a vintage toaster, iron, radio and car every day. I'm sick of crazy SUV drivers and people just being obnoxious and rude. Give me a town where there are only 7000 people and maybe 100 cars where finding a parking spot wouldn't take all day! Also where LA still had the best mass transit system, the PE Red Cars!

What I wouldn’t give to see Glenn Miller or Artie Shaw live! Oh, to see Benny Goodman, Harry James and all those great performers go to town! A time where celebrities didn't charge for autographs and they wanted to give them out!

A time where food wasn't full of preservatives and artificial this and that. A time where people believed in the Constitution and not tailor making it to fit their current life styles. Not rewriting history and changing things to fit their ideas! And a generation that supports our troops!

I'd take a one way ticket back then in a flash!

But, that's just me,

Root.

 

[Zach R.]

The Past: Its a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there.

But if anyone offered to let me borrow a DeLorean DMC-12 Twin-Turbo with a Flux Capacitor installed(and a full case of Plutonium of course), I'd take it in a millisecond.