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Original poster

if you had a time machine....

42 replies

EmmaGrundyForPM · 06/12/2019 13:31

Inspired by something I read on another thread, I started thinking about where I'd choose to visit if I had a time machine.

Assuming you could use it to observe and not to interfere with or change the course of history, where and when would you visit?

I might opt for Jesrusalem.circ AD33 to see if I could see Jesus, not because I'm overly religious but more because it would be interesting to see what really happened. Altnatively I'd like to go back to when Stonehenge was being built to see how it was done.

So what would other people choose?

OP posts:
ToeNailSoup · 06/12/2019 13:36

Great question but so many choice... Periclean Athens, Egypt under Rameses I, the Ziggurat of Ur. If you went for 14AD, you could nab Augustus and Jesus

Or maybe the 1950s... thick, thick shakes, real fat burgers, big Chevvies, cheerleaders. If not the '50s, then the '60s to see the Rolling Stones and have a Coke (coke in their prime, out of a bottle)

Grin

sorry couldn't resist

BeBraveAndBeKind · 06/12/2019 13:37

I'd go back to the last time I spoke to my dad before he died and tell him that I love him and how much I appreciate everything that he did for me. The fact that my last conversation was about there being juice in the fridge just sucks and still bothers me after 30 years.

Everycloud12 · 06/12/2019 13:41

I'd like to see how my grandparents grew up. They came from real poverty and my grandfather was orphaned at a young age.

I'd like to take a look at some prehistoric animals (from behind a reinforced barrier).

Original poster
EmmaGrundyForPM · 06/12/2019 13:41

I'm sorry @BeBraveAndBeKind. My dad died last year and I'd love to.talk with him again too. But we'll need a different time machine for that- this one is for observing not interacting.

OP posts:
Original poster
EmmaGrundyForPM · 06/12/2019 13:42

@Everycloud12 oooh, dinosaurs! But yes to the reinforced fence.

OP posts:
ParkheadParadise · 06/12/2019 13:43

I would go back and give my dd a lift. She told me she would get the bus. She walked out the house and I never seen her again. Also just to hear her voice.

Original poster
EmmaGrundyForPM · 06/12/2019 13:44

Oh God @ParkheadParadise that's awful. I cant even begin to imagine.

OP posts:
Babdoc · 06/12/2019 13:51

I think your original suggestion is unbeatable, OP. What could possibly outdo being in the presence of the living God, the word made flesh, in Israel in 33AD (or thereabouts)? But I couldn’t bear to see Him crucified - I’d want to either see Him preaching and performing miracles, or meet Him post resurrection.
However, as I’m now in my sixties, I assume it won’t be all that long before I meet Him anyway!

JacquesHammer · 06/12/2019 13:53

ParkheadParadise Flowers

I would love to be able to visit the Tudor period, specially Henry VIII’s reign. Or the reign of Charles II - specifically at the start of his reign.

antisupermum · 06/12/2019 13:57

I think the time period that I find most interesting would be the Vikings/Pagan era. (sorry, I don't know actual date ranges!) I find all of that culture terribly interesting and I would like to watch how their rituals were performed etc.

maybe I just watch too much television

golddustwomen · 06/12/2019 13:58

I would go to reading festival 1992 so I could watch nirvana. I've watched the DVD 63827274948 times but my god I wish I had of been there !! I wasn't born til later in the year.

Mine sounds silly reading some of these. Thanks

Everycloud12 · 06/12/2019 14:00

Could our own aging be suspended by this time machine because I'd like to spend time in too many eras?

I worry that I wouldn't live long enough to get full use out of the time machine.

Everycloud12 · 06/12/2019 14:01

All those unsolved mysteries. I could observe what happened to the princes in the tower, Lord Lucan etc

HirplesWithHaggis · 06/12/2019 14:06

I'd actually like to go forward a hundred years or so, just to see how historians write up current politics. I mentioned this to my ds the other day, and he said we should pass that request down through the family so that if time travel is invented in the future, a desendant can come back and tell me. Grin

HirplesWithHaggis · 06/12/2019 14:07

descendant

MinesaPinot · 06/12/2019 14:08

Parkhead Paradise That is heartbreaking - a virtual hug and some Flowers for you

JacquesHammer My thoughts exactly, particularly the Tudors

I'd like to go back to the time Britannia is set, just to see if it's as batshit as the series is making it out to be! And I'd like to go back to the 1930's so that I can wear glamorous gowns (I'd be society rich obviously), 1947 so that I can wear the Christian Dior New look and the 1950's for the fabulous skirt/frothy petticoat combos.

TammyKat · 06/12/2019 14:09

I’d probably go back to the 70’s. I’ve always been fascinated with that era

MinesaPinot · 06/12/2019 14:10

golddustwomen yours doesn't sound silly at all! I was also thinking of all the bands/singers that I wished I'd seen - Queen, David Bowie, George Michael, Ella Fitzgerald in her prime, the list goes on...

MissDew · 06/12/2019 14:11

I'd like to be there when...…..(even though I can't bring many to mind at present). Be an invisible casual observer. Would I be going back as I am now. A fully fledged adult ? I suppose I would be. That brings me to a PP's point. Would we age or stay the same. I'm assuming stay the same but I like to think I would be invisible. No worries about not appearing in Elizabethan costumes etc.

I would like to see my great grand parents get married. I would like to see my grand parents get married. I'd like to meet deceased relatives who I've done a bit of family history research on.

There's others both public and private. However, on the day of the incident it would be quite mundane I should think.

Pogmella · 06/12/2019 14:14

Id go back to Cromwell’s England and see if people really did stop celebrating Christmas or if in the villages they just kept it on the down low

BarkandCheese · 06/12/2019 14:15

Oh, this is my fantasy! If I had a time machine I’d never stop travelling, I’d love to solve historical mysteries, I think the JFK assassination would be first on my list. I want to see different eras, see the big events but also everyday life. I want to see the dinosaurs too...

Onetraumaatatimeplease · 06/12/2019 14:19

I'd want to go to Victorian England. Mainly to find out who Jack the Ripper really was.
Also ancient Egypt to see the pyramids being built and find out why.
Then to Egypt again to see if Cleopatra really was as beautiful as were lead to believe.
Finally I'd be off to Henry viii court, to find out if Anne Boleyn was guilty of treason.

Onetraumaatatimeplease · 06/12/2019 14:19

And as you can tell, I've thought about this, a lot.

ginghamstarfish · 06/12/2019 14:24

So many choices! Mainly though I'd convert my money into gold, go back 100 years and buy property, then I'd be wealthy now and could spend as much time as I wanted traveling to different eras. I've thought about this a bit too much haven't I?

claracluck78 · 06/12/2019 14:24

So many!

To hear Elizabeth I and her speech at Tilbury regarding the Armada

The opening day of the 1851 Great Exhibition with Victoria and Albert. I suspect she was great fun & he was a wonderful mind. And all those amazing products, people, sights and industrial energy

The decadence of royal courts at their peak - Tsarist Russia, Georgian England, Louis XVI's Versailles

But also seeing my Grandparents wedding day back in the 1959s