If you could go back in time to any point in history

[choolip]

If you could travel back in time to any location or era, when/where would you choose?

Rules are-
You get 24 hours
You are invisible so safety isn’t an issue and you can go to ‘off-limits’ places.
You are unable to touch anything so cannot alter or change the past, when the 24 hours are over you return straight back to the present and time resumes as normal.

You can move around as much as you want and use transport (if it exists in that time period) if you wish to see different locations within the time limit.

Can I walk thru walls? It's one thing to want to visit Jane Austen, but if the door to her room is closed, how do I get in?

I’d like to go back 5000 years to the Neolithic, to see the beginnings of Stonehenge and find out what rituals went on there, and what belief systems the people had. What was Silbury hill for?

Yes you can walk through walls

The Royal court in 1522/3 so I could see what really happened when Henry VIII met Anne Boleyn and what she looked like.

I'm more curious about Anne of Cleves, and what went wrong.

For myself, I would pick any time and place far, far away, before the world became internationalised and everyone wore local dress, had local customs and most people didn't know what was happening in other countries, or even 100 miles away. It could be Japan, or the Forbidden Palace, or Peru in the time of the Incas, just somewhere I could see a totally different world.

Excellent choices.

Anne of Cleves, yes! I’ve always assumed that they got off to a bad start with her not recognising him on the first meeting and it just never went anywhere after that - the things he said to get rid of her were appalling but that was just Henry being Henry.

The fact that they were good friends later on leads me to believe that there was not much more to it than that, but if you go back to ask her you can tell me!

I don’t think Holbein fudged the picture. They were just culturally too different.

I agree, the modern world is overwhelming. The worst of everything happening in the world being fed into us causing stress because we can do nothing about it. ☹️

Love this thread OP.
oh @SeaAndStars if only we could do that to our homes, I’d love it for the ‘Ghosts’ style experience, it would be fascinating, but also probably leave me feeling not alone in the house back in present day- bit scary?

Me too. I have ancestors who lived in that area back to 1300s in some cases. Years after Neolithic, but I have always wondered if I have roots there. I would love to find out more about what went on, why. Midsummer would be a good time for this back in time visit.

The ‘house through time’ idea is great. I’ve been able to find out quite a lot about the family who lived on my croft from 1899 to 1986 and visited their graves in the village kirkyard.

I’d love to go back to 1961. Sandy M inherited the farm from his father (also Sandy), married a local girl named Pat, and modernised the house - It was connected to the mains and he installed the house’s first bathroom.

It was all pink. Pink tiles, pink suite, pink paintwork, everything. It stayed like that until we had to take it out and modernise again in 2020 and he’d written ‘Sandy 🩷 Pat 14/04/1961’ in the plaster under the mirror that was cemented to the wall above the sink.

I’d like to be standing next to Pat the first time she saw it and turned the taps on, she must have been thrilled.

Those were special times 👌🏻

I’d like to go back to Pompei - the year before Vesuvius blew and see what it was like then.

I'd go right back to see a dinosaur, loved them since I was 3 and still find them absolutely fascinating!

It gives me Interview with the Vampire vibes, so I wouldn’t want to go too far back, the darkness of it all would scare me. Although, I do think seeing Henry VIII in person would be fascinating. I’d probably choose to go back to the 1950s instead, or maybe even the 1930s, or just before the First World War. I’d love to be a fly on the wall and watch my relatives, like my great-grandparents, I never got the chance to meet them, so it would be interesting to see if we were anything alike. I’d be interested in the everyday life of my ancestors, wandering around the area where I grew up and seeing how much has changed.

Think I'd go back and watch ABBA perform live. I'd be in the front. I think I'd go to their concert in Sydney because I've always wanted to go there too. I'm presuming I don't have to do a 24 journey to get there OP???? If that is the case, I'll go to their concert in London instead.

Ooh great idea. I've always wanted to go back to coastal Spain before the real mass tourism of the 1960s onwards. To get a feel for what it was like under Franco with the Guardia Civil looming large. What must it have been like to see those first pale Northern Europeans stretched out on the beach, luxuriating in the warmth of the sun? I've read a couple of books touching on the theme (Norman Lewis - Voices of the Old Sea; James Michener - The Drifters) but I would really welcome the chance to experience it for myself ... if only for 24 hours!

My brain is thinking of so many different possibilities! Could we do this more than once and spread out our 24 hours across different places and time periods?

On a personal level, I know my grandmother always wanted to share something of her childhood with the family that she never did. I’d love to spend some time observing it to see what she might have wanted to share, though picking the right 24 hour period may prove tricky!

On a curiosity level, I would love to go back to when humans were pre-civilization just to see what life truly looked like back then. I would also love to see a day in the life of so many historical women because their stories tend to be written from the perspective of men so seeing it through their viewpoint (or, I guess, my viewpoint but their reality) would be so fascinating. I just don’t know which woman I would pick or which 24 hour period!

Hadrian's Wall in AD 100or 200. I live near there and constantly visit different locations along it. I always try to imagine what it would have been like for the soldiers and locals. All the different languages and cultures brought together. I find it fascinating.

What a great question!

Id love to spy on Henry VIII, just to see what he actually looked like in the flesh and how he acted, talked etc

I’m following@FanSpamTastic and would also like to spend time exploring Pompeii in AD 78. I’d obviously want to choose a day when there were events at the amphitheatre and during an election. Tbh I’d probably choose to spend the morning in Rome and the afternoon in Pompeii.

Paris turn of the last century. Art, music, amazing clothing, beautiful design.

I'd either do a Marty McFly and watch my parents courting. They met for the first time at a youth club Dad had just joined turned 17 and recently joined the Navy Mum was 14 and still at school. Or, I'd join Princess Diana on the eve of her wedding and watch all the wedding preparations as she contemplated her future.

This. I am fascinated by the Great Exhibition

I would love to go on the Titanic, but I think I'd find it too sad, knowing how many people died.

@choolip Just a clarification on this rule -

You are invisible so safety isn’t an issue and you can go to ‘off-limits’ places.
You are unable to touch anything so cannot alter or change the past, when the 24 hours are over you return straight back to the present and time resumes as normal.

What happens if you go back to witness an 'unsolved mystery' - e.g. a still unsolved missing persons case, to see what actually happened to them - is there anything that prevents you from using/sharing the knowledge you have gained?

Need to know this before answering!

This is such a brilliant idea for a thread!

While there are lots of times in medieval and early modern history I'd love to witness, I feel like it'd be cold, smelly and I might not fully understand the discussion. Also OP, can you clarify if the invisible watcher would be safe from the Black Death/smallpox etc?!

So for the moment I think I'd settle for following John Maynard Keynes and his wife Lydia around for the day, at the Bretton Woods conference in the States in 1944. Maybe this day: "One evening Lydia and Maynard sang 'The Blue Danube' to guests in the upstairs lounge as H.E. Brooks of the British delegation played the piano."