In what historical period would you have like to have lived?

debodun

debodun

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Location
way upstate in New York, USA
Have you ever thought about what period in history you would feel most comfortable living in? For me, I believe the Victorian era, as long as I was wealthy enough to enjoy the best that age had to offer. I find the rampant technology of today somewhat intimidating.
 

I think you're right in adding the caveat "as long as I was wealthy enough". I have a very small taste of Victorian life as my house was built right at the start of Victoria's reign and was re-modelled towards the end of her life. Much of the structure is still Victorian including the doors, plaster etc... It is a well built house and probably belonged to a merchant of some sort.


house.jpg
I live in a small village and in Victorian times, I see that it had a hotel, a blacksmith, shops, two churches and two schools as well as various craftsmen. So, I would have had all the basics, but if I wanted anything special, I would have needed transport (horse & carriage) and then the roads would have been little better than farm tracks.

On the other hand, I can tell from the architecture, that the houses in the towns and city suggested considerable wealth, so living there would have been much more comfortable. I think it would have been interestinng, but what job would I have done? I spent most of my working life first as an engineer and later as a software developer with IBM. Not much use in Victorian times!!
 
[h=2]In what historical period would you have like to have lived? [/h]
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Would I still have knowledge of my current life?

If so, it would be a toss-up between Victorian times and the '20's through the '40's.

In the U.S.
 
I think maybe I was born at the right time for me. I was born at the tail end of the great depression which gave me a sense of respect for the few things we had in our home. My typical toy was empty cigar boxes my Dad brought home from his friend at the store. I was old enough to follow ww2 closely and gained a knowledge of evil as well as extreme heroism and national pride. Those two life events helped me later to understand the important things in life.
 
I'm very satisfied to have been born in the 20th century - in spite of what seem like idyllic scenarios in previous times (country estates, horses and buggies, pretty dresses, beautiful landscapes, old fashioned manners, as say in Pride and Prejudice) they were also fraught with disease, wars and ignorance and no rights for minorities.

Things we see in the movie and television from past times appear nice but only for the wealthy ruling class, who had servants to do all the work. But even rich people got sick, were unhappy and women were dominated and also died during childbirth. Today, these negative things are still present, but at least scientific breakthroughs are being made to help us live better. The present is the best we've got.
 
Being British I sometimes think that the Victorian era relates to the UK, but of course it really just refers to the years 1837 - 1901.

Heres a pic of my nearest city, Aberdeen (Union Street) in the late Victorian era. - now the oil capital of Europe.
oldaberdeen.jpg
Still, I think a lot of the same things apply. The expansion of the railways, industrialisation, population growth etc.... and of course as with here, the difference between town and country living. But, if you really fancy living then, ge your teeth fixed first. I hear that dentistry was a bit primative!
Like SifuPhil, it's a choice between Victoria times and 20's&30's. Now, there's nothing political in this, but I'd like to have seen Berlin before the rise of the Nazis - the time that Christopher Isherwood described in his books.
 
Ok, I'll play - I would maybe like living in ancient Greece during peaceful times and in a wealthy household of course and servants.
 
Josiah09 said:
I agree and my experience was probably very much like yours. Although I didn't live in Yonkers I often waited for a trolley in Getty Square on my way home from school.
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Hah, hah - Genung's! They were still there (just barely) when I was going to Saunders High School in the early '70's! I forget when they finally closed their doors, though - probably not many years later. Thanks for the memories!
 
I wouldn't trade the time I was born for any other. I was a child in the '60's and came of age in the '70's so I got to reap all the benefits of the social changes of the '60's without risking being one of the ones arrested for protesting or draft dodging (though since I'm a woman the latter doesn't apply to me anyway). Coming of age in the '70's was simply fantastic. We were freer than previous generations from social norms. I could date a black man without being lynched and only got one dirty look for it truth be told. I could live alone and not marry or have children instead of being shut out of employment for being female. It was possible to pull myself out of the poverty of my parents. I could throw my husband out (not said black man, husband was about as white as they come) when he turned out bad (to put it mildly). And, well, DISCO!!! I'm sorry but I had to throw that in there.

Meh, things are tough today but it isn't the tech making them tough. Sometimes, I do feel like an old dog trying to learn new tricks but mostly I love new tech and take to it like a fish takes to water exclaiming oh, man, this is so cool! It's due to tech that we're even having this conversation and how cool is it that we can just log onto the internet and talk to people from all over the world? Plus, it was so much fun relating to first a daughter and then a grandson the stuff I've seen invented in my time that boggled their poor minds of the concept of doing without -- cell phones, microwaves, cable television, personal computers, digital anything really, said internet and, last but not least, video games. Want fun, explain AM radio to any one born after 1980.

It's been a fun journey and I look forward to the rest of it come what may! I'm living with health conditions wherein I may drop dead tomorrow or may live 30 more years. It's pretty much a crap shoot on that. But I'm satisfied that I've lived a full, rich life that overall I've enjoyed and will enjoy for however long I have left. Aging is hard; disability is hard and I can be frustrated to tears sometimes because I can't do things I used to do without a thought but then I get over it and just get on with enjoying my life as I tool up and down the main street of my town in my power chair going at top speed and do not envy my grandmother -- who I watched go from limp, to cane, to walker over my childhood same as my grandson has watched me do -- one iota.

Nope. I was born at the right time. I would not trade it for any other. I would not want to live back then and I would not want to be young now with the state of the world being what it is. I feel lucky to have been born in the last few years of the '50's.
 

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