If you were forced to turn back time and live in an era prior to the 20th century which one would it be?

Why would it be so bad?

I wear glasses, have had three knee ops, and a mouth full of fillings. Anytime prior to the 20th century would have been tragic for me!

If I had no ailments it would have to be the cowboy days. It's a guy thing. Mind you, if I lived in the cowboy days I'd probably rather be here.

cheers
Maynooth

Having researched my family tree back over 300 years I think I would rather stay where I am. It was unusual in those days to raise more than half your children to adulthood and mothers frequently died during or shortly after childbirth. Life expectancy was a lot less than it is now and life was very hard for all but the rich few.

If I could just nip back to watch for a few days I would choose to go to ancient Egypt and see the life of the Pharoes and the pyramids being built.

Well, at the risk of sounding trite, I'd like to be where I am right now, but some time in the 1700s. Just so I couls see what it was really like.

Why would it be so bad? Apart from the fact that I wouldn't last very long (I just aint that fit ) and I'd be a freak (too black for the white folks, and too white for the black folks)??? But I'd still do it regardless if I had the chance....

It would be ancient Greece or Rome (my favourite period in history) I guess!!

But it would be difficult to survive without computers and Internet I am afraid!

As long as I didn't have to stay there - Japan around the late 18th century. Just to see what it was like before America forced it to open its doors to the West. And also because my business and my passion is Japanese textiles - and for a number of reasons this is the time I'd most like to be checking out what everyone was wearing! Of course I don't think it would have been a great life for women of any class - and I'd like to get back to my 21st century freedoms pretty quickly.

2nd choice: I'd like to see Tasmania (where I live now) pre-1803, when Europeans arrived and started chopping down the trees and killing the whales that used to inhabit the Derwent River (Hobart).

Definitely NOT the 1500s!!

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WAY BACK WHEN

Next time you are washing your hands and complain because the water temperature isn't just how you like it, think about how things used to be...

Here are some facts about the 1500s:

Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May and still smelled pretty good by June. However, they were starting to smell so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odour. Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married.

Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children - last of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it - hence the saying, "Don't throw the baby out with the bath water".

Houses had thatched roofs - thick straw-piled high, with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the dogs, cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof. When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof - hence the saying "It's raining cats and dogs".

There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a real problem in the bedroom. There, bugs and other droppings could really mess up your nice clean bed - hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That's how canopy beds came into existence.

The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt, hence the saying "dirt poor". The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on the floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they kept adding more thresh until when you opened the door it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entranceway - hence, a "thresh hold".

In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start again the next day. Sometimes the stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while - hence the rhyme, "Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old".

Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show it off. It was a sign of wealth that a man "could bring home the bacon". They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and "chew the fat".

Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach into the food, causing lead poisoning and death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.

Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or "upper crust".

Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The combination would sometimes knock them out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and take them home where they were prepared for burial. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days - the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait to see if they would wake up - hence the custom of holding a "wake".

In small villages, the local folks started running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a "bone-house" and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realised that they had been burying people alive. So they thought they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the "graveyard shift") to listen for the bell; thus, someone could be "saved by the bell" or was considered a "dead ringer".

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Eeeeeuuuuuuwwwwwww!

Thanks proofreader, that was fascinating!

I've always had a daydream type of fantasy of going back to the 1700's to the great Spanish trading ports and watching the hustle and bustle of the shoremen and sailors and those magnificent Galleons at dock.

For me it would be the midieval times of the knights in shining armor, ladies in waiting, castles, and those great dresses (that I am glad we don't wear nowdays ). I wouldn't want to spend my whole life in that period, but I think a year or two of it would be fun.

Of course the thought of living in the past, without the benefits of modern medicine for example, is daunting - rather like living as a local nowadays in a really poor country, such as Mozambique.

However, it's worth bearing in mind that expectations were different. Certainly, in pre-industrial societies it was known and in many ways taken for granted that life was hard, very hard indeed for most people.

I'm a nineteenth century person myself, and I keep thinking I'd have looked more like my era in those days...yet, I'd have hated wearing corsets!
When I look at photographs of my grandmother's family I think of how natural I'd have fit in there looks wise!
Of course they lost many people from typhoid fever, and my pneumonia as a child and then a couple times as an adult, probably would have taken me off into the next world...

I would also have loved to have seen my ancestors in Wales in particular.

Like Maynooth and Biggles, I realize that if I'd been born at any time up to the mid-twentieth century, I would certainly have had a pretty wretched life; so I wouldn't willingly want to take a chance on going back in time.

But if I had to take the risk, I'd probably opt for the first half of the eighteenth century , especially if I could have good health and a modest but secure income (a "competency", I think they said in those days). I'd see some excellent neo-classical buildings going up in and around London. There would be excellent satirists like Swift, Pope, Arbuthnot and Gay to amuse me when I grew tired of the pretensions of my "betters". Handel would be turning out wonderful new operas every season in the Haymarket, and I might be able to sneak into the footmen's gallery to hear them. It would be difficult to find anywhere comfortable to live, but I could spend most of my time at a tavern or coffee-house for a couple of shillings a day.

Quote:

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I'm a nineteenth century person myself

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You look very young for your age, Bruyere.