"If you could time travel, where/when would you go?" Topic

So if time travel were safe, legal and affordable, where would you go? Would you witness a battle, a war, or a well loved period of history? Where, when and why, please.

Go back in time to try and kill Hitler. Isn't that the goal of all time travellers?

Mike

Chicago, 1893, The first day of the Columbian Exposition. The Great White City. I would then walk down 63rd to Wallace and burn down the "hotel" on the Southwest corner.

Probably back to 1000 BC to see the old hilltop fort near my home. But if I could time travel I'd be all over the place, my curiosity would know no bounds.

Rescue the contents of the Library of Alexandria and leave behind a bunch of trash for the mob to burn.

Robert

Dallas, 1963. Did Oswald act alone?

Berlin, 1945. Did Hitler escape?

Stake out at the tomb of Christ.

I'd go back to my first year of college and change my degree.

I'd go back 2,000 years and hang around with Jesus. Afterwards, I'd bop over to Waterloo, Gettysburg, Cannae and a few other famous battles to observe.
Finally, I'd drop into France in 1870 and try to convince the French to put up a better show!

I would like to go to 2540 BC or thereabouts to Giza to see if the Sphinx was built during that time. Of course I would need a universal translator if I needed to talk with someone if the Sphinx was already old by the time I got there.

Back in my hometown about 1960 to kick my own little butt and tell him to take school more seriously and when homework is done, spend more time on games than so much TV.

(I did manage to do a lot of reading.)

Non-historical answer here. I'd jump ahead a couple of days to get the winning Powerball numbers. Am I the only one thinking this?

Almost forgot. I'd avoid traveling back more than a few decades lest I sneeze and wipe out about half of the planets population.

Powerball.

I didn't think of that. It would have a more guaranteed effect on what life I have left.

The Sermon on the Mount.

Go back in time to try and kill Hitler. Isn't that the goal of all time travellers?

Mike

Yes. So clearly Hitler is fantastic at fending off time-traveling assassins.

Have to agree with Chris Wimbrow or just tell myself to buy IBM and Microsoft, etc. stocks back in the '70s

August 15, 1968. I'd wait outside a particular Quonset hut until a certain tall, skinny kid walked out and then I'd break both his legs with a tire iron and disappear. By the time I recovered from the broken legs I would probably have decided not to join the Green Berets.

LT

lutzen

Hanging around with Jesus?

I'd pop back to the 17th century and pick up Bishop James Ussher.

Then I'd take him back to 6:00 p.m. Saturday, October 23, 4004 BC and point at him and laugh very, very hard…

John T

Didn't we very recently have this chat already on TMP?

For personal fun, I'd like to live through the Sixties again but as an all-knowing ADULT this time, and enjoy the TV, movies, comics, and music as it happened. And maybe interfere with history if I could, stop some assassinations and all, you know.

Beyond that, beyond my own timeline, I'd like to hang around France, in about 1429, and witness Joan of Arc's career firsthand, try to solve some of the enduring mystery that surrounds her life. Go to Domremy or Vaucouleurs as she was setting out and tag along. Change history again if I could so she doesn't get captured.

" Go back in time to try and kill Hitler. Isn't that the goal of all time travellers?

Mike

Yes. So clearly Hitler is fantastic at fending off time-traveling assassins."

Now THERE is a sci-fi movie! How Hitler protects himself from time-travellers!

"I'm all yours, Smokey!"

@John
That's a bit harsh on Ussher, he was only working with the available material, I'd do the same, but with Ken Ham…

Broch builders, who and why. Also the Picts and what their symbol stones were all about.

Jurassic or cretacious…with a dead mans switch to pop me back when things went south !

Lots of great options.

I'd like to hop forward a bit though first, to try to see when humans travel to the first, distant star system, assuming we don't wipe each other out, first.

Could be a real shocker/setback, I suspect, so perhaps it would be better to go backwards first a bit, to more "predictable" eras.

Go back and have a chat with Jesus.

@ROUWPBTS

You're right, of course: I'd pick up Mr Ham along the way and – for him – I'd have a DVD of the Flintstones for him to watch as well….

There's a few others I'd pick up for the road trip back in time, mind you (I wouldn't want to just pick on Ken and the Bishop: over the last millennia and a half the world hasn't been short of deluded idiots) but I can see them fluffing the pillows for me in the Dawg House so I'll shut up right now.

John T

PS having said that, popping back on Archimedes, Galileo and da Vinci while I have the guys in the Delorean would be great too

Actually, it's the Temporal Integrity & Maintenance Enforcers which protects Hitler from all those assassins. Actually THAT would make a good book/movie: the Adventures of the TIME!

I would go back and persuade Christopher Columbus not to sail, pointing out the hundreds of years of misery that it would cause…

Take a camera and prove how the pyramids were built.

Then keep stopping at every great stone monolith and check for aliens----just to close the door on that theory

July 2nd – July 4th 1776 Philadelphia PA to watch and record the words of some of the greatest men in American history.

To spend some time with Jesus Christ, certainly.

My second choice would be to visit 5th century Athens. To be able to see the Parthenon, go down to the Piraeus and see the ships come in, visit the outlying farms with their olive groves, to meet Socrates, Pericles, to watch an Aeschylus tragedy or a comedy by Aristophanes…The mind boggles!

Toaster beat me to it.

Second choice would be the libraries of Constantinople,1204,before the Crusaders sacked it. I'd probably need some help with the statue of Herakles,though.

Then the House of Wisdom,Baghdad,1258,before the Mongols threw everything in the Tigris (boy,that wasn't a very good century for culture,was it?).

There's a short story series on this subject of cultural rescue,though I can't recall the author's name.

John T, Usher's error was recognized fairly quickly,and the date amended--to the next morning,at 9 AM.

Usher's error was recognized fairly quickly,and the date amended--to the next morning,at 9 AM

That's a relief!

Use my saucer-shaped time machine to travel back to Roswell, 1947 to find out what they really found there…

…wake up after a slight navigational miscalculation with an 'oh ####' as I look into an Air Force officer's face.

I think I'd need some kind of language assistance. If I went back to the times of the Buddha, Jesus, or Mohammed, I wouldn't be able to understand much of anything.

On the other hand, I'll have no trouble reading the next Powerball numbers.

I agree with Chris W. and psh. Go back to the 70's and put every penny in Apple, IBM and Microsoft stock.

Every Monday morning I'd pop back to the previous Friday night. Groundhog weekend for me.

I'd go right back to the start, watch the big bang and then see what really happened! My money is on Aliens ;-)

I would go back to every time I was away from my wife and kids and spend that time with them, telling them that they couldn't tell me about it.

I'd also go forward and find out why I die, then come back and do what I can to prevent it.

Plus, I would grab a couple hundred in cash, go back and play powerball the day before, and hang out in a hotel for a couple of days.

I can probably think of a hundred military events from my life that I would like to go back and somehow force to come out different.

For the wargamey/battle observation, I would love to see any of the lost details about WWII resistance activities.

Perhaps medieval England to find out whereabouts in the Wash King John lost his Crown Jewels.

Though would see if I could pop in on a few ECW battles to finally see what coats units wore and flags carried.

McGuinty's. 7:32 p.m. last week…. i hear it was memorable….

Maybe far enough back to make sure I didn't marry my first wife. On a more serious note, I would like to explore the historical Jesus.

Hafen:

There's a short story series on this subject of cultural rescue,though I can't recall the author's name.

Are you thinking of the St Mary's books by Jodi Taylor? She did some short stories and novellas as well.

LT

My thing is abandoned mines; I'd go back to the early 1900s, 1920s, or otherwise as appropriate to see some of them in operation.

Also, I'd go back to about 1980 and buy as many M16 lower receivers as I could, then sell them in the present day for as much as a new car (the current going price).