Time Machine

alphamale · #1 10-07-2005, 07:41 AM

Ever since I was a kid and read H.G. Wells' Time Machine, I wanted to go back in time and check historical events. I wanted an "erase" mechanism so that every impact I made would be undone when I came back. I really wanted to be at great historical moments and see what was true. I would take a history book back with me, so I could read passages to those written about. I imagined that, e.g., if I did that with George Washington, for some parts he would say "they got that right", and for others he laugh and say "who thought that up"? I want to go to famous battles while they are occuring (at a safe distance). I want to hear great speeches. I would like to walk around ancient Rome. I especially would want to have a conversation with Benjamin Franklin.

Veritas · #2 10-07-2005, 02:06 PM

I'd like to find out who Jack the Ripper was.

Oh, and what happened to the Princes in the Tower. I always thought Richard III was innocent. Henry VII knew more than he let on.

And I would like to witness some events in the lifetime of Anne Boleyn. She was one helluva a woman, not the termagent she's made out to be.

I'd like to retrieve the reputations of history's most-maligned characters.

Dingfod · #3 10-07-2005, 02:22 PM

I only want to go back in time to slap the shit out of myself when I was about 18. That boy needed his head set straight.

inland wave · #4 10-07-2005, 07:00 PM

humm. Warren, just need to leave it alone and move on. Life is just to short, to keep looking at the past. We all make mistakes, everyday. Some mistakes are just bigger than others. Yeah, you pissed your mom off, but I can tell you that if you had not pissed her off then, you would have later on. Just be nice to her when you talk with her and above leave the past where it belongs when you talk with her.... in the past. That is one thing I have noticed about your family is that they really like talk about the past, especially when it comes to old flames and mistakes each one of you kids have made. Geeze...there is to much to talk about in the present than to be rehashing the old shit all the time. You know what I mean. :yup:

Leesifer · #5 10-07-2005, 07:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by scarletpeaches

I'd like to find out who Jack the Ripper was.

Oh, and what happened to the Princes in the Tower. I always thought Richard III was innocent. Henry VII knew more than he let on.

And I would like to witness some events in the lifetime of Anne Boleyn. She was one helluva a woman, not the termagent she's made out to be.

I'd like to retrieve the reputations of history's most-maligned characters.

Me too - to all of the above, especially the Anne Boleyn bit.

I'd also like to experience ancient Rome and see Vesuvius when it blew (obviously from a safe distance).

xyza · #6 10-07-2005, 09:13 PM

I'd just like to meet my grandfathers, I hear they were both amazing men. I have very little memory of them though.

It would also help with a few questions that have come to mind since I started looking for lost family.

inland wave · #7 10-07-2005, 10:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by xyza

I'd just like to meet my grandfathers, I hear they were both amazing men. I have very little memory of them though.

It would also help with a few questions that have come to mind since I started looking for lost family.

I know how you feel. I lost one grandfather around 9 years old. The other one passed a way about eight years ago. As well as my grandmothers have passed on.
It seems like when you really need to talk with them they are no longer around.
Especially when you've become an adult. So many questions.....and really they are the only people who can answer them

SharonDee · #8 10-07-2005, 10:49 PM

I want to see my paternal grandfather again. He was the first grandparent I lost and I was only eight years old. He was also the only grandparent who had anything to do with us grandkids, playing games with us and telling us tall tales. The rest of the grand-folk, having just finished raising their own kids, weren't terribly impressed by their progeny's ability to procreate.

He was also our family's elder musician, who could play guitar and banjo and sing to entertain us all. I barely remember this stuff but a couple of years ago, we found a recording he made during one of his sessions with the family. In between sets, I heard the giggling voices of my sister and me as we shyly took the opportunity to be recorded talking on tape. Hey, this was the late sixties in rural Alabama; it was a big deal!

How can I miss this grandparent so much when I barely remember him? The other three were stoic individuals who lived to be ripe old ages, and died when I was well into my adulthood.

But oh yeah ... time machine ... sure ... that's what I would do with one. First I'd go back to 1970 and see Papaw one more time. Then I'd hop on board and go back further to see that Jew who raised such a stink 2000 years ago.

livius drusus · #9 10-07-2005, 10:50 PM

I'd hit Rome at least every 100 years from 1000 BC on, and more like every 10 years between 100BC and 100AD.

I'd definitely do a how did they do that archaeological visit to Egypt during the building of the Great Pyramid and Salisbury during the Stonehenge-making years.

Victorian England, with peaches as my human shield on the Ripper hunt.

xyza · #10 10-07-2005, 10:53 PM

My grandfathers died when I was 5 and 6 years old, barely enough time to gain any memories of them. It's like sods law though about the timing.

SharonDee · #11 10-07-2005, 11:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by livius drusus

Victorian England, with peaches as my human shield on the Ripper hunt.

I don't know why but this made me think of that book/screenplay "Timeline". Terrible book, worse movie, but it made me want to travel to medieval times to observe what things really would have looked like.

Adora · #12 10-08-2005, 12:03 AM

As much as the environment of pre-colonisation Australia would be a sight to behold, I wouldn't want to go back in time to any of those places. It would be too much trouble getting home. You'd have to design a time machine to jump sideways as well as backwards and forwards.

I'd much rather travel forwards, learn about the future and make the right investments & predictions instead.

Veritas · #13 10-08-2005, 01:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by livius drusus

Victorian England, with peaches as my human shield on the Ripper hunt.

Why, if I wasn't bladdered on double-vodka-and-Red-Bull (I couldn't find a pub that sold PimpJuice!!!) why, I'd swing for ya, so I would! Come you here to me and take your beating like a man!!! I'll set the FBI onta ya!!!

Oops...overuse of exclamation marks, I blame it on the sunshine, I mean the moonlight...no, the good times...hell, the boogie. I mean THE VODKA!!!

I'll tear you limb from limb, you cowardly fiend! I'll teach you to insult me like the way the how you do what with your-

Okay I'll shut up now.