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If you could go back in time….

(102 Posts)
Whethertomorrow Sun 18-Feb-24 15:19:19

If you could go back in time and to any place, without being seen or influencing matters, what would you like to witness?

As a crafter I’d like to go back to the very first time someone made 2 knitting needles and made a ball of wool and started knitting. Did someone just pick up twigs and yarn and start fiddling around? How did they develop casting on and invent two stitches? Or did aliens land and pass on their knowledge?

What would you like to witness? Could be happy, sad, weird or wonderful?

Doodledog Mon 04-Mar-24 18:16:30

I don't expect that she saw herself as weak or feeble - that was a PR exercise to get the men onside, and shows she was shrewd.

I think that knowing what happened to her mother, and that if she married her husband would take precedence over her, she was in a difficult position, and I don't blame her for wanting to stay at the top, where fewer people could harm her. Contraception was primitive in those days - rudimentary condoms that would kill all feeling, and lemons used as caps - but I think she'll have found ways of having a sex life. There is no evidence that I know of that suggests she was unhappy with being a woman. Unhappy at the way women were treated, maybe/probably; but that's not the same thing at all.

biglouis Mon 04-Mar-24 00:46:12

I wouldn’t blame Elizabeth I if she had fears about marriage. Knowing that your mother and stepmother were killed by your father is enough to give anyone about associations with the idea. Plus maybe she didn’t want to share her power with a husband

Childbirth was a harrowing experience in Tudor times - even more so than it is now. One in four women died in childbirth and often through infection and mishandling. There were no pain killing drugs and the church actually believed that women should suffer because of their "sin" in deceiving Adam.

Yeah, right!

Just like a bl***y male dominated institution to think that.

Elizabeth was intelligent and highly educated. Im not deceived by her "I am a weak and feeble woman" act. She was a player par excellence. I suspect she hated being born a woman as much as I do.

Witzend Sat 02-Mar-24 17:30:00

biglouis

I would like to go back and watch what really happened to the princes in the tower because I dont believe it was Richard III who had them killed.

I would also like to ask Elizabeth I why she never married. I suspect it would be similar to my own feelings about bearing children.

If she’d married in that era, her husband would have expected/wanted to call the shots.

Sallywally1 Sat 02-Mar-24 12:53:58

I would love to see my late mother as a child with her mother, who I never met. They didn’t get on and neither did I with my mum. This would be around 1915/1920s.

MiniMoon Sat 02-Mar-24 09:28:53

I would love to see the countryside before the industrial revolution.
I once read a piece written by a young lady who described walking through the fields and seeing clouds of butterflies rising up before her.
To smell the air and hear the birdsong.

Redhead56 Sat 02-Mar-24 09:08:41

Back to late 1940s early 1950s to witness my parents meeting. To meet my paternal grandfather who I never met.

Sarnia Sat 02-Mar-24 08:53:18

I would like to go back to the late 1940's and 50's. To remind myself that Britain was once a lovely place to live. People had the bare necessities but there was such a community spirit and a genuine willingness to help others. People would leave their doors unlocked when they went out without fear of being burgled. It was a kinder, fairer world and I miss it.

luluaugust Sat 02-Mar-24 08:39:58

I would like to go back to the end of the last Ice Age and see the wildlife and landscape at that time. Otherwise it is back to meet the granny who died before I was born, apparently I am very like her.

Doodledog Sat 02-Mar-24 08:31:26

I assume that GSM meant the 1850s, not the 1580s - not too hard to work out without picking holes in her post, which is interesting, regardless of the dates.

Etoile2701 Sat 02-Mar-24 08:04:28

Goodness me! 500 years ago. Your grandmother must have lived to a very great age.

Sasta Wed 21-Feb-24 11:46:55

I concur with your comments on Warwick Castle SeaWoozle, it’s been ruined for us since it was taken over by Taussauds. We’ve been going at least a couple of times a year for over 40 years, sometimes just to walk in the grounds as it’s very close to us and we love it. But it’s too commercialised and ridiculously expensive for families now. It was also our primary school trip regularly. Shame.

PinkCosmos Wed 21-Feb-24 11:46:06

keepcalmandcavachon

Gosh, I'd love to bring The Crystal Palace Great Exhibition of 1851 back to life for a day! The sunlight coming through that magnificent building, the excitement and wonder of all of the inventions and displays. Me in a bustle and bonnet!

I will join you smile. It must have been a fantastic event.

I would also like to go back to my home town around the end of the 19th century. It was a mill town with lots of terraced streets. It must have been so busy at the end of the working day when everyone was coming out of the mills. The houses had high railings which they cut down during the second world war to use for the war effort. I have a photo of my mum as a baby outside one of the houses. It would have been 1931 and shows the high railings.

I would love to be a time traveller and have the option to travel to all kinds of times. The 1950's in America looks idyllic - the fashion and the cars. I realise it wasn't but I always imagine it as Norman Rockwell painted it.

I think I would like to be invisible though, so as not to cause alarm.

Romola Wed 21-Feb-24 11:06:18

I'd like to be a fly on the wall during WW2. DH was 4 at the start and 10 at the end and I'd love to know if the stories he told about his childhood in a small town were really true. It all sounded remarkably like Dad's Army. And I'd love to see him as a little boy, no photos from that time.

Skye17 Wed 21-Feb-24 10:25:48

Cabbie21

I’d like to walk with Jesus on the road to Emmaus when he explained everything to those two disciples after the resurrection.

Yes! I’d love to hear which Old Testament Scriptures he used when he ‘explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself’. ( I’m guessing Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53 for a start.)

Also to see the feeding of the 5,000.

Bonneygran Wed 21-Feb-24 09:50:01

TwiceAsNice

I’d like to go back to Jerusalem and see Jesus preach

I agree that would be wonderful; a nightmare scenario however would be to find oneself in the midst of a crowd shouting, “Crucify Him!”

Daisydaisydaisy Wed 21-Feb-24 09:16:14

I would like to go back to 1942 when My Dad was a Far East POW for 3and half years.I wasn’t born until the 60s and he died when I was 11.☹️

travelsafar Wed 21-Feb-24 08:39:17

AH if only this were possible. I would go back to the time when a child living with mum and dad and my siblings. No worries, just family and lots of love. Times were hard but we had what we needed. One thing I would change if possible would be knowing more about how important education is and having the opportunity to do better in life be cause of a good education.

Doli55 Wed 21-Feb-24 08:06:13

My son does podcasts on this very theme!
www.instagram.com/p/CtURpoROcl_/?igsh=azJzdWZ5b3MwMmJ6

Cabbie21 Wed 21-Feb-24 06:59:43

I would also like to enjoy my son’s early years all over again. He was such a good baby and a lovely little boy, but his older sister was such hard work that I didn’t enjoy as much time with my son.

Cabbie21 Wed 21-Feb-24 06:56:32

I’d like to walk with Jesus on the road to Emmaus when he explained everything to those two disciples after the resurrection.

HiPpyChick57 Wed 21-Feb-24 05:24:08

TwiceAsNice

I’d like to go back to Jerusalem and see Jesus preach

So would I , and to witness His miracles firsthand would be awesome.

Nannan2 Tue 20-Feb-24 23:53:49

Back to WW2 and see how time were for my late mum growing up and if its like the fiction books i read set in those times.The camaraderie etc.

Nannan2 Tue 20-Feb-24 23:48:10

GSM-1581?-1585? And its only great grandmother?thats way more than a great granny .

Gwenisgreat Tue 20-Feb-24 21:24:48

I'd like to have been there to wave my great grandfather off as he set sail with a party of Welsh people to take them to migrate to Patagonia to start new lives.

Gundy Tue 20-Feb-24 20:56:34

I came to America in 1947 as a refugee from a German DP camp, where I was born. My parents had to flee their homeland and most family left behind were either killed in WWI/II or deported to Siberia. I never got to meet any of those relations

I would have loved to meet my grandparents back at the turn of the century, when I imagine they were young and in their prime.