Take the "Time Travel Challenge!"

Bluebird Marsha said:

I suppose hanging on to Lizzie's skirt isn't an option? Darn.

On the one hand, I think I have a few skills that would enable me to make a legitimate living. OTOH...I'm not so sure as to stake my well-being on it. So, plunk my 21 year old butt down in Louisville, KY in April of 1938, the day betting opens on the Grand National. At a CLASSY betting establishment. $50 on the nose for Battleship. When queried by gentlemen (well-meaning I'm sure), I'll claim I always liked Navy men. It's a nice, ditzy answer. I can do ditzy. And at 40-1 odds, I just made a nice chunk of change.

---8< snip 8<---

BTW, there's a horse race coming up in November. While War Admiral is a fine animal, I hear that Seabiscuit is one heck of a horse. I might have to place one more bet for old times sake.

Three races. $50 to start. Potential outcome: +$20,000. No sports almanac or prodigious memory required. And either make a career for myself or marry some nice man. But oh those stocking shortages!

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Great plan!

Is this time travel challenge a one-way trip or a temporary experiment to check out the day-today goings on in the specific period?

It would be a one way trip for me

So you'd leave your family and never communicate with them again?

It could be either. You don't know for sure if you can get back or not, so you have to prepare for a long-term presence in your chosen period. You *might* be able to come back, but then again, maybe not. You could, however, *choose* to stay if you find the situation to your liking, but you can't demand to be returned to the future if things don't work out.

Getting back to my own plan, I'm going to take as many of my meals as I possibly can at one of the many Bickford's Cafeterias scattered around the city. In 1936 you could get a very satisfying meal at one of these joints for thirty cents, and if you really wanted to push the boat out it might cost you half a buck. Even the Automat wasn't that cheap.

As for clothing, if I arrive in the summer of 1936, I'll grab a few $1.98 cotton day dresses just to start the wardrobe off --this'll be enough to wear for a retail job, but I'll put money aside for a good tailored suit for future use. A 3-piece "wardrober suit" including jacket, skirt, and topcoat, could be had for $15 or so in one of the less-expensive stores -- it wouldn't exactly be a Hattie Carnegie, but it'd be usable for an office job should I attain one. As soon as I can afford one, I'll get a sewing machine, so as to be able start making my own clothing.

Both my typewriter and the sewing machine would likely come from pawn shops -- and I'll be checking such places regularly for other things I can use.

As soon as I get established, I'll ditch the hotel and take a room in a women-only boarding house, probably in Brooklyn, where rentals tended to be much cheaper than in Manhattan. By this time I'd also be haunting movie theatres looking for any part time work I could snag to supplement my day income, and if something develops I'd give up the retail job to go into theatre work full time. I'd try and find something as close to my residence as possible, but even if I had to work in Manhattan, you could ride the BMT and the IRT all day for a nickel.

Feraud said:

So you'd leave your family and never communicate with them again?

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Well, there is that.... but if I could have done it before I had kids ... or if I could wait until I was an old woman about to die.... yup.

LizzieMaine said:

It could be either. You don't know for sure if you can get back or not, so you have to prepare for a long-term presence in your chosen period. You *might* be able to come back, but then again, maybe not. You could, however, *choose* to stay if you find the situation to your liking, but you can't demand to be returned to the future if things don't work out.

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On those conditions I'd decline. There is nothing out there worth doing w/out my family.
Also, I fear I'd get stuck in a Twilight Zone plot loop where I do something stupid and receive a lifetime prison sentence..

rue said:

Well, there is that.... but if I could have done it before I had kids ... or if I could wait until I was an old woman about to die.... yup.

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That makes sense.

Feraud said:

Also, I fear I'd get stuck in a Twilight Zone plot loop where I do something stupid and receive a lifetime prison sentence..

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There is always that possiblity. All the more reason for those who do take the challenge to keep as low a profile as possible -- especially if their activities bring them into contact with criminals, gamblers, or other dubious types. Being in a speakeasy or backroom bookie's office at the wrong time could mean severe unforseen consequences.

I'd probably drop in to Southeast Minnesota, or just about any largely rural area that is used to transient migrant summer labour, in 1946, in my mid-20s. My back story would be that I was in the Pacific theatre during the war, and have returned to the States after finishing my tour of duty as part of the Japanese occupation. Only child, older parents died while I was away, family home condemned and demolished while away. I would hire my self out as a farm labourer for room, board, and cash. Maybe marry the farmer's daughter, and become part of the family.

I'd hope I was staying for a couple of years, but prepare like it was going to be a lifetime. When I'm just "vacationing" somewhere, I usually don't give much consideration to things like my reputation, resume, or social position. It's not that I behave like a frat boy on spring break in Cancun, but I leave my day-to-day concerns behind.

That's why I went with making bucks fast and early. I can watch The Godfather all day long, but that doesn't mean I can be a criminal successfully. Not short-term, not long-term. I was a lieutenant in the Army Reserves. So what? It's not like I can work that into my resume in any fashion. No matter the decade, I'm still a slightly over-educated, kinda cute, nerdy librarian from a nice family. I couldn't go back to my hometown area and fake it; everyone there knows everyone else. Even going to UK or Vandy would be a bad idea. Eventually I'd run into someone that really did go to the girls school I "claimed" I attended. Then I'd have to double down on the lies, and eventually get tripped. Head out west- it's not like I'd be unusual during that era in moving and reinventing myself.

I think I'd weasel my way into a place I felt comfortable. But if I was just vacationing for awhile, I'd probably be picking up servicemen, dancing until dawn, and blowing through my winnings with abandon. If I'm moving into town, I need to join a church, become known by upstanding citizens, and build my life back up. Slow and careful, don't draw too much attention, and melt back into society. And make some judicious stock picks.

And I like comfort, a bit of luxury, and nice housing.

Since I grew up in a machinist's home and was trained on the older stuff, i would try to start in mid 20s US in a coastal city. I could pass myself off as someone who had been "out of country" during the Great War. $25 for tools would get me set up, find a bed at the YMCA and $5 would get me a couple of changes of work clothes to get me by until I had more coming in. Railroads, power plants, industries all taking off would be looking for machinists.

How many times have I kicked this around in my head!!!??? There are three basic fantasies. One is that I'm in New York around 1937. I have no idea what I'd do. I'd probably wind up selling apples on the street corner. If it was LA, I'd make a bee line to Central Casting. I know I'd be a start in no time.
The third, and my favorite, involves being in Washington DC, around 1938 or 39. I'd find that brilliant, if unknown, US Army major, Dwight D. Eisenhpwer, and tell him all about how the Sherman tank was underbuilt, and the Navy torpedoes had design flaws, and that the Army analysis of escort aircraft for bombers was all wrong, and that this guy in Britain named Whittle had a great new propulsion system for airplanes that should be developed. Etc., etc., etc. You get the picture.

I'd be joining Lizzie in NY in 36. As a professional musician I would hang at the Union hall with the other guys until I picked up a band, they also had cheap lodging for musicians and meals. I would enlist in 41, play in the AAF band, say hello to my dad there, tell him we are cousins and spend a lot of time talking family. After the war I'd copyright Heartbreak Hotel and bide my time...

Getting into the union might be the tricky part for a musician -- in 1936, Local 802 in New York had an initiation fee of $50, which would eat up your whole bankroll unless you took some time working in a non-music job and saved up some money first!

I would have to spend some time studying Greek and Aramaic (and maybe Latin) then I would like to be transported back to the time and place right after Judas Iscariot killed himself. Those dropped pieces of silver will help my $50 go further. I mean Jesus was pretty important so I am gonna assume that whatever Judas got paid it was a lot of money for back then. Then I would go camp out at Golgotha for a while to see if the Crucifixion and Resurrection are bogus or not. I grew up in a religious environment so I'd really like to settle this once and for all.

Having found out what I came for, then I would face a problem since I have almost no skills necessary for the ancient Mediterranean. Fortunately, there has always been a job available for uneducated, unskilled young men of sound body: soldiering. I'd stay away from the Legions (brutal discipline, possibility of actual combat, not really my style) and try for an auxiliary or mercenary company. Throughout history these outfits are usually made up of foreigners, criminals and other rabble, and no one would examine my history too closely. I would try to join as a company cook or something because cooking well is about the one thing useful skill I have in this situation. Then it's three square meals a day, traveling around the ancient world, and shirking as much fighting as possible as I figure out how to get home.

double

What a great thread!
I think I'd choose Deauville in the summer of, say, 1934, as a landing point.

Summer means I'll have less wardrobe to be concerned about, that help is wanted in the hotels, and the crowds make it easier to blend in.
If my fake ID is a birth certificate, then I'd choose it to be an English one. I'd find work in a hotel as a translator to tide me over and to get into things - I don't think that ALL the reading I'd do beforehand could absolutely prepare me for the little things. If I couldn't find a place translating, I'd hire on as a waitress or as hotel staff.
As for credentials - I'd probably be claiming a horrible accident, a fire in my previous lodging, or something similar. A small boat, that sunk when I was coming over from England, say. And I'd be an orphan, of course. Schooled on the continent, Switzerland or Austria.
I'd apply at the embassy to have my passport "restored".
I'd probably find a cheap boarding house for women, or would rent a room from an elderly lady. During the summer, I'd put away some money, I'd make friends, who could later verify both my story and my person, also I'd have recommendations.
If I'd find a great place in Deauville, I'd stay a couple of seasons.
If not, I'd move to London in the autumn. I'd find work as a translator, a typist or a secretary (or as a night club star! ), and find a respectable boarding house nearby.
I have yet to draft my further steps.


Also, I think, as a woman, one might have a shot at making money by selling "later" clothing, underwear and hosiery ideas to manufacturers. Although for some obscure reason, that seems rather wrong to me.

I would go back to WWII and save my uncle by helping him escape the country.
He is a camp survivor, and I would do anything to make him forget about what happened.
I don't know exactly how I would do that, just run and don't look back.

Don't make so much of the ID business. In the past such things counted for a lot less than today. In fact you didn't need any "papers" at all and a person who knew what he was doing could get quite good jobs with no paper qualifications at all.

The exceptions were in totalitarian dictatorships like the Soviet Union or Nazi Germany or free countries in war time. You could land in the US any time before the sixties and not worry about any ID at all. During the Vietnam war you might be asked to show a draft card if you were of draft age. During WW2 you would have to show ration cards to buy certain things like leather goods, liquor, and meat but a person could get by without them.

And, things like driver's licenses were a lot easier to get. My great aunt told me she got a driver's license in the thirties by going to the police station and paying $2. No driver's test and no ID required. She never did learn to drive, she only got it to make cashing checks easier. Before then stores would take personal checks without any ID.

As far as jobs go, before the fifties college degrees were rare. Unless you were after a job with specific educational requirements like doctor, engineer or druggist they probably wouldn't ask for a sheepskin, in fact in most fields a college degree would be a drawback to getting a job, no kidding. Henry Ford had no use for a man with a degree and a lot of employers of his generation felt the same.

Same with renting a room or apartment. There were few landlord and tenant laws and a landlord could throw out a bum tenant easily. Consequently they would rent to anybody who had a week's or month's rent and looked decent. No lease credit check or ID required.

Car insurance was not mandatory before the sixties. You could buy a car and drive it off the lot no problem, provided you had the cash.



Before the fifties there were practically no credit cards and definitely no debit cards and no ATMs. Only the "executive set" or "country club set" had department store "charge plates" or, starting in the fifties, American Express. Everything was paid for by cash or check. Large transactions in cash were routine and raised no eyebrows and no one reported you to the government. In the southern US few people had bank accounts and money orders were used instead of checks, to mail payments to the landlord, electric company, gas company etc.

If you were half way sensible you could drop into the US and most other parts of the world at almost any time in the past and live and travel for years with no problem. If you needed a passport for foreign travel, just copy a name off a tombstone and get it by mail. Before WW1 passports were unknown except for Czarist Russia and the Ottoman Empire (Turkey).

So if you choose a date before 1964 you could drop in anywhere, rent a room or apartment, get a job, travel and do what you please with no papers or ID.

Just don't expect to get a job on your computer skills lol.

Stanley Doble said:

Don't make so much of the ID business. In the past such things counted for a lot less than today. In fact you didn't need any "papers" at all and a person who knew what he was doing could get quite good jobs with no paper qualifications at all.

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I'm not sure about the US, but in Europe you probably would have recommendations and letters of introduction.
It wasn't actually that strict in the Soviet Union. Naturally you woudn't get a job at a military object without papers, but in any bigger city you could claim an accident, being robbed, a fire, etc. It wouldn't be very hard. And in fact, my second scenario for the time travel.