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Could you survive?

Stray Cat

My Mail is Forwarded Here
April 29, 2002, If possible.
You are precise.. very precise! :D

Apropos WWII:
600 000 women died in the time of war. So, I'd like to SKIP that period (if I can).. 'cause I have a six sense telling me I'd be among those 600 000 casualties. I prefer staying alive.. :D
But, ship me off to any other (non-war involving) time.. and I'd do fine. The engineering-thing aside (no one would believe me to be one, anyway): I can do pretty much everything around and about farm.
..darn.. I can even butcher a pig. :thumb:
 

R.G. White

One of the Regulars
Messages
162
Location
Wisconsin
I'd get a hell of a lot more accomplished if I lived in 1937...
Think about all the people in our time who might have been geniuses, but... I wonder what's what's going on on facebook.
 

Brinybay

Practically Family
Messages
571
Location
Seattle, Wa
Not quite sure if I would do well or not, but, one thing I would look forward to is FEWER CHOICES when shopping. I get really frustrated these days of all the different choices of the same thing. Sugar free, gluten-free, wheat free, caffeine free, organic, vegan, ARRRGGGHHH! When I go to the store for some ketchup, I just want to grab a bottle of ketchup! Maybe it's a guy thing.
 
Messages
925
Location
The Empire State
I would survive quite well,I would be employed,I have been in the tugboat business for 41 years,@ that time they were building the Cape Cod canal,my grandad was employed as a tug captain on a Great Lakes tug at the time and worked all through the great depression,also there were railroad barges,ships to dock etc.As far as the techno end NO PROBLEM,I was taught the business@19 years old when I started with the company(Moran Towing Corp)by old timers who went through the depression and WW2 and learned the hard way up the hawes pipe they say!I worked at our shipyard blacksmith shop,carpenter shop and all other aspects in the maritime industry......
 

Jack Patch

Familiar Face
Messages
52
Location
Chicago
I think I could. I have basic sewing, electronic, and carpentry skills. I can drive, or used to, anything from a sedan to a 18 wheeler.

I would miss my Sunday night football, cell phone, and internet.
 
As a geologist, I'm sure I would have no trouble finding employment. It would be awkward, however, as it turns out that much of what we "knew" in 1937 is wrong.

Not having some gadgetry would take some getting used to, but I'm sure I could adjust. The best part would be living smack dab in the middle of baseball's golden age!
 

tuppence

Practically Family
Messages
532
Location
Hellbourne Australia
Not quite sure if I would do well or not, but, one thing I would look forward to is FEWER CHOICES when shopping. I get really frustrated these days of all the different choices of the same thing. Sugar free, gluten-free, wheat free, caffeine free, organic, vegan, ARRRGGGHHH! When I go to the store for some ketchup, I just want to grab a bottle of ketchup! Maybe it's a guy thing.

Well I'm sure Celiacs wouldn't feel that way. Wheat and gluten are in almost everything on the supermarket shelves these days. If you took notice you might feel a little sympathy for them.
 

GHT

I'll Lock Up
Messages
9,281
Location
New Forest
Before being transported back, can I just spend an hour or two looking up all the racing results. When I go back I'll make a killing at the races and live in an Art Deco inspired house. I could easily live in an era without central heating or air conditioning or what we call: All Mod-Cons. Having said that, my huge win would allow me to indulge in all the latest gizmos, (was that term used in 1937?)all Art Deco of course.
There is one piece of technology that I would miss, and that's the digital camera. Anyone of a certain age will remember handing in their 36mm reel for developing, then collecting the prints later on, only to find feet chopped off, heads missing, out of focus blurring. You were lucky if you had three or four memorable worthwhile shots. I have suitcases full of photographic disasters.
 

Silvan

New in Town
Messages
6
Location
Virginia
That turned out to be an interesting question. My free time and personal life would be dramatically different in 1937, but my job existed back then. I haul gasoline. Taking a step back to 1937 wouldn't do a single thing to improve my job in any way. It would be harder work in a rougher riding truck over spectacularly horrible roads, and there would be none of the modern safety inventions that make my job less dangerous, like automatic overfill protection. My job is actually pretty easy in the 21st century. I hook things up here and there and pull handles and push buttons, and the truck even has an automatic transmission that clutches itself and changes its own gears. I could survive in 1937 though. I'm enough of an old school trucker to know how to use a telphone and a paper map instead of relying on GPS and computers, and that's near enough of a throwback to the old days that I'd do just fine. I'd just sweat more, and my butt would hurt from all the getting tossed around on rutted dirt roads.
 

ortega76

Practically Family
Messages
804
Location
South Suburbs, Chicago
As much as I love the aesthetic of the clothing, music and movies of the past, I could not go back. Frankly, the social/racial climate would be too much for a modern person of color, like me.
 

FountainPenGirl

One of the Regulars
Messages
148
Location
Wisconsin
There is one piece of technology that I would miss, and that's the digital camera. Anyone of a certain age will remember handing in their 36mm reel for developing, then collecting the prints later on, only to find feet chopped off, heads missing, out of focus blurring. You were lucky if you had three or four memorable worthwhile shots. I have suitcases full of photographic disasters.

I just would like to jump in on this. I hear these type of remarks regular. I still use film cameras to this day. I've been an avid photographer for 40 years and when you get used to what you are doing it becomes quite natural. I very seldom ever have a bad picture and can show hundreds of good ones. I have a digital and it has it's place but will never replace the thrill of working with film.
 

Stanley Doble

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,808
Location
Cobourg
Re: the social/racial climate. You might have been better off in Italy, Scandinavia or South America than in the US.

About the food allergies etc. In the past they were a lot less troublesome and even unknown. Maybe without today's genetically modified, hybridized, adulterated foods you wouldn't have a problem in the first place.

Air conditioning, central heating and most other mod cons were available in 1937. I'm not saying everywhere, particularly in England, but they were available. Especially if you had lots of money.

Bathing daily was never illegal. Slightly eccentric in some circles but that is all. In the US daily baths or showers were common in the thirties, at least in cities. Especially the ones with 90 degree temps, high humidity and no air conditioning.
 

kiwilrdg

A-List Customer
Messages
474
Location
Virginia
I just would like to jump in on this. I hear these type of remarks regular. I still use film cameras to this day. I've been an avid photographer for 40 years and when you get used to what you are doing it becomes quite natural. I very seldom ever have a bad picture and can show hundreds of good ones. I have a digital and it has it's place but will never replace the thrill of working with film.
Along the same lines, I look at a lot of pictures on Facebook that have me convinced that most people who take hundreds of digital pictures never take a good one.
 

Edward

Bartender
Messages
24,737
Location
London, UK
As much as I love the aesthetic of the clothing, music and movies of the past, I could not go back. Frankly, the social/racial climate would be too much for a modern person of color, like me.

Yes... I'd have been on the easier side of this, being white, but I don't think I could have lived with segregation (or, indeed, the attitudes a lot of people had to that sort of thing here in the UK at the time. Not that things are perfect now, far from it, but if those who hold those prejudices today feel less able to express them openly and cannot enshrine them in law, then absolutely that is progress!). Likely I'd have ended up getting myself in trouble for making some well-meaning, if possibly patronising, attempt to strike a blow against segregation.

I just would like to jump in on this. I hear these type of remarks regular. I still use film cameras to this day. I've been an avid photographer for 40 years and when you get used to what you are doing it becomes quite natural. I very seldom ever have a bad picture and can show hundreds of good ones. I have a digital and it has it's place but will never replace the thrill of working with film.

I miss prints - Not really had any since I went digital - but I certainly don't miss the expense or the hassle of film cameras. Or occasionally misloading a film and only discovering after I thought I had run off a bunch of photos that I had nothing....

Re: the social/racial climate. You might have been better off in Italy, Scandinavia or South America than in the US.

Legally speaking, certainly.

About the food allergies etc. In the past they were a lot less troublesome and even unknown. Maybe without today's genetically modified, hybridized, adulterated foods you wouldn't have a problem in the first place.

Maybe people who had them just all died in infancy! :eeek: There does appear to be a fair body of evidence that in trying to protect kids from these things, society has gone too far. I recall reading articles that drew a correlation between the rising incidences of asthma in the UK and the number of kids growing up in households where parents have installed wood flooring in place of carpets, gotten rid of pets before baby is born, and all sorts - they never get a chance to build up the antibodies. I have certainly seen a reliable press report or two in the last few years which cited research to the effect that kids who grow up with a pet in the house are significantly less likely to be allergic to animal hair, saliva, etc.

Air conditioning, central heating and most other mod cons were available in 1937. I'm not saying everywhere, particularly in England, but they were available. Especially if you had lots of money.

Even today domestic air con is not common here, as the climate has never really been hot enough for longb enough for most people to consider it worth it. Central heating has certainly become a norm, however.

Along the same lines, I look at a lot of pictures on Facebook that have me convinced that most people who take hundreds of digital pictures never take a good one.

lol True... I suppose the key difference is they can always keep trying without it costing them so much!
 

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