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Could you survive?

Phil

A-List Customer
Messages
385
Location
Iowa State University
I would love to do that actually. As much as I do love the internet, I see it as a hassle sometimes. Hey, as long as I have a trumpet, I have a job. I would love to have the chance to play in Glenn Miller's band or Count Basie's. As for the attire, I'm sure it's somehting that I could get used to. I've done marhcing in 90 degree (F) weather, I can do a suit. Finally, as long as I can drive a car and drive it fast. I'll be fine.
 

pretty faythe

One Too Many
Messages
1,820
Location
Las Vegas, Hades
Since women in the electical union back then were telephone operators, and the only time I was ever an operator was when I worked as directory assistance (411) I'd either have to be trained for, or go back to an older line of work, reception/secretarial. I know how to use non-electric typewriters, (I'd just have to pay attention to what I am typing, instead of my laziness and typos that I am aware of), dictophone, etc.
[huh]
 

CharlieH.

One Too Many
Messages
1,169
Location
It used to be Detroit....
Could I survive in 1937? Heck, I'd actually be better off then than I am now! (sounds naive, but I have my reasons) Like some have mentioned, I've got skills more fitting to that period, particularly in the field of graphic arts. And if it doesn't work out at that, I could work on a railroad, preferably as a Pullman porter. I've worked out this particular "what if" to great extent, but I shant bore you with details.
 

panamag8or

Practically Family
Messages
859
Location
Florida
I suppose I could work in radio, or maybe for a newspaper. My grandkids would be rather wealthy, since I would know what coins, toys and knick-knacks would be pulling in the money in 2007.

I would probably miss TV, even though I would have radio. I would definitely miss air conditioning.
 
Send me back and I'm dead, if not from the "virtual lobotomy" of being forcibly separated from "mission-critical" computer equipment and reliable communications, then from the Coke-bottles breaking my nose.

Miss N, I think I trump Fletch--IIRC, one of my eyes is 20/400 without corrective optics in place. (As I type this, I have removed my glasses, and on my 17" widescreen at 1440x900, with my nose about 12" from the screen, the only things I can read clearly are my keyboard and the large lettering in the FL logo.)
 

DeeDub

One of the Regulars
Messages
223
Location
Eugene, OR
Although I've done other things, I owe the majority of my livelihood the past couple of decades to computer programming. So in 1937, I'd have to find something else to do for a few years until I become a pioneer in the field. Fortran was my first language, so who's to say I didn't give John Backus the idea to invent it?

That would leave me about 17 years until the start of Fortran. I've always been pretty handy with a keyboard, so typing or typesetting is in the realm of possibility. More likely, since I studied engineering and electronics before I took up software for fun and profit, I would enjoy fixing radios. That would be a pretty convenient excuse to spend all day listening to some of the greatest jazz when it was new!
 

akaBruno

Suspended
Messages
362
Location
Sioux City
Ah... you would have all been lucky to find a job with the CCC or WPA. Or maybe sittin outside a slaughter house somewhere waiting with a hundred other guys, to be the next body picked. After losing your homes a lot of ya would end up ridin the rails out to Californy to find work as a picker. No worry though. The job market is gonna really pick up for women in about 5 years.

Ah yes... the good old days.

Bruno
 

panamag8or

Practically Family
Messages
859
Location
Florida
akaBruno said:
Ah... you would have all been lucky to find a job with the CCC or WPA. Or maybe sittin outside a slaughter house somewhere waiting with a hundred other guys, to be the next body picked. After losing your homes a lot of ya would end up ridin the rails out to Californy to find work as a picker. No worry though. The job market is gonna really pick up for women in about 5 years.

Ah yes... the good old days.

Bruno

You and your darned facts.:mad: lol
 

HadleyH

I'll Lock Up
Messages
4,811
Location
Top of the Hill
akaBruno said:
Ah... you would have all been lucky to find a job with the CCC or WPA. Or maybe sittin outside a slaughter house somewhere waiting with a hundred other guys, to be the next body picked. After losing your homes a lot of ya would end up ridin the rails out to Californy to find work as a picker. No worry though. The job market is gonna really pick up for women in about 5 years.

Ah yes... the good old days.

Bruno


One way or another,I bet you'd have survived too! :) [huh]
 

Cobden

Practically Family
Messages
788
Location
Oxford, UK
If I were transported back to 1937 I'd probably be Royally stuffed. Not that I wouldn't be able to survive or get a job, more because I'd be 23 when the world starts doing war impressions

If it were 1920, I'd probably join the Indian Army as an officer. I'm used to wearing jackets in ridiculously hot weather, and it would be easier to live in a lifestyle I'm accustommed to (albeit with servents replacing electric dishwashers, etc.) then in the UK. Plus, there were a few campaigns against the wild Pathans that should keep me from getting bored...
 

HungaryTom

One Too Many
Messages
1,204
Location
Hungary
Survive

HadleyH said:
One way or another,I bet you'd have survived too! :) [huh]

Exactly as even civilians survived WW2 and the Eastern Front and the most miserable situations therein- and others didn't. I just talked with the survivors.

The peacetime? It was a glory days for my grand parents and their generation - they tell about hardship but emphasize how beautiful and young they were - and the few B/W photos of smiling children, young beauties and dashing gents really confirm that.

Quote from my wife's late grandpa: you know I wasn't born with wrinkles and as an ugly old man either.
 

Harry Pierpont

One of the Regulars
Messages
223
Location
West Central Illinois
Where do we sign up?

I would have no problem surviving, the mechanical skills God has given me work in any time period. I'm sure Bonniejean would make it, heck she'd still have me! lol I don't think our kids would make it very well without technology.
 

Fletch

I'll Lock Up
Messages
8,865
Location
Iowa - The Land That Stuff Forgot
akaBruno said:
Ah... you would have all been lucky to find a job with the CCC or WPA. Or maybe sittin outside a slaughter house somewhere waiting with a hundred other guys, to be the next body picked. After losing your homes a lot of ya would end up ridin the rails out to Californy to find work as a picker. No worry though. The job market is gonna really pick up for women in about 5 years.

Ah yes... the good old days.

Bruno
Nobody in my family had to Okie it. My ggf got busted from fruit wholesaler to restaurant owner and my gf from salesman to waiter. My great uncles, both in sales, had to go small-time, from feed and seed to door-to-door greeting cards (but not for long). My other gf had to pull up stakes every few years running rural weekly papers, and was a bitter skinflint till his dying day. But everybody had food, clothes, a roof, and usually a car and radio too.
 

Doctor Strange

I'll Lock Up
Messages
5,242
Location
Hudson Valley, NY
My current occupation as a software documentation specialist wouldn't exist, but I could fall back on my earlier photographic experience. Since I learned in the 60s/70s from my pro parents - who still mostly used the common techniques/equipment of the 30s/40s at that time - I'd be right at home!
 

MrPumpernickel

One of the Regulars
Messages
111
Location
Sweden
Could I make a living? Of course, and I think anyone with the mind of a 21st century person could make a very good living in 1937. I would easily become an inventor and invent things that hadn't yet been invented but would be before 2007, and I could care less about the historical rammifications. I would invest money in new businesses that I know would become large in the future. Heck, it'd be hard NOT to make a great living.

My current occupation as a callcenter employee would not exist though, I could possibly take a job at a switchboard, but those jobs were largely only for women. Phones would exist, but not to be utilized in the manner I'd need to do my job.

The largest problem would be the lack of computers and a world spanning network of communication, i.e. Internet. I would have to give up things like computer art which I love and work with more low-tech solutions. I would be somewhat bored I believe. Though, on the other hand if I followed what I wrote in the first paragraph I would be rich beyond belief which would enable me to travel and see the world, to go to places before they became exploited by mass market economy.
 

Twitch

My Mail is Forwarded Here
Messages
3,133
Location
City of the Angels
I could sell anything in those days as well as these so no problem with work, but as far as tech goes I'd miss the PC but not much else. I wore a suit every day in modern times so vintage would be same deal different style.
 

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