If you could travel through time or live in any era

[onehunglow]

[SIZE=3]Growing up when everyone smoked, no one knew what cholesterol was and we never knew of or heard of liver disease was a great time. Fries cooked in lard and people ate a real dinner. People were happy in our homes with lead pipes and coal stoves and asbestos covered heat ducts. Now, at family events, no fat, no sugar, no transfat and no wine as it will rot the liver and the few that smoke are in the back 40. Needless to say we no longer have family reunions and enjoy hot dogs and beer and cigars. Fruit, salads etc. right on the old farm and a few people show up and talk about who died. Now on these very same farms where pesticides, herbicides are dumped by the ton fat is a bad thing. They are so good they kill weeds and insects all summer log with just one spraying. The warning labels are unreal. Do not get on skin. Do not inhale. If contact with skin wash 30 minutes. I may not have lived as long, but if I had the chance to go back to 1965. Iâ??d kill those suckers that come up with cholesterol. [/SIZE]

[firegilnotguns]

I was watching a rerun of Have I Got News For You tonight and and they were saying that a study came out recently saying that people were happier in 1957 than they are now.

[OBX]

Alright, in 1960 Clark Gable had heart problems and lay in a hospital for 11 days "resting", because that is all they could do for him.

In 1971, my father has a heart problem and they did balloon angioplasty to open up his artery, because that was all they could do for him.

In 1992, my father has quadruple heart bypass surgery and he is revitalized. They had to break his chest and stop his heart to do it, but it was all they could do for him.

In 2005, I had 3 99% blockages opened and secured using medicated stents to keep them open and sent home the next day and that was all they could do for me. I also now take cholesterol lowering drugs and blood thinners to hopefully make it so I don't need anything else in 20 years.

They are experimenting with bypass surgery that is done without breaking the chest bone. There is a constant 3-way race between surgeons, pharmaceutical companies and medical equipment companies to do it faster, easier and more effectively.

I pick NOW and I am envious of the FUTURE.

[ComputerGuy]

Just wait with Nano Technologies and the ability to do things at the molecular level.

Also more promise with Recubinant DNA, The Human GNome. and with Stem Cells.

10 years from now, WATCHOUT!! I also see something close to Tricorders too!

[OBX]

Yeah, I am just going to try and hold out for next 20 years and it should be good.

Then hold out for 30 more years for the introduction of Soylent Green. That will be some great stuff.

[sweetie103]

I dont know if I would like to live in the past but I have like to have a temporary stay to check it out.

[RoRo]

I dont know if I would like to live in the past but I have like to have a temporary stay to check it out.

OOohhhh wouldn't that be cool? I would love to be able to go back in time and check stuff out.
Now is better technology wise but people used to be nicer I think. Of course now you have to be careful who you are nice to cuz they might klill ya for fun!

[DeadRinger]

I am addicted to everything fifties and sixties and would kill to be on that time machine.

[deathybrad]

I love the now. It's not what you eat it's how much. I've lost 70 pounds in the last 18 months and I pretty much eat whatever I want I just don't eat as much of it. BTW I just had a physical and my BP is 108/72 so don't start writing my FAD listing yet.

[John Trim]

Just wait with Nano Technologies and the ability to do things at the molecular level.

Also more promise with Recubinant DNA, The Human GNome. and with Stem Cells.

10 years from now, WATCHOUT!! I also see something close to Tricorders too!

Yeah, But where the hell are the flying cars the promised us.

[ST Moron]

[SIZE=3]I may not have lived as long, but if I had the chance to go back to 1965. Iâ??d kill those suckers that come up with cholesterol. [/SIZE]

I don't think the problem is necessarily with cholesterol: I think the actual problem is that the US is now a fear-based society.

If you ask any ad man what the most powerful emotions are, he'll likely tell you fear, followed closely by greed. If you can make people fear something (no, it doesn't matter what it is) you can do whatever you want with them.

At any rate, I understand exactly where you are coming from. I had to go to the White Trash Emporium on Monday (Wal-Mart to you) for a resupply ("shopping," I think it's called). And while I was there, I was informed via the store's PA system that I wasn't fretting enough about my cholesterol and that I should step it up.

If nothing else, I certainly got a cheap laugh out of it. I say this because on the way in, the motorists seemed absolutely hell bent on driving like complete tarts. Which put cholesterol well after "meteorite strike" on my personal list of "worries."

If you think about it, though, it's ironic that people are so conscious of all this stuff. I say that because for most of them, a longer life simply means they're afforded more opportunities to worry. [shrugs]

[MbalmR]

I'm in agreement with ST Moron, although that's partly due to the fact that I haven't had my first infarct yet, so I haven't been frightened into complacency. I'm sorry, I just can't get a grip on this healthy diet thing. I'm a food whore (I prefer cooking to eating, but I sample all my own wares) and I simply cannot envision a life without cheese, for example. Or salt.

I can give up beef if I have to, but I can't choke down a dried up chicken breast four times a week. Give me the dark meat!!! I love fish, but we're not allowed to eat that anymore because of all the poisons in them. And forget those awful fructose, dustboard, chip-a-tooth-on-it "power bars;" I might as well eat bark (which didn't save Eule Gibbons.)

Living in constant fear causes stress, and I believe--with no medical training, mind you--that stress causes more illnesses than asbestos, pesticides, fat, nicotine and tannins combined. What was it George Costanza said?? "You can't eat anything anymore. My grandparents are in their 80s and they're eating a huge beef brisket. I'm sitting there with a carrot."

[ComputerGuy]

Yeah, But where the hell are the flying cars the promised us.

Wrong answer. Could image Alabamians driving flying cars? Image the hoopties!!

[katspjs]

I would have loved the Fifties...lots of firsts...Rock and Roll and the coolest clothes ever....I scoured thrift shops back in the 80's for them! Also, life seemed more innocent and happier.

That said, I am glad to be living now for the huge advances in technology and medicine.

Can I live in the 50's and just shuttle back to watch tv, use the computer, and stay healthy? LOL

[knothere]

id miss the internet
i woodnt miss the fone, tv, dvd players

[attackatdawn]

Life was simpler back then I think the past & the present both have there pros & cons.

[djdeath-hag]

Life is what it is, imho....no one makes it out alive. Having been to the edge & back, I plan to enjoy my time on earth. Eat, drink, smoke all in moderation but moderation is relative. In getting back to the original question, I think given the choice of then or now, I'd take now.....but would LOVE to go back to a time when my grandmothers & father were alive so that I could ask more questions & write down some of their wisdom....and jokes.

[SuburbanDeathHag]

Since we have the stents, bypass surgery, miracle drugs galore and fish oil capsules, smoke away! I want to go to that family picnic with a big fat duke, ala Bette Davis hanging off my lips, blowing smoke out of my nose. Carefree abandon, lots of sweaty martinis with salty olives and chips with thick gooey dip. Real saturated food, sizzling slabs of meat right off the grill. And then it's an outpatient trip to the clinic for my lap band surgery. Hopefully we can go back in time as we go forward with the medical miracles. I want to party like it's 1959!

[onehunglow]

Since we have the stents, bypass surgery, miracle drugs galore and fish oil capsules, smoke away! I want to go to that family picnic with a big fat duke, ala Bette Davis hanging off my lips, blowing smoke out of my nose. Carefree abandon, lots of sweaty martinis with salty olives and chips with thick gooey dip. Real saturated food, sizzling slabs of meat right off the grill. And then it's an outpatient trip to the clinic for my lap band surgery. Hopefully we can go back in time as we go forward with the medical miracles. I want to party like it's 1959!

For Feb 2 1959, it was a good year. BBQ had half a beef in them, fires, and Camels in every pocket. We had fun.

[Bellfire]

[SIZE=3]Growing up when everyone smoked, no one knew what cholesterol was and we never knew of or heard of liver disease was a great time. Fries cooked in lard and people ate a real dinner. People were happy in our homes with lead pipes and coal stoves and asbestos covered heat ducts. Now, at family events, no fat, no sugar, no transfat and no wine as it will rot the liver and the few that smoke are in the back 40. Needless to say we no longer have family reunions and enjoy hot dogs and beer and cigars. Fruit, salads etc. right on the old farm and a few people show up and talk about who died. Now on these very same farms where pesticides, herbicides are dumped by the ton fat is a bad thing. They are so good they kill weeds and insects all summer log with just one spraying. The warning labels are unreal. Do not get on skin. Do not inhale. If contact with skin wash 30 minutes. I may not have lived as long, but if I had the chance to go back to 1965. Iâ??d kill those suckers that come up with cholesterol. [/SIZE]

well I'm allergic to smoke but if you don't do that I'll let the rest slide lol.

[magblax]

NOW! Because 40 years from now that generation will probablly look back and wish they were here.

[Harry in Connecticut]

I love the now. It's not what you eat it's how much. I've lost 70 pounds in the last 18 months and I pretty much eat whatever I want I just don't eat as much of it. BTW I just had a physical and my BP is 108/72 so don't start writing my FAD listing yet.

Well done!! Long life and happiness to you

I was born in 1952. If I could go back and start again I'd love it. There were simpler things back then, that brought just as much fun as the complex toys of today. Xbox and such.

Maybe one B&W TV show a day that would interest me, but I'd really enjoy it.

[joplinfrk]

There's an awesome book out called The Way Things Never Were. It talks of how we romanticize the past when in reality, in a way, things were worse then. Have you read it?

[scarletfever1971]

I was watching a rerun of Have I Got News For You tonight and and they were saying that a study came out recently saying that people were happier in 1957 than they are now.

I can definitely believe that! I wonder why that is... could it be that so much technology is making us robotic so we're just going through the motions? hmmmm....

[Nick]

It's partly because technology is overstimulating us while giving us too many worthless goals. I'm definitely pro-technology, but I don't think most people have put it in its proper perspective yet. They are more worried about their gizmos than what's between their ears or what's going on in the world and what it all means.

[SlippyInvader]

I think ignorance is bliss. We spend too much time now getting stressed over our diet, are we exercising enough, drinking too much or not enough (They say 2 glasses of wine a day is good for your heart) not smoking etc etc. Your time is up when it's up. I've known people who've never smoked, drank, ate properly and exercised only (in fact he was a fitness instructor) to drop dead at the age of 22 after completing a marathon. And I've known people who've smoked 20 cigarettes a day and live until 90 years old.

[onehunglow]

I think ignorance is bliss. We spend too much time now getting stressed over our diet, are we exercising enough, drinking too much or not enough (They say 2 glasses of wine a day is good for your heart) not smoking etc etc. Your time is up when it's up. I've known people who've never smoked, drank, ate properly and exercised only (in fact he was a fitness instructor) to drop dead at the age of 22 after completing a marathon. And I've known people who've smoked 20 cigarettes a day and live until 90 years old.

Now they say two glasses of wine a day will kill the liver. Hell, every ad on TV for meds kill the liver. I wish Fram made one. Just change it every 3000 bottles. If I didn't know better it would seems BIG MEDS are trying to kill of BIG WINE. Like that old drink "shit or go blind" Prune juice and wood alcohol. "Awful Mary" ketchup and vodka.

[Ree]

Life was simpler back then I think the past & the present both have there pros & cons.

I agree! Life was much simpler then. I would go back in time in a heart beat.

[mommafreak]

i want a rotary phone back.

[Danny62]

I would like to go back and visit the 1940's!!

I feel I live in ther wrong era to be honest...anybody else feel that way??

[onehunglow]

I would like to go back and visit the 1940's!!

I feel I live in ther wrong era to be honest...anybody else feel that way??

Except for the racism the 50's was great. And Feb. 2 nd of 59.

[Mamma]

Good question! Along those same lines, I guess I'd like to 're-visit' the 80's, only so I could make a lot of my wrong doings, right again .

But any other decade? I'm kinda scared to, myself. Poverty, stock market crashes, great depression, segregation, klansmen .... uuughh. Come to think of it, sounds alot like our current millenium, doesn't it?

I'll take the 80's for sure. I'd be smarter, and wiser if I could do it all over again - and I'd be smarter about AIDS too, so I'd still have some of my friends with me . If we only knew then what we knew now. Had a great friend, Brian, and our entire circle of friends knew he was gay as far back and 3rd and 4th grades. He was just naturally Brian . But, he never really shined and came out of the closet until the mid 80's. Us friends, myself included, encouraged him to be who he was. And he was finally able to once he started college. But alas, NONE of us at the time was takinmg AIDS as seriously as we should have . If I knew then, what I know now. Yep, most certainly the 80's.

~Mamma

[Nik]

I've always wanted to be in my late teens, early twenties in the end of the 60's... starting around 66, I guess.

[Harry in Connecticut]

Any decade, if I could be rich. 1890s might be good.

[joplinfrk]

I definately feel like I'm in the wrong century. This world is moving way too fast for me. I think I belong in "Meet Me In St. Louis". Turn of the century, gilded era type thing. The 70's were good to me, though.

[mommafreak]

Something about the western days. Just seems a bit free, living off the land, etc. I'm a country girl at heart and own a piece of land in the middle of nowheresville and I love. I can play my music loud and kick the cat and not have to worry about nosey neighbors. Love the outdoors, so yea, the western days, only with my computer :-)

[ghoulgurl]

The 1920's--I would've had so much fun being a flapper girl with a hip flask. The 1960's would've been fun for the pop culture /free flowing mother nature oriented products :-)

[magblax]

1940s. Or late 1800s in Paris.

[Lifeisafataldisease]

Early to mid seventies when Saturday morning cartoons ruled!

[SuburbanDeathHag]

Except for the racism the 50's was great. And Feb. 2 nd of 59.

That would be my decade of choice too.

[Darrianne]

The 70's because I was too young to fully appreciate and enjoy the first time around!

[RubySlippers]

I would like to go back to the Colonial days. Everyone seemed so priss and proper, it would be awesome to be a young single woman and try to ruffle some feathers, if you know what I mean. I think it would be interesting to see exactly what was accepted or not. You can read so many books, just to interact with the people who lived then would be fantastic!

[ST Moron]

There was a lot of excitement and innovation around the Turn of the Century. And a hell of a lot more freedom than we have today. Seriously.

I give 1914 as the cutoff because WWI was, by my measure, pretty much the end of Western Civilization. Oh sure, we've continued to grow in a technological sense, but regressed in just about every other. But the decade before 1914 sure made it seem like anything was possible.

[W Axl Rose]

There was a lot of excitement and innovation around the Turn of the Century.

the turn of the century was just over 7 years ago lol

[ST Moron]

the turn of the century was just over 7 years ago lol

Oh, sure, for you maybe.

But as for me, the 21st Century has sucked so bad I simply refuse to acknowledge it. In fact, I've requested a "do over" so that we can set our calendars back to 2000 and do the next 7 years all over again, but decently this time.

[poppie]

Similar thread except if you could spend a few days with anyone or if there is anyone special from the past who you would like to meet - who would that person be?

I would like to go back to Henry VIII era and spend several days with him. He was intelligent, cruel, talented, glutton - the adjectives to describe this complex man could be a mile long.

[joplinfrk]

I would like to spend the day with Eleanor Roosevelt. She seemed like a very kind and wise woman.

[Danny62]

Hmmmmm...Jean Harlow!!!!

I would had loved to spend the day and "NIGHT" with her!!!!!!

Dang...I can only imagine!!

[nytkrew]

I would like to go back to Henry VIII era and spend several days with him. He was intelligent, cruel, talented, glutton - the adjectives to describe this complex man could be a mile long.

Ah yes Gluttony...speaking as a fat man, there ain't nothing better lol.

I think I would like to go to either the Civil War era or the Wild West era.

[nytkrew]

Hey Danny, you changed your Avatar. HArdly recognized ya lol.