Let's play a game of what-if....

[Sorsha]

Taking a page directly from Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series.

Let's just suppose that someone comes up with a way to time-travel. This person patents it, and markets it. For a very reasonable price, you can choose a place and time-period, and he will send you back to it. He guarantees that you will survive the journey and arrive at your destination unscathed, but he cannot guarantee your well-being for the duration of your stay. You may chose the length of your stay, and at the end of that time, he will fetch you back again, provided you are still alive to be fetched. As part of the cost of your experience, you will be provided with clothing appropriate to the time you will be going to, and a decent amount of currency of the time. You will be given materiels to study to ensure you know what you are getting into. Lastly, you will be provided a travelling cloak of time-appropriate materials. Sewn into the lining of this cloak will be many many small pockets. Anything you can fit into those pockets wil make the journey with you. You may NOT hold anything in your hands, it will not travel with you.

Those are the rules of the game. Would you want to go?

If so, to what time and place would you choose to go, and how long would you want to stay?

Bearing in mind that severely out-of-time items might cause you to be burned as a witch, what would you choose to take with you in the pockets of your cloak?

Edited to add: You cannot ask to made into anyone. You cannot say "I want to travel back to Ancient Greece and be Alexander the Great's best friend." This offer will get you there, but what you do with yourself once there is entirely of your own making.

 

[Sorsha]

I would definitely take this offer, and make the journey.

I would like to go many many places, but I think for my first choice I would go to ancient Egypt. I would want to stay for about 6 months.

In my pockets, I would take matches (because I suck at fire-starting without them), and small modern day foods (because I might need food to survive on for a few days when I first arrived) like candy bars, beef jerky, etc. I would also take a couple of bottles of hand sanitizer and lots and lots of modern day medicines. I would have small pouches made of animal skins, and I would fill them with antibiotics, anti-virals, penicillin, allegry medicines, pain relievers, snake-and-insect anti-venom, oral contraceptives, and any thing else I could think of. I would take a very very small digital camera that ran on lithium batteries, and a supply of batteries. I know I would have to be VERY careful with this one, but I could not resist the urge to document the culture and the sights. Finally, I would take tubes of high spf sunscreen. I would repack the sunscreen into jars and containers as soon as I got there, and tell people it was my "face cream". I would fry to a crisp in Egypt's sun without it though!

 

[Uuaww]

I would travel to fight for the Americans in WWII. I would take a camera with me with bateries. I would try to be apart of the greatest generation and if I didn't survive, I didn't survive. I would take aproximately 4 years but might not come back at all.

 

[suejai]

I think I would go to medieval England. I've always found it fascinating. I would take a lot of the same things as a pp, minus the sunscreen though - no need in England . I would add water purification tablets. DH would have to come with me though, because a woman travelling on her own at that time is at too great a risk. I would go for a few months I think.

Or I would go to England in the early 1800's during the Regency . Too much Pride and Prejudice

 

[Sorsha]

I think I would go to medieval England. I've always found it fascinating. I would take a lot of the same things as a pp, minus the sunscreen though - no need in England . I would add water purification tablets. DH would have to come with me though, because a woman travelling on her own at that time is at too great a risk. I would go for a few months I think.

Or I would go to England in the early 1800's during the Regency . Too much Pride and Prejudice

Oh water purification tablets! I forgot those! Definitely would need those too. Drinking out of the Nile, and all that...

 

[Aisling]

I would travel to fight for the Americans in WWII. I would take a camera with me with bateries. I would try to be apart of the greatest generation and if I didn't survive, I didn't survive. I would take aproximately 4 years but might not come back at all.

Wow, very interesting! And very patriotic!

 

[Aisling]

I'd go back to the 1950s, to the Leave it to Beaver days when people were polite to each other, when people had martinis in the evenings, and when neighbors got together to play cards every Friday night. I love the poofy dresses women wore, and also the pencil skirts of the day. I'd go in the fall to avoid not having air conditioning, and I'd bring a camera. I'd stay for a few weeks and learn to drive those huge cars they drove back then with no power-steering. And I'd drive around with a kerchief on my perfectly-coiffed hair, big sunglasses, car top down, red lipstick, and black pumps. I'd find a nice guy to take me dancing in my crinoline dress and he'll actually go open the car door for me to get out.

 

[Sorsha]

I'd go back to the 1950s, to the Leave it to Beaver days when people were polite to each other, when people had martinis in the evenings, and when neighbors got together to play cards every Friday night. I love the poofy dresses women wore, and also the pencil skirts of the day. I'd go in the fall to avoid not having air conditioning, and I'd bring a camera. I'd stay for a few weeks and learn to drive those huge cars they drove back then with no power-steering. And I'd drive around with a kerchief on my perfectly-coiffed hair, big sunglasses, car top down, red lipstick, and black pumps. I'd find a nice guy to take me dancing in my crinoline dress and he'll actually go open the car door for me to get out.

That sounds like a cool time to visit!

Anyone else want to play?

 

[pyrxtc]

The only place I would want to go is back to the place where I grew up when all my grandparents were still alive and make friends with them. Learn about them and their lives before I was born. I would want to stay for 2-3 or 7 years since I could come back to the moment that I left like I never left. I would only ask for enough money to live on while I am there. I would bring one of my older camera's since I ahve a few that would wokr for that time period and I would still be able to buy film for them then. and get them developed wiht the help of my great-grandfather who is also a photographer. I want more pictures of my grandparents.

 

[Sorsha]

The only place I would want to go is back to the place where I grew up when all my grandparents were still alive and make friends with them. Learn about them and their lives before I was born. I would want to stay for 2-3 or 7 years since I could come back to the moment that I left like I never left. I would only ask for enough money to live on while I am there. I would bring one of my older camera's since I ahve a few that would wokr for that time period and I would still be able to buy film for them then. and get them developed wiht the help of my great-grandfather who is also a photographer. I want more pictures of my grandparents.

That's a wonderful idea! I especially like how you would bring a camera and let your great- grandfather develop the film!

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Can I go forward in time?

 

[Sorsha]

Can I go forward in time?

Sure, why not...

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Oh good!

Given that the yr is 2009, I would jump to 2065, which is 100 yrs after my birth.

I would stay 1yr and go and visit family offspring and do alot of research. That way when I went back I would have a good direction of how I should move forward in my current life.