If you could choose, to what year would you go?

[Deny and Shred]

I went to a sports bar this weekend to watch some basketball and sat down next to an interesting guy. Among other things, we wound up debating something I have been thinking about and altering ever since.

For the sake of argument, assume it's possible to go back to any year AND you could be any age you wanted (we said 18 minimum) AND you had full knowledge of what you know now. You leave in a week, so you can do whatever research you need to beforehand.

What year would you go to? Why?

The possibilities are endless.

[NightWatcher]

1. I'd love to re-live the summer after high school graduation

It was a blast.

1993, Lollapalooza, and a bunch of other stuff that I cant say here.

[Deny and Shred]

6. Funny, that is the year I graduated college

and the summer I saw the original Lollapalooza - Jane's Addiction, Siouxie & the Banshees, Jello Biafra, Ice T with Body Count, etc.

My first thought in this scenario was to relive my life and ammend a few bad decisions. This guy and I realized wealth would be easy between knowing winners in sports, Wall St, etc.

Eventually, I realized this scenario made altering world history possible. That's when I couldn't decide which evils I wanted to remove while in their nascent stages, or the bridges I'd try to build. Each move could have far-reaching consequences. If I go back and kill Hitler, how does the Great Derpession play out without WWII? What if I go back and enlighten/warn JFK, RFK, MLK about '63 & '68? How does that play out?

[In_The_Wind]

2. Back to 1969

That was the year I moved north. It's been fun. But I still prefer the warm summer nights of Georgia over frozen winters of the northeast.

[HereSince1628]

3. Me too. I understand it. I understand what followed it. Understanding is power

I don't need to go any farther back then it takes to repeat my life with fore-knowledge of what is happening in the world around me.
And, dare I say, with foreknowledge about the outcomes of my native propensities.

[Lady Freedom Returns]

4. You just reminded me of a song!

[In_The_Wind]

7. This was on GMA earlier today ...

I'm more than ready to feel the wind in my face. C'mon warm weather!



Loved the song Summer of '69

[Lady Freedom Returns]

8. Sweet!

[KamaAina]

12. Fun Bryan Adams factoid

he wanted to title his first album "Bryan Adams Hasn't Heard Of You, Either". Alas, the killjoys at the record label nixed it.

[adirondacker]

13. Me too. Giving the peace sign as a 4 year old out of the back window of a VW bug.

We were in transition of moving from CT to Upstate NY, so there were plenty of road trips along the Hippy Highway through the Hudson Valley.

[In_The_Wind]

14. After college, I escaped the 5 boroughs ...

I relocated to the Hudson Valley almost thirty years ago.

[Le Taz Hot]

5. 1973

I was 18 and I chose one path and should have chosen another. I chose to work (because I needed to get out of the hell hole known as Mommy Dearest's house) instead of moving out of L.A. and to the Central Valley where the only relatives who loved me unconditionally would have helped me go to college and get my degree. I would have majored in Education instead of Music. I love both but you can get a job with an Education degree and teaching credential. Music? Not so much.

[DFW]

9. Hmmmm, maybe 1977

And the age I was then (25). I'd have already had a solid relationship with the woman who would become my wife, and I haven't met anyone since then I'd rather be with. So, no changes there.

I'd know that I was in danger of heart disease, so I'd modify my diet right away. No one NEEDS steak or butter. Plus, I'd know of things that I could buy for a few hundred dollars then that would be worth hundreds of thousands now, and have a fortune to play with even after taxes.

[LiberalEsto]

10. 1975

I'd go back to the months before my mother died and spend as much time with her as possible.

And I would ORDER my younger self not to marry the first husband.

[Rob H.]

11. 1989, specifically February

That was the month my older brother was killed in a car accident. That was also the year I met someone I was crazy about but I was too scared to tell her how I felt. Changing those two things would make all the difference in the world.

[BainsBane]

15. 1886

Long story why. I'd go to Brazil in 1886 and I would stay through May 1888.

[Deny and Shred]

16. Do tell ...

My knowledge of 19th Century Brazilian history is thin. What would you change? If your reason is personal, then no problem with keeping it personal.

Assuming your transported self was still alive, where might you go in June 1888? I can think of several individuals I'd want to look up in the ensuing years.

[BainsBane]

18. In 1886

The legislature passed a law making it illegal for the state to physically punish slaves. I would want to see what if any impact that law had. It should have stopped the practice of police whipping slaves for a fee, at their master's behest. I'd like to see if that happened. Also the law has been widely misinterpreted as banning slaveowners from beating slaves. I'd like to see if masters understood it that way at the time, and if they modified their behavior as a result.

I'd stay through May 1888 in order to witness the abolition of slavery.

As for your last question, I figured it was a one time trip, and I'd come back to the present. I suppose I could go to my grandmother's house in Iowa and hang out a few years until she was born.

[Vashta Nerada]

17. 4 billion years in the future.

To see the fate of the sun and earth.

[kentauros]

19. 2262

Why the hell would I want to go back when I've got so many cool alien civilizations to look forward to?

[shenmue]

20. 1987

Personal reasons.

[RebelOne]

21. Back to 1955 when I eloped when I was 16.

Oh, if I only knew what I know now my life would be a hell of a lot different.

[Generic Brad]

22. 2008

I want to take all the money I had at that time, wait for stocks to bottom out, and then invest everything in the few select stocks I know will rebound. I got scared and moved all my spare cash into CD's. Had I bought the stocks I had my eye on then, I would be a millionaire now many times over and be retired.

[rurallib]

23. I am an old guy

1966 as a 17 year old.
The music, the girls, the whole environment

[orleans]

24. 1970/1971

tween years
my awakening
i'd go back and do it ALL over again, from then until now, with everyone i knew, with everyone i loved, with everyone i eventually cried over and missed. and still do.