If you could travel back in time, when and where would you go? And, for the sake of the obvious, no “I’d like to go back and kill Hitler’s parents so that monster was never born.” Hopefully that would be the first item on any traveler’s wish list. But let’s try to keep it light.
I am sure a lot of you would like to get into conversations with folks like Jesus, Leonardo DaVinci, Albert Einstein or Marie Curie.
And those are all valid and interesting choices. I, myself, kept my preferences a little closer to home.
Personally, one of my first stops would be the seventh grade at Mason County Middle School so I could have a redo on the annual Spelling Bee. I confidently blurted out “E-p-i-l-i” for Epilepsy, and quickly corrected myself to say “E-p-i-l-e-p-s-y.” Not quick enough, however, and I lost the Bee. That has haunted me for decades.
My next destination would be to see the 1979 Mason County High School Concert Choir on our tour of Europe. Most of my photos were of things, not people. So, while I have a nice picture of Notre Dame, I have no friends in the photo to give it context. Given a do-over, I would be sure to populate my shots with the people around me, and in doing so give what were basically generic postcards some meaning.
The next one would take some doing. Basically, I would like to relive part of my youth to be a more interesting and engaged son to my parents. ADHD and OCD were not even a thing in those days; it was called “having ants in your pants.” My tics, quirks and eccentricities must have driven Mom and Dad bonkers. In retrospect, I would like to make a concerted effort to keep those oddball traits under better control, thus making everybody’s life less of a chore.
In my younger years, I turned being passive-aggressive into an art form. I would like to go back and correct a lot of that, saving both myself and others a lot of grief. For some reason, I thought giving someone the cold shoulder would entice them to come to me and see what was wrong. What was wrong, naturally, was me.
And on a less personal note, I would travel to Anaheim, California to watch Disney Imagineers design and build the Haunted Mansion in Disneyland. You know, meet Yale Gracey, X. Atencio and Marc Davis, not to mention Walt Disney, himself, at the height of their creativity. Hey-I like to have a little fun, too.
Finally, what mode of time travel would you use: Phone booth ala Bill and Ted? A platform with a grand spinning wheel the way H.G. Wells envisioned it? Possibly the Hot Tub Time Machine. Let me know and I will tell you why you are wrong. The only choice is Doc Brown’s DeLorean. Hands down. Like he said, if you are going to time travel, why not do it in style?
