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Let's say a group of pioneers, during the 1800s, travelling along the California or Oregon trail enters a magical time portal that teleports them today. What do you think they would think of today?
Let's say a group of pioneers, during the 1800s, travelling along the California or Oregon trail enters a magical time portal that teleports them today. What do you think they would think of today?
Let's say a group of pioneers, during the 1800s, travelling along the California or Oregon trail enters a magical time portal that teleports them today. What do you think they would think of today?
Well for one, they would probably get really excited about GPS.
I've always wondered how they knew where to turn. Make a left at the big rock. Turn right at the oak tree. When everything looks alike how do you find your way?
I think the overall rudeness would shock them followed by the half dressed women.
Let's say a group of pioneers, during the 1800s, travelling along the California or Oregon trail enters a magical time portal that teleports them today. What do you think they would think of today?
Both my parents were born in the 1800s and lived long enough to see a world very close to how it is today. My mother lived in three different centuries. They didn't seem to think that things were all that different, because they and their families were very independent and didn't need society to tell them how to live. Their parents were all Pioneers and they were raised in remote areas, about 90% to 100% self-sufficient, for all their supplies and food. By that time, hand-operated tools and other equipment existed, that were very sophisticated and were of high-quality, as opposed to much of the cheap, throwaway junk we have now. I've still got some 1800s tools and the cutting implements are sharper than I could buy today, at any price. I used my mother's hand surgical tools, made in Germany in about 1870, in my college biology lab classes and all the instructors were envious.
They both learned to drive very early-model cars at age 14, after moving to the largest Oregon cities, at ages 9 and 10. So they were into the modern age of living, before they entered high school. The silly-looking clothes they wore back then, were the biggest difference. The infamous restrictions on behavior, from the Victorian Era, were mostly ignored in actuality and young people did most of what they do now, except they kept it out of sight and did a lot of it on the sly.
Much of the groundwork for the type of world we have now, was already being established by 1840, when the camera was invented. The steamship was invented in 1808 and made a huge difference in commerce and overseas travel. The first railroad engine was developed in 1804. The telegraph and telephone filled the place of the internet and smart-phones of today. by the late 1800s. If you wanted to see a big reaction from time-travelers, to our world now, better bring some from the 1700s, when most things were very different. Throughout most of the 1800s, people had gotten enough of a preview of the new age, to understand what was coming.
Last edited by Steve McDonald; 03-27-2017 at 02:50 AM..
Both my parents were born in the 1800s and lived long enough to see a world very close to how it is today. My mother lived in three different centuries. They didn't seem to think that things were all that different, because they were so independent, that they called their own shots and didn't let society tell them how to live. Their parents were all Pioneers and they were raised in remote areas, about 90% to 100% self-sufficient, for all their supplies and food.
They both learned to drive very early-model cars at age 14, after moving to the largest Oregon cities, at ages 9 and 10. So they were into the modern age of living, before they entered high school. The silly-looking clothes they wore back then, were the biggest difference. The infamous restrictions on behavior, from the Victorian Era, were mostly ignored in actuality and young people did most of what they do now, except they kept it out of sight and did a lot of it on the sly.
Much of the groundwork for the type of world we have now, was already being established by 1840, when the camera was invented. The steamship was invented in 1808 and made a huge difference in commerce and overseas travel. The telegraph and telephone filled the place of the internet and smart-phones, of today. by the late 1800s. If you wanted to see a big reaction from time-travelers, to our world now, better bring some from the 1700s, when most things were very different.
It sounds like the biggest difference for them was the shape of Mt. St. Helens and the amount of salmon in the rivers.
Let's say a group of pioneers, during the 1800s, travelling along the California or Oregon trail enters a magical time portal that teleports them today. What do you think they would think of today?
It sounds like the biggest difference for them was the shape of Mt. St. Helens and the amount of salmon in the rivers.
One set of my grandparents lived in a log cabin, right across the Columbia River from Mt. St. Helens, from 1868 to 1899 and if it had blown then, they would probably have been covered with ash. Chinook salmon was so cheap then, you could buy two 10-oz. cans for a nickel. It was considered to be fit only for a poor person to eat. At my other grandparents' trading post, they'd sell it to the two-man freight-wagon driving teams that came through, along with a bag of hardtack biscuits for another nickel.
They would ask; "What do you mean we can't start a farm on this government land?".
Actually long before that they'd be complaining about all the walking, even when the weather was cold. Or that people generally didn't hop in the shower every morning and change to nice clean clothes, at least until they had to wash them themselves. And horses, especially if they've never dealt with them. And while there might be a sort of quaint coolness about it, when the hand kept reaching for the dead cell phone, and you didn't have something to tell you the exact time anywhere, anymore and eventually people would expect some *work* if they wanted to eat they'd be deeply depressed, and you missed all your phone friends you'd hope that somehow, someway magically you got to go home.
Lots of fat people who can't take care of themselves. Then they'd go start a farm and get along just fine.
I think it would be more interesting if a group from today went back to the 1800's.
I would thrive on being plopped-down into 1840 or so. First of all, I would "retro-invent" the bicycle and some modern guns. Coming from self-sufficient pioneers who lived in the Wilderness and having grown up myself on a farm, I know how to grow, gather and preserve all kinds of food in the old-fashioned way. I haven't driven a car for 25 years, so transitioning to human or horse-powered vehicles would be instant. Knowing about the pathogens that cause diseases and infections and ways to block them, my presence would give medical science a boost. My biggest contribution would be to warn society not to invent airplanes, nuclear fission and the Internet. If I could teach people how to make and use laparoscopes and enable the tubal ligation of 75% of the world's females, I might cause avoidance of the population explosion that dooms us all today. I'm now taking cover and preparing for incoming fire.
Last edited by Steve McDonald; 03-27-2017 at 03:52 PM..
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