I Want A Time Machine!

 I alluded to a desire to time travel the other day. There are a few periods I would love to visit.

I would like to spend some months in the post-Civil War days. Say, around 1880. I would likely want to travel out west to witness the expansion. Of course, I would have to put up with the lack of modern conveniences, like electric lighting, central air and heat, modern highways (and cars). Or indoor plumbing in most areas.  I could travel by train (steam locomotive) or by ship (though that would be lengthy without the Panama Canal) in relative comfort. I would most likely want to explore it by horseback.

The next period would be a mere twenty years later. The Turn of the Century. But this might be confined to the important cities of New York, Chicago, maybe London and Paris. Much smaller than they are now but filled with optimism and imagination, ready for the challenges of a new century.

I would then want to spend years (from, say, 1925 to 1945) in the US and travel between rural and urban areas. I think this period is the most interesting of all modern history. From boom to bust, through misery and war and great struggle.

Of course, if language was not an issue (as long as we are talking about the magic of time travel, we may as well toss in universal translators), I'd like to visit ancient Greece, Rome at the beginning of the first Millennium, not to mention pre-historic eras after the last Ice Age.

I can do this through books and movies, the imaginations and research of others, but to actually be there would be incredible.

If you read H.G. Wells, The Time Machine, you know I am not alone in that desire. I am sure many of the millions  who read that book (or saw the movies) have the same desire. I'd like to recommend another book, a sequel to Wells' called The Time Ships for those of you who also dream of time travel.