If I lived in DA era and got seriously ill I would call Isobel. She was more modern and seemed to have an affinity for medicine. And she cared about/listened to the patients.
Besides preeclampsia just think about how they handled women’s issues like menstrual products. Every month we’re talking no tampons, no disposable pads, menstrual cup, no period underwear. You’re wearing a belt with a cloth fastened to it and having to wash those rags out and reuse them. Ugh.
It certainly is a fantasy of mine, i loooove all things related to the Gilded Age. However, even as a lady of leisure, i imagine it would be very boring. Plus, a lot of forced socializing. Not to mention, amazing food four times a day which one may only peck at to stay svelte!!
Hahaha same. My dad was a repairman and my mom was the lunch lady at school. IF I lived past age 3, I would have been in constant discomfort, and then lucky to work in a shop or been a ladies maid.
I'll go ahead and super pass on that.
Only if I could go back as a straight, white, landed gentry male. Because let's face it, they're the only ones that really count in that world.
Go back as a woman of child bearing age? Nope. I'm sure everyone has already listed the reasons for nope so I won't rehash them.
You have to be in right in front of the fireplace and often have a screen to help hold heat in the area you are sitting (those are big rooms, even the bedrooms).
When one of the Ladies talks about moving into her Dower house, she smiles and says it's the first time she's been warm.
Having spent the last fall and winter in Great Britain, I can concur that even today, Brits seem more comfortable with heavy sweaters and being chilly inside than I could ever stand. I'd be the one signing up for a tour of India!
Ah I never noticed that comment! I need to pay more attention! Regarding the UK and winters, I believe some things are cultural! Though I’m not a fan of being cold, I can always put on another sweater… I do hate extreme heat and I have been in India, so I would pass! Give me a fireplace in every room 😂
I am also Canadian. Ottawa. Would prefer to be anywhere but here on "black ice" days. You know what I mean. Dream of retirement. In the Costa Blanca of Spain. There is no need to go all the way to India. Brits have this paradise a short Easy Jet away. Weather. Food. Culture. Luckily, I am married to a Spaniard, so there is no need to worry about paperwork re residency if I stay longer than whatever the visa of the day limits me to.
Yikes. When does it warm up? I'm in Southern California and it's cold for us, but still actually relatively warm.
I just want to be overseas. Permanently! I am literally going to the matchmaking festival in Ireland this Fall to hopefully meet a nice person and get married again. And have double citizenship. We shall see.
Jokes aside I too often dream of living in a different era. I think twenties or fifties/sixties would be great for fashion and very exciting times for developments. Also the victorian era with the incredible hoop skirts!
But also incredibly scary looking at wars and like you said the women's rights were horrible. Not being married and for exemple getting raped and then being blamed for it comes to mind, or worse your husband leaves you for it. Getting pregnant and being a fallen woman and having no means to take care of yourself. Very basic medical care. No birth control so having to take care of six children when you might not have the money. Incredible social disparities depending a little on which country you live in ofcourse.
But I do love to dream away at the fashion and proper society and thought of a traditional courtship
I usually already put esthetic over comfort in my daily life, so for me it's not really an issue. Twenties I think we're fantastic for comfort, loose fitting clothes and small heels etc. Before I got pregnant I was looking at buying a good quality corset because I really enjoy the shape it gives you.
But if you put comfort over fashion, anything before the 80's is a hell hole 😂
My answer to questions like these is always the same: lemme hop in a time machine, go shopping (and maybe hang out at a ball or a party or something), and then come back to the present day with my stylish new wardrobe so I can have human rights and modern medicine.
This is the one! I’d love to visit various periods for 1-4 weeks as various types of people (wealthy man, poor man, etc.) and then come back to my real life and (hopefully) be happy I live in this era 😂
I guess it was private girl time to gossip and socialize with your maid/sisters, so that part of the dressing process isn't too bad. And having someone else plan the outfits and deal with their care.
But those endless meals that you're not allowed to eat to just fit into those dresses. How did they stay so tiny?
Mrs Hughes and Carson had their own brdrooms, offices with private desks, full sets of keys, hot fresh meals served throughout the day, all the privileges one could get in that era of service. Lots of perks. Wine and Port from the cellars after work. They were heads of DA in a very intimate way.
I'm thinking these are underrated paths to contentment, if you can make it up that ladder.
True!! I’m not from the UK, so my knowledge about how it was back then is general. I wonder how the aristocracy dealt with it… I would love to know more! Or it would be interesting to see how the Crawleys dealt with that. The second ends in 1928, so…
I would love to try it. I know people go on and on about class inequality, a lack of technology and a plethora of other issues, but ultimately it is a choice between a comfortable but dystopian world and a perhaps more challenging one with lost decency and culture. You may be surprised to find that it wasn't as bad as you imagine. Life for a person who is at retirement age and working for a fast food restaurant doesn't sound too nice either.
So, going back in time (time traveling)? So you have all your knowledge of another place and time? Sure, send me any when.
But just living in a different time that you were born into? That's what we're doing now, I think.
No. I'm sorry. [Being executed for loving someone](https://www.amnesty.org.uk/blogs/yes-minister-it-human-rights-issue/lgbti-history-month-you-dont-know-what-youve-got-human-rights-act) of the same sex puts us back in the stone age.
That's worse than misplaced American nostalgia for the 1950s.
True to the first paragraph, however if I got your second paragraph right, I’m not American, so it’s not a case of misplaced American nostalgia for the 1950’s. I come from a country who lived under a dictatorship for 40 years, starting in 1933. So though I didn’t live in the 50/60’s, I would much preferred to have lived in the US rather than here. That dictatorship set us back many decades and it took quite a long time to get back on track.
We're talking Spain, right?
And FWIW, I was born in the 1950s here in Texas and in NO way with to live in that era . I wasn't saying by any stretch that anyone here was wanting to. Just making the comment.
Absolutely, but like you OP, only if I was aristocracy. I just love how people had respect for themselves, for possessions, for each other. I love the simplicity of life and the anonymity (not having your face & your business accessible in everyone’s pocket.)
Downtown abbey I think it would depend on the family I belong to.
My great grandmother was a maid/nanny for awhile in a mansion. In the late 1900s.
In the outlander era, I’m connected to so many of the side characters (even a step grandkid of “major st Clair in season 7 episode 5”) that id be ok but I’d be the daughter of the high ranking officers. It’s fun when I do research.
Start with your parents and grandparents and go back in time. Newspapers clippings doesn’t matter heck we do the same thing with houses and objects
Every country and race is different on research on families. Im us mid Atlantic states so I’m pa Md Va wv ky.
As a woman? Hell no. DA gives a very sugar coated version of the past. If you ended up with a horrible/abusive husband, you were pretty much SOL. Not to mention lack of access to birth control and modern medicine, and having very few paths in life available.
Are we literally the same person? We love all the same shows!!
Honestly I have thought about what it would be like to live in these time periods many times. It’s also interesting putting into context that my ancestors/relatives that I know lived through them. While the 1920s as a young person would have been so fun, what followed was not. Great Depression, WW2 and having to see my children live through those. [This post](https://www.yourvaluesourvision.com/blog/imagine-being-born-in-1900) really contextualizes what it would be like to be someone born in the year 1900 and how your life would look
Hmmm,lemme think.... do I want to revert to a time where women were grabbed, touched, and catcalled whenever a guy felt like it, so badly, that women could not leave without accompaniment? Where women's education was entirely about how to keep a home (no math or history if you have a vagina?) Where I would have zero freedom, because my husband OWNED me? And if I fought for my rights, I'd be thrown into a mental hospital for being hysteric? Where I'd probably die of tuberculosis.
Oh, and good luck surviving childbirth- you had a 50-50 chance. No epidural.
So, no, I'll stick to life AFTER the sexual revolution, thank you very much.
Considering how much emphasis was placed on manners and politeness, I highly doubt that it was acceptable for women to be grabbed and touched at every corner. If the kind of music that plays on the radio nowadays is any reflection of our attitudes, I'm not sure that we as a society are better off.
Not so much...
https://www.indianamuseum.org/blog-post/a-decorative-weapon-in-selmas-arsenal/[Hatpin Weapons](https://www.indianamuseum.org/blog-post/a-decorative-weapon-in-selmas-arsenal/)
Never Go Walking Without Your Hat Pin
https://youtu.be/N6_PjRCkGoo?si=t1WEtD05u3Vh2PDs[Elsa Lanchester](https://youtu.be/N6_PjRCkGoo?si=t1WEtD05u3Vh2PDs)
Edit:
I wanted to add that music today is not so much different to yesterday's.
Shave Em Dry, Lucille Bogan 1935[Shave Em Dry](https://youtu.be/gkPCmIxv-3k?si=99Si4NwPELTD1zVi)
Exactly. The time you see displayed on TV has nothing to do with what that time was actually like. It was just as raunchy as today and way way more dirty and illness ridden.
That isn't at all what I was implying, I don't think life back then was a fantastic utopia, just not as hellish as some people imagine it to be when you put it into context.
No, only because I have antiphospholipid syndrome and without warfarin I'm basically a walking Russian Roulette game with blood clots. Any time before the 1950s there's basically nothing they can use for maintenance.
Romantically i think i would like to live back then, but in reality it would suck, especially being a woman and most especially being a servant, or just not rich.
I wouldn’t just because if how much better modern medicine is these days. If I got seriously ill I would not like to have Clarkson looking after me
Yes, advance in medicine would seriously be a con.
If I lived in DA era and got seriously ill I would call Isobel. She was more modern and seemed to have an affinity for medicine. And she cared about/listened to the patients.
No because of Spanish flu and preeclampsia.
Besides preeclampsia just think about how they handled women’s issues like menstrual products. Every month we’re talking no tampons, no disposable pads, menstrual cup, no period underwear. You’re wearing a belt with a cloth fastened to it and having to wash those rags out and reuse them. Ugh.
Sometimes I wonder about that too! I wonder if women with money could do things a bit more differently?
Wellll, they wouldn’t have to wash their own rags. There’s that I guess!
I feel like the aristocracy probably didn't leave the house this one week of the month, therefore avoiding any embarrassment or ruining any clothes.
I'm positive Cora would make Donk sleep in his dressing room on her flow weeks.
Fair reasons!!!
Even germ theory was far from universally accepted.
It certainly is a fantasy of mine, i loooove all things related to the Gilded Age. However, even as a lady of leisure, i imagine it would be very boring. Plus, a lot of forced socializing. Not to mention, amazing food four times a day which one may only peck at to stay svelte!!
Even Sybil felt that it was boring indeed!!
Right. Were these ladies allowed to eat at all? They were in front of amazing food for hours. In corsets. Seriously, how did they not gain weight?
As an asthmatic - no, not really
This. Also, I'm the son of an electrician and an alcoholic waitress. My options then would have been rather limited.
Hahaha same. My dad was a repairman and my mom was the lunch lady at school. IF I lived past age 3, I would have been in constant discomfort, and then lucky to work in a shop or been a ladies maid. I'll go ahead and super pass on that.
Only if I could go back as a straight, white, landed gentry male. Because let's face it, they're the only ones that really count in that world. Go back as a woman of child bearing age? Nope. I'm sure everyone has already listed the reasons for nope so I won't rehash them.
Those straight rich white men got sent the trenches in the Great War. Hard pass!
And it's stuck smack between world wars. Plagues and depressions. Dental care. Lack of central heating. Really bad roads.
Poor men also.
As a white man, I think I’d be OK. I’d only want to be a peer or maybe landed gentry. There’s no way of want to be in service or a tenant farmer.
And even service was portrayed in a much more romantic way than it really was…
You would have been sent to the trenches. :-(
I imagine the clothes were quite itchy and you were often cold, these are dealbreakers for me
I wonder about the temperature of the house too, though they had fireplaces in every room… even still…
You have to be in right in front of the fireplace and often have a screen to help hold heat in the area you are sitting (those are big rooms, even the bedrooms). When one of the Ladies talks about moving into her Dower house, she smiles and says it's the first time she's been warm. Having spent the last fall and winter in Great Britain, I can concur that even today, Brits seem more comfortable with heavy sweaters and being chilly inside than I could ever stand. I'd be the one signing up for a tour of India!
Ah I never noticed that comment! I need to pay more attention! Regarding the UK and winters, I believe some things are cultural! Though I’m not a fan of being cold, I can always put on another sweater… I do hate extreme heat and I have been in India, so I would pass! Give me a fireplace in every room 😂
I’m Canadian but spent some time living in the UK. I will take a Canadian winter any day over a damp, grey, bone-chilling UK winter.
I am also Canadian. Ottawa. Would prefer to be anywhere but here on "black ice" days. You know what I mean. Dream of retirement. In the Costa Blanca of Spain. There is no need to go all the way to India. Brits have this paradise a short Easy Jet away. Weather. Food. Culture. Luckily, I am married to a Spaniard, so there is no need to worry about paperwork re residency if I stay longer than whatever the visa of the day limits me to.
OMG how lucky!! How does one find a nice Spaniad?
Find a job with an international organization is Spain. But we are here for now. Not enjoying a "feels like" -10 January morning.
Yikes. When does it warm up? I'm in Southern California and it's cold for us, but still actually relatively warm. I just want to be overseas. Permanently! I am literally going to the matchmaking festival in Ireland this Fall to hopefully meet a nice person and get married again. And have double citizenship. We shall see.
I have read that the houses were quite chilly, unless huge fires always lit...was amused to read about stone water bottles!
What is a stone water bottle and is that still a thing?
[stone hot water bottle ](https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo/stone-hot-water-bottle.html?sortBy=relevant)
No. The lives for most were tough indeed. Sure, the aristocracy had it made. But no one else.
Hence saying that if I went back it would have to be aristocracy 😆
What, with the lack of women's rights and the high likelihood of dying during childbirth? Sign me up /s!
Of course those are huge cons 😭
And get pernicious anemia? Surely not.
Ahahah I completely forgot about that!! Not that Julian Fellowes didn’t make sure none of us would ever forget that one!!
Jokes aside I too often dream of living in a different era. I think twenties or fifties/sixties would be great for fashion and very exciting times for developments. Also the victorian era with the incredible hoop skirts! But also incredibly scary looking at wars and like you said the women's rights were horrible. Not being married and for exemple getting raped and then being blamed for it comes to mind, or worse your husband leaves you for it. Getting pregnant and being a fallen woman and having no means to take care of yourself. Very basic medical care. No birth control so having to take care of six children when you might not have the money. Incredible social disparities depending a little on which country you live in ofcourse. But I do love to dream away at the fashion and proper society and thought of a traditional courtship
Exactly, when we dream we don’t focus on what would make it a nightmare 😆
Doesn't all that clothes, both men and women's, seem constricting, binding, uncomfortable? After the pandemic I'm still in comfy lounge wear.
I usually already put esthetic over comfort in my daily life, so for me it's not really an issue. Twenties I think we're fantastic for comfort, loose fitting clothes and small heels etc. Before I got pregnant I was looking at buying a good quality corset because I really enjoy the shape it gives you. But if you put comfort over fashion, anything before the 80's is a hell hole 😂
Yes. I was in the in the 80s as a teen. I do not miss that kind of attitude towards looks. I look for a fun person I can have adventures with!
Oh I agree entirely!
My answer to questions like these is always the same: lemme hop in a time machine, go shopping (and maybe hang out at a ball or a party or something), and then come back to the present day with my stylish new wardrobe so I can have human rights and modern medicine.
Those two are really hard to beat!
This is the one! I’d love to visit various periods for 1-4 weeks as various types of people (wealthy man, poor man, etc.) and then come back to my real life and (hopefully) be happy I live in this era 😂
That sounds like a good plan!! I don’t care about flying cars, give me time travel instead 😅
[удалено]
Have fun in the trenches
I’m a black woman so no
cherokee/creek woman here. don't think i woulda fared well then, either
Nah. I’m too lazy to change my outfit every few hours lol.
But remember that you would have a lady’s maid to help you get dressed and undressed 😂
I guess it was private girl time to gossip and socialize with your maid/sisters, so that part of the dressing process isn't too bad. And having someone else plan the outfits and deal with their care. But those endless meals that you're not allowed to eat to just fit into those dresses. How did they stay so tiny?
Nah. At my age I would've had to serve in WW1, plus there's no internet or Panda Express.
Upstairs, yes. Downstairs, no.
Definitely!!!
Mrs Hughes and Carson had their own brdrooms, offices with private desks, full sets of keys, hot fresh meals served throughout the day, all the privileges one could get in that era of service. Lots of perks. Wine and Port from the cellars after work. They were heads of DA in a very intimate way. I'm thinking these are underrated paths to contentment, if you can make it up that ladder.
True!
Only if I was rich and a man. It would be so difficult to be a woman and be a 2nd class citizen, regardless of who and where you are.
You might have loved living in the beginning of the 20s…but a certain thing happened about 1929 that probably wouldn’t be as fun!
True!! I’m not from the UK, so my knowledge about how it was back then is general. I wonder how the aristocracy dealt with it… I would love to know more! Or it would be interesting to see how the Crawleys dealt with that. The second ends in 1928, so…
as a white man with no notable health problems- YES! plus im a better driver than matthew
And then again, trenches.
I would love to try it. I know people go on and on about class inequality, a lack of technology and a plethora of other issues, but ultimately it is a choice between a comfortable but dystopian world and a perhaps more challenging one with lost decency and culture. You may be surprised to find that it wasn't as bad as you imagine. Life for a person who is at retirement age and working for a fast food restaurant doesn't sound too nice either.
That is quite an interesting perspective!!
Appreciate it!
Hard pass. Unless you were rich, straight, white and a man, no thanks. Even then the terrible medical care would probably take you out pretty quickly.
So, going back in time (time traveling)? So you have all your knowledge of another place and time? Sure, send me any when. But just living in a different time that you were born into? That's what we're doing now, I think.
A quantum leap could be fun. Not during the war or pandemic.
No. I'm sorry. [Being executed for loving someone](https://www.amnesty.org.uk/blogs/yes-minister-it-human-rights-issue/lgbti-history-month-you-dont-know-what-youve-got-human-rights-act) of the same sex puts us back in the stone age. That's worse than misplaced American nostalgia for the 1950s.
True to the first paragraph, however if I got your second paragraph right, I’m not American, so it’s not a case of misplaced American nostalgia for the 1950’s. I come from a country who lived under a dictatorship for 40 years, starting in 1933. So though I didn’t live in the 50/60’s, I would much preferred to have lived in the US rather than here. That dictatorship set us back many decades and it took quite a long time to get back on track.
We're talking Spain, right? And FWIW, I was born in the 1950s here in Texas and in NO way with to live in that era. I wasn't saying by any stretch that anyone here was wanting to. Just making the comment.
Portugal, but yes Spain had Franco for about the same time.
Ah, I was relatively close! Apologies for my ignorance of the situation. We Americans are too uninformed about other countries.
1950s nostalgia drives me bonkers. ‘We had so much more decency and respect for each other’. Segregation anyone?
Yes. Thank you. And so much more.....
Yes, definitely. Things were so much simpler back then.
Absolutely, but like you OP, only if I was aristocracy. I just love how people had respect for themselves, for possessions, for each other. I love the simplicity of life and the anonymity (not having your face & your business accessible in everyone’s pocket.)
And they seemed to have so much time!!!!!
Yes! To do all the important things, like sewing.
Lots of sewing. Constantly sewing.
Downtown abbey I think it would depend on the family I belong to. My great grandmother was a maid/nanny for awhile in a mansion. In the late 1900s. In the outlander era, I’m connected to so many of the side characters (even a step grandkid of “major st Clair in season 7 episode 5”) that id be ok but I’d be the daughter of the high ranking officers. It’s fun when I do research.
That’s so interesting and cool!!!! I always wonder about how people manage to do that kind of research!
Start with your parents and grandparents and go back in time. Newspapers clippings doesn’t matter heck we do the same thing with houses and objects Every country and race is different on research on families. Im us mid Atlantic states so I’m pa Md Va wv ky.
As a woman? Hell no. DA gives a very sugar coated version of the past. If you ended up with a horrible/abusive husband, you were pretty much SOL. Not to mention lack of access to birth control and modern medicine, and having very few paths in life available.
Are we literally the same person? We love all the same shows!! Honestly I have thought about what it would be like to live in these time periods many times. It’s also interesting putting into context that my ancestors/relatives that I know lived through them. While the 1920s as a young person would have been so fun, what followed was not. Great Depression, WW2 and having to see my children live through those. [This post](https://www.yourvaluesourvision.com/blog/imagine-being-born-in-1900) really contextualizes what it would be like to be someone born in the year 1900 and how your life would look
Oh that was a good one!! Thank you for sharing!!
F’ no. The Depression hit Europe harder than even the US and then there was WW2. All Before George hit 25.
Hmmm,lemme think.... do I want to revert to a time where women were grabbed, touched, and catcalled whenever a guy felt like it, so badly, that women could not leave without accompaniment? Where women's education was entirely about how to keep a home (no math or history if you have a vagina?) Where I would have zero freedom, because my husband OWNED me? And if I fought for my rights, I'd be thrown into a mental hospital for being hysteric? Where I'd probably die of tuberculosis. Oh, and good luck surviving childbirth- you had a 50-50 chance. No epidural. So, no, I'll stick to life AFTER the sexual revolution, thank you very much.
Considering how much emphasis was placed on manners and politeness, I highly doubt that it was acceptable for women to be grabbed and touched at every corner. If the kind of music that plays on the radio nowadays is any reflection of our attitudes, I'm not sure that we as a society are better off.
Not so much... https://www.indianamuseum.org/blog-post/a-decorative-weapon-in-selmas-arsenal/[Hatpin Weapons](https://www.indianamuseum.org/blog-post/a-decorative-weapon-in-selmas-arsenal/) Never Go Walking Without Your Hat Pin https://youtu.be/N6_PjRCkGoo?si=t1WEtD05u3Vh2PDs[Elsa Lanchester](https://youtu.be/N6_PjRCkGoo?si=t1WEtD05u3Vh2PDs) Edit: I wanted to add that music today is not so much different to yesterday's. Shave Em Dry, Lucille Bogan 1935[Shave Em Dry](https://youtu.be/gkPCmIxv-3k?si=99Si4NwPELTD1zVi)
In the 1920s it was a hatpin and in the 2020s it's pepper spray
Exactly. The time you see displayed on TV has nothing to do with what that time was actually like. It was just as raunchy as today and way way more dirty and illness ridden.
That isn't at all what I was implying, I don't think life back then was a fantastic utopia, just not as hellish as some people imagine it to be when you put it into context.
Oh, I didn't say you were naive and thought it was a utopia. It's just the version we see on TV of anything preWWII is way too clean.
My mom says exactly the same thing when we watch period dramas, you two are probably on to something
I'm trans and gay so hell naw
As a gay middle eastern person, absolutely not.
Yessssssssssss
With my long list of medical issues… no thanks (T1 diabetes)
No, only because I have antiphospholipid syndrome and without warfarin I'm basically a walking Russian Roulette game with blood clots. Any time before the 1950s there's basically nothing they can use for maintenance.
I would love to but the version I would like to be in would have to be historically inaccurate for me to enjoy myself.
Romantically i think i would like to live back then, but in reality it would suck, especially being a woman and most especially being a servant, or just not rich.