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July 17, 2006
Escapism
It will feel like 104 degrees today, which is even more reason to contemplate this question and participate in some historical escapism.
If you could visit any place and time, where would you go, when/for how long, and why?
My answer after the jump.
Visit #1: Red Hook, Brooklyn; 1855-1900. I would love to see what Red Hook was like a few years after the Atlantic Basin opened for business through the first large wave of immigration, mainly because I would like watch how the area changes geographically, architecturally, and culturally.
Visit #2: Greenwich & West Village, Manhattan; 1920. Call me romantic, but experiencing the Village at the tail end of the Progressive Era and right at the birth of Prohibition has always been compelling.
Posted by callalillie at July 17, 2006 7:22 AM | History , Inquiry
NYC - Lower East Side/Upper West Side 1905-1920
then again 1940-50
Posted by: Tiya at July 17, 2006 11:04 AM
Posted by: corie at July 17, 2006 11:06 AM
Hi there,
Berlin 1977 - 1980
I want to see Nick Cave, Iggy Pop, David Bowie, clubs of that time and feel the atmosphere...
Posted by: Ruzena at July 17, 2006 11:26 AM
Berlin, collapse of wall, 1989: for observation of total chaos and witnessing of the destruction of a physical barrier to freedom
Armory Show, New York's 69th Regiment Armory, 1913: for the unleashing and subsequent reaction of marcel duchamp's work
New York, 1939 World's Fair to see the parachute jump actually used
San Francisco, Haight-Ashbury, 1960's: love, peace, and tie-dye
Posted by: yp at July 17, 2006 11:32 AM
I lived behind this physical barrier to freedom :], that is why I want to visit West Berlin these years :]
Posted by: Ruzena at July 17, 2006 11:38 AM
My desire to visit the past has more to do with the people than the places. I'd love to go to Center City Philadelphia in the mid to late 30's, to see both sets of my grandparents when they were young. If I came then, I could also visit the Russian Restaurant my family used to have, as well as the row house in South Philly, where my great-aunt Etta cut a hole in ceiling of her kitchen so that her bed-ridden mother could participate in the goings on of the house.
Posted by: Marisa at July 17, 2006 12:48 PM
Gertrude Stein's living room, between the Wars.
Posted by: Bill at July 17, 2006 6:57 PM
For completely romantic reasons.
In fact let me expand my answer to include parts of Brooklyn and Queens during the same respective times.
My grandfather's butcher shop on Putnam.
My other grandfather's appetizing business on DeKalb - my young, rebelious father hiding his boxing habbit from his family.
My cigarette smoking grandmother dancing mambo in her kitchen.
Posted by: Tiya at July 17, 2006 10:33 PM
>>>If you could visit any place and time, where would you go, when/for how long, and why?
The airport the morning of 9/11, to stop the demons from doing what they did.
www.forgotten-ny.com
Posted by: Kevin Walsh at July 18, 2006 12:17 AM
Los Angeles in the 60s so I can meet my rock and roll heros.
Posted by: Catnip1996 at July 18, 2006 9:18 AM
#1- NYC in the 1970s/80s, to see how badass it actually was (and to see if the people who claim to mourn all that violence and edginess actually liked it back then).
#2- Ft. Greene/Clinton Hill at various times to see how the area changed over the years.
#3-I'd spent time living in the years of the flapper - many people have told me I give off that aura.
Posted by: lesterhead at July 18, 2006 3:16 PM
