Time Machine

Lincoln would be cool to meet.

Would also like to see when Columbus took his first steps in the Americas.

I also wish I could have been alive to see Armstrong take his first steps on the moon.

No takers on rewriting history, like smacking Oswald with a baseball bat at the last minute or putting a bullet in Adolf Hitler's head in circa 1920 Berlin?

"No takers on rewriting history, like smacking Oswald with a baseball bat at the last minute or putting a bullet in Adolf Hitler's head in circa 1920 Berlin?"

Nope. Have to abide by time travel rules, lol. Major events in the past cannot be changed because they could alter the future, perhaps in a bad way. You can only be a spectator.

I would like to see how nature existed on this land prior to settlement. I'd like to witness the sky blackening when millions of passenger pigeons took flight and blocked the sun. I'd like to somehow experience the nearly impenetrable Great Black Swamp when it was such a thing. Then after a long day in the field observing nature, I'd like to leap forward in the time machine several hundred years, so I could dine at a Paris cafe with Ernest Hemingway.

Jr: take along the anti-malarials when and if you travel back to the original Great Black Swamp. The local fever-and-ague was a wicked experience.

jr: we should hang out I like the way you think :)

Pearson park has a nice building near the center that has drawings of the GBS from when the first settlers arrived till modern day. Was neat to see and reach each frame.

Toledo has such a rich history, just wish there was some books on the topic rather than excepts in larger more general history books.

Books by Toledo-area author and photographer Jim Mollenkopf :

• The Great Black Swamp: Historical Tales of 19Th-Century Northwest
• Great Black Swamp II: More Historical Tales of Northwestern Ohio
• Great Black Swamp Woods & Wanders: Nature's Jewels in Northwest Ohio

Can this time machine travel into the future or only to the past? I was curious as to how many more times Czarty will get elected mayor of Toledo.

- I was curious as to how many more times Czarty will get elected mayor of Toledo?" -

Haha. Good one, jr.

Yes, the machine can also go into the future.

Looks like someone already went back and somehow got caught - using a cell phone. Cue Back In Time by Huey Lewis and the News.

Okay McCaskey, where did you park the Delorean?

Hello McFly...

I would have enjoyed being around in the 50's for the great rock-a-Billy music and to witness the birth of rock and roll.

hello all!
been trolling for a few months...

I would like to see a pyramid be built, same with stonehedge And would like to meet albert einstein, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, George carver washington, Lincoln, etc...
oh, the 'flight' at kittyhawk!

might as well go all out...
how about the crucifiction of Jesus, dropping of atomic bombs, sinking of titanic...

Aesop - I'm with you on the pyramids and Stonehenge!

And since I'd have a time machine (thinking one like H.G. Wells), I'd like to watch the glaciers moving in the last ice age and see the great lakes formed as they receded...

Being a fan of all things odds, I'd also like to travel back in time to Antartica - I've always been fascinated by old maps/charts which show the outline of the land without the ice coverage...so I'd like to see it when it wasn't covered by ice and see what's there.

Of course, having heard of bit of Coast to Coast last night and their discussion of forbidden archeology, I'd go way back in time to see if the idea that there was another civilization of man long before us was actually true.

The other thing I'd like to do is to hear great speeches: Dr. Martin Luther King's "I have a Dream"; Lincoln's Gettysburg Address; Martin Luther; Susan B. Anthony on women's right to vote; Winston Churchill's "Their finest hour"; Patrick Henry's "Libery or Death"; Kennedy's 'go to the moon'; Goldwater's 'Conscience of a Conservative' and Reagan's nomination of Goldwater.

I'd also love to witness the discussions on the formation of our Constitution...wonder how much I'd learn from that and whether I'd be glad or disappointed.

Renegade - thanks for asking this question...I'm enjoying the responses. :)

The 50's in Toledo. When the city was vibrant. And I could wear a fedora!

The Beatles at Shea Stadium in 1966. Or maybe going as far back as seeing them in the very early days, before they were "fab" at the Cavern in London.

I'd like to go to the Restaurant at the End of the Universe, but I can't as my TARDIS is in the shop... some kids in a telephone booth cut off a DeLorean which swerved into my lane... and to add insult to injury, some naked dude literally materialized out of nowhere and demanded my clothes! When the TimeCop arrived to take my report, he must have been on drugs or something, because I swear he hallucinating and talking to an invisible guy named Al.

I think I'd simply like to go back to a time when my grandparents were still alive, and have dinner with them.

:)

Bikerdude - I had a few beers with a friend of my dad - and he grew up in Liverpool. He told me he used to walk down to a pub and listen to them play. It gave me goose bumps.

Aw, what a nice post jmleong.

I would like to warp back to the early 90’s when supposedly Hole played some dive bar called The Cypress on Laskey. I think it might be a diner now.

November 5, 1955

Nov 5, 1955: How Beliveau's 3 in 44 led to "The Canadiens Rule" ? Ha! Just kidding.

Time travel back to Hawaii and videotape the birth of Obama, tape his birth certificate being filled out, and then use that to shut the birthers the hell up.

Time travel back to 2000 and fix the infamous "butterfly ballot" to keep Chimpy McFlightsuit from stealing the election.

Time travel back to Hawaii and...

...discover that Obama was actually born in Africa the year before, then expire quietly when a small pipe in the old belfry springs a leak and the central nervous system shuts down due to flooding.

Like JM, I'd like to hang out with my grandparents, three of whom died before I was born. All four were immigrants from Poland in the early 1900s -- and one grandfather had lived near Russia and worked for the czar.

I'd want to see the American west when the buffalo numbered in the millions, Toledo when the streetcars were running, and Ohio when the forests were so thick a squirrel could travel from Lake Erie to the Ohio river without ever setting foot on the ground.

And Ryan, I'd go back to The Cypress in 1983 to hear The Exciterz play. But only if I could have my old wardrobe back -- and fit into it!

I could not do it. I would want to change something like at the Salem Witch Trials, or stop Kennedy from being shot... It would be all bad! LOL...

Easy Go back to the begining of time and film how it all starts, that will end a whole lot of debate one way or the other.

OMG this is so funny you mention this. I was at Walmart in the eye vision and a customer was very irate. He walked away, calmed down and returned. He apologized to the worker and said that he has been so stressed at work. And that he is building a time machine. And then went in to more details.

But if I could go back in Time it would to meet my ancestors and then to relive my childhood. Get good grades, ect ect..

For me, that's an easy one. To have dinner with my parents, who passed a way so many years ago.

I would also like to have met my ancestors as they came to the "new country" at the turn of the century. They didn't have a dime to their names

I know of the H.G. Wells story of a time machine, and Michael J. Fox's trilogy of "Back to the Future" movies, does anyone know of any more novels or movies about time travel?

Bikerdude, one that I really enjoyed is "Time and Again" by Jack Finney. A guy travels back and forth between 1970 and 1880's NYC. A lot of the novel delves into the history of New York City and the time of the Vanderbilts. Story is actually a murder mystery and the hero of the story even rents an apartment at The Dakota when it was on the outskirts of NYC. Great book and illustrated with old engravings of NYC from archival newspapers and history books.

I'll have to check that one out. Thanks, daddyg.

"I had a few beers with a friend of my dad - and he grew up in Liverpool. He told me he used to walk down to a pub and listen to them play. It gave me goose bumps"

Cool! Sounds like the Cavern to me, Molsonator.

A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury. Bradbury does a credible job using the domino theory and time travel.

Keep the "Lost Episodes" of Doctor Who from being lost... wouldn't it be just great to pop out of a TARDIS in BBC headquarters and hand them a pile of tapes?

I'd go back and watch a game at Ebbets Field.

I'd also explain to John Hinckley why nothing he could do would ever impress Jodie Foster.

ONE POINT TWENTY-ONE GIGAWATTS!!

I'd love to have a few conversations with the likes of Lincoln, Grant Sherman, and Tecumseh.

oops, forgot the comma between Grant and Sherman.

Geez...maybe I am selfish but I would just return to 1/2 hour before the last MegaMillions ticket was drawn and buy a ticket at the local carryout.

Twilight Zone had a few time traveler stories. One was about a man who was transported back to just moments before Lincoln was assassinated.

Another one was about a Western outlaw who is snatched from the hangman's noose by a scientist and his time machine in modern day New York City. The outlaw ended up on the streets of New York, terrified of the traffic and other modern technology.

I also remember an episode starring Gig Young as a stressed out business executive who goes back 30 years when he was a boy in a small town and how he yearns for the simpler, more innocent days.

One of my favorites is when Buster Keaton plays a janitor in the late 1800s and happens upon his employer's time machine helmet, which he puts on and is propelled to the 1960s. The part of the episode having to do with the 1800s is done as a silent film with subtitles. When it travels to the 1960s, there is sound.

There are a few more as well. You can probably see these episodes for free on Hulu.

I remember those two episodes from the Twilight Zone! I thought the episode with Buster Keaton was very well done.