If Somebody from 100 Years Ago Visited Me

Do I look Edwardian in this big hat, Friends?

Hiya, Friends!  I've been thinking about the year 1913 a lot lately.  I think it's because not long ago, we watched on the television a miniseries program about the Titanic.  Not the movie Titanic.  No. This was a miniseries that was a dramatic portrayal of the building of the ship the Titanic.  I liked it a lot, mainly because I love hats, and the women in the show wore the best hats.

Oh, my goodness, Big People, were those hats ever huge!  You just don't see hats like that, these days.  You just don't, and it's probably just as well anyways, because headgear of that magnitude just isn't suited for our casual and active lifestyles.

Ummmm.... we're not very active, as a society.  I mean on the whole.  A certain sub-section of the population is active, but a lot of people are not.  In fact, I'd even argue that as our hats have gotten smaller over the years, our bottoms have gotten bigger.  Yikes!

Back to my original topic, though.  I got to thinking about what if.  What if somebody from a hundred years ago visited me, Zoe?  What would I show them about 2013?  What would really wow 'em?

First of all, I think they'd be really bowled over by the Texas Hot in Downtown Wellsville!  That place wasn't opened until 1921!  How about that?!  That's eight years this side of 1913!  And while I don't think that cooking changed much from 1913 to 1921, I betchya somebody from 1913 would be flabbergasted by my favorite restaurant!

OH MY GOODNESS YOU'RE GOIN' OUT IN YOUR UNDIES!

Something else I'd show my friend from 1913 is how we dress today.  It's a lot different from the way they dressed in 1913.  Men can go out in T-shirts, which were basically underwear until what, the 1970s?  Do you know?  It wasn't socially acceptable to wear a T-shirt to school or work or just out and about for a very long time.  That much I know.  Anyway, I think a fellow from 1913 would be surprised that T-shirts and dungarees are more or less normal wear in lotsa situations.  And 1913 ladies would be pleasantly surprised, I think, to know that girls don't have to wear corsets anymore, and we can wear pants, too!

You can just move better in pants than you can in a long dress and a corset, I'd imagine, Friends!  Boy, am I glad I'm a girl in 2013 and not 1913 for that!

And women can vote!  Women couldn't vote in 1913!  They'd get beaten up and thrown in jail for trying!  That's why I will never take for granted my right to vote, Friends!  I can vote, but I betchya my great-great-great grandma couldn't!  So that fact might surprise somebody from 1913.

Oh Lord, won'tchya buy me a Mercedes-Benz?

Although they had flying machines and horseless carriages in 1913, I think our airplanes and cars would really make my 1913 friend do a double-take, especially those giant airplanes that take people across the ocean without having to stop for gas.  And well, our cars these days.  They're all shiny and colorful and fast, and they don't look like carriages without horses anymore!

I think the central vacuum unit in my house would really confound someone from the year 1913.  I don't think vacuum cleaners came along until the 1920s, let alone a vacuum cleaner built right into the house!  

Also, I think something like a microwave oven would really wow somebody from 1913, don't you, Friends?  The microwave pretty much wows me, too.  I just can't believe it!  Mommy puts cold food in, and in a few seconds, out comes that food, but it's hot!  And it's all done as if by magic!  I think the microwave would be a big hit with somebody from 1913, and that's not even taking into consideration things like microwave popcorn.  That right there would seal the deal, I think, microwave popcorn!

Hey, 1913: plastic's fantastic!

You know, something we take for granted every day is plastic.  They just didn't have plastic in 1913.  That means there was no Tupperware, no Gladware, no Ziploc Baggies.  They wouldn't have had neat plastic toys like my recycled milkjug tractor or my inflatable bathtub.  I think we overuse plastic in 2013, especially with disposable water bottles, but overall, I think that used responsibly, plastic is pretty fantastic.  It's even pretty fun to say: PLASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSTIC!  

And plastic is what's made possible all our technology.  Now, if my visitors from 1913 weren't sold on 2013 based on our less-restrictive mode of dressing, or our advances in human rights, or our massive flying machines and shiny horseless carriages, I betchya my 1913 friends would just flip when they saw a television set, or a laptop computer or an iPad or an iPhone!

Think about it!  We can connect with anybody, anywhere in the world except for North Korea, with just a couple keystrokes and a click!  Our messages get beamed up into outer space and beamed back to our friends on the other side of the world.  Just like that!  Back in 1913, people used to have to write down their message and take it to a telegraph office to be changed into Morse code, which would then hafta be tapped out in dots and dashes, sent across wires, and translated back into real words and put down on paper.  For 1913, that process was magical, and so was Marconi's wireless radio, but it's the stuff of dinosaurs compared to what we can do now! 

At least my big hat would be familiar to a friend from 1913!

And everybody types these days!  In 1913, only a few people could type.

 On the flipside, everybody had nice handwriting in 1913, and these days, only a few people have nice handwriting.  That's the only thing about all of this that makes me feel sad.  Well, that and the wasted plastic island in the Pacific Ocean.  But I'd like to have somebody clean up that plastic island and recycle it, and also have everybody have nice handwriting again.

I guess no age is perfect.  But I sure would like to have a visitor from 1913.  I think that would just be the coolest thing ever!