BS: Thoughts on Time in Perspective

Subject: BS: Thoughts on Time Perspectives
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 21 Jan 10 - 01:28 PM

Anyone got the same interest in perspectives of time that I have? I can almost go into a sort of trance just considering the fact that Alice [in Wonderland] Liddell [d 1933] was alive at same time as me [b 1932].

The Trojan War was happening round about the same time as Moses & the Children of Israel were wandering about that wilderness ( & BTW - if they were the Chosen lot, why did Jehovah tell them to turn left on the other side of the Red Sea: if he'd only told them to turn right, then Israel would have all those oilwells, eh?). & for Homer to have written about the Trojan War is about the same, timewise, as Carol Ann Duffy starting on a poem about the Spanish Armada.

I know a man 5 years older than me whose grandfather remembered being held up to watch Napoleon ride by.

Balzac's first mistress had been a lady-in-waiting to Marie Antoinette. His last mistress died in 1930.

A man died today at the age of 80. On the day he was born a man of 80 died. & on the day he was born... So how many men to get you back to the Norman Conquest? Not that many, is it? I make it 12.

Anyone else play these games with time, or find them as fascinating as I do? Any more examples of such?

Subject: RE: BS: Thoughts on Time in Perspective
From: SINSULL
Date: 21 Jan 10 - 02:54 PM

I do it on a larger scale - mankind is about a blink on the grand scale of the universe. When gone, nothing will notice.

Subject: RE: BS: Thoughts on Time in Perspective
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 21 Jan 10 - 03:09 PM

At the present rate of progress in India and the USA (unless Obama does better) that will not be long.

Subject: RE: BS: Thoughts on Time in Perspective
From: katlaughing
Date: 21 Jan 10 - 03:54 PM

I, do, Michael, though right now it's hard for me to focus on much. As I believe in reincarnation and know that I was alive in 1170 on the east coast of Scotland, I have been very interested in what was going on then.

My brother has kept diaries all of his life. In the year I was born, he noted listening to the coronation of Queen Elizabeth on Canadian radio. We lived about 60 miles south of the border in North Dakota at the time.

I also have a neat publication which shows the Great Law of Peace - Iroquois Confederacy document side-by-side with the Constitution of the United States. It is remarkable in similarity unless one knows the Founding Fathers consulted with the Native Americans when writing the Constitution. (Citations are included.) More about them HERE.

Subject: RE: BS: Thoughts on Time in Perspective
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 21 Jan 10 - 04:05 PM

This thread, from a while ago, is on similar lines.

My God, is he still alive!

Subject: RE: BS: Thoughts on Time in Perspective
From: Bill D
Date: 21 Jan 10 - 05:00 PM

I do this exercise often...(as I ponder on why school children are not taught as much about time & perspective as we were 50-60 years ago.)

95% of the drugs we use these days did not exist when I was born.(1939)
The first tests of television were happening about the time I was born..(but it was not available to ME until 1953)

My father remembered the first automobile he saw: a White Steamer, bought by the town doctor...about 1914.

I have been alive for 1/3 of the existence of my country.

We have only existed as a reasonably 'human' species that drew pictures and made artifacts for about 35,000 to 50,000 years. There were 5-8 MILLION years of evolution before that....and we wonder why there are still genetic tendencies for men to fight and kill for territory, women and power?

Subject: RE: BS: Thoughts on Time in Perspective
From: Will Fly
Date: 21 Jan 10 - 05:10 PM

I can remember talking to my great-grandfather - my father's father's father) - around 1952 (he died in 1953). He was born in 1870 and he remembered talking to his grandfather who was born in 1816 - a man who had pulled coal carts in the Lancashire pits at the age of 10. The law which allowed children to work in pits at that age was changed in 1849. So - in just two conversations - a slice of history can be brought to life...

Subject: RE: BS: Thoughts on Time in Perspective
From: Ebbie
Date: 21 Jan 10 - 05:28 PM

My paternal grandfather was born in 1868, "just three years after Abraham Lincoln died" we kids used to marvel. He lived to be 96 years old.

My maternal grandmother was born in 1874 and when she was four years old her family drove a horse-pulled buckboard from Indiana to Oregon carrying all their earthly belongings and with a cow and an extra two horses tied to the back. She said how long they took but I have forgotten.

Subject: RE: BS: Thoughts on Time in Perspective
From: Paul Burke
Date: 21 Jan 10 - 06:32 PM

A little boy of 6 talks to an old man of 86. First- hand memories from 1930- second hand from 1850- third hand from 1780. The past is both remote for those without the thread, and close at hand for the lucky ones with it.

Subject: RE: BS: Thoughts on Time in Perspective
From: GUEST,999
Date: 21 Jan 10 - 06:42 PM

"I also have a neat publication which shows the Great Law of Peace - Iroquois Confederacy document side-by-side with the Constitution of the United States."

The Iroquois Confederacy--originally made up of the Mohawk, Onondaga, Seneca, Cayuga, Oneida and being joined by the Tuscarora in (1858)--was the first full-fledged democracy in North America. That according to Professor Olive P Dickason. A remarkable researcher, writer, thinker and teacher.

Subject: RE: BS: Thoughts on Time in Perspective
From: Bert
Date: 21 Jan 10 - 06:49 PM

First television

Subject: RE: BS: Thoughts on Time in Perspective
From: Donuel
Date: 21 Jan 10 - 07:10 PM

I like this premise. I was 8 when the last active civil war soldier died.


I also like to imagine time in the 11th dimension. A recent post of this is in the Random Traces thread.

Subject: RE: BS: Thoughts on Time in Perspective
From: Bill D
Date: 21 Jan 10 - 07:15 PM

Yes...but my 'perspective' is relevant to this article about TV in America about 1939. There was really little available here until the St. Louis World's Fair.

(I also remember reading a Life magazine article about the last 7-8 American Civil War veterans, who were still alive then.)

Subject: RE: BS: Thoughts on Time in Perspective
From: Amos
Date: 21 Jan 10 - 07:30 PM

When BBW was a girl, she sat at her grandmother's knee and listened to grandma tell the story of seeing Abraham Lincoln when she herself was a small girl, in a little town called Gettysburg.

It really comes home to you how good we are at adding drama to our little blinks and winks of time...



A

Subject: RE: BS: Thoughts on Time in Perspective
From: GUEST,heric
Date: 21 Jan 10 - 07:48 PM

Queen Elizabeth II and Herb Hoover

Subject: RE: BS: Thoughts on Time in Perspective
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 22 Jan 10 - 07:50 AM

Back in the 70s & 80s I had a friend who was born before the first World War & was the grand-daughter of Thomas Rose, one of our earliest free settlers who arrived in Sydney in 1793, 5 years after the arrival of the First Fleet.

Rose Cottage
Land Grants
Upon Thomas Rose's arrival in NSW in 1793, he and the other settlers from the ship Bellona were given land grants in an area near present day Strathfield, which they named 'Liberty Plains' after the fact that they were all free settlers. Thomas Rose selected 120 acres on the right bank of Powell's Creek. Despite being an experienced farmer, Rose struggled with the poor soil at Liberty Plains, and by 1802 purchased 15 acres of land known as Laurel Farm on the banks of the Hawkesbury River near Wilberforce, approximately one mile from the site of Rose Cottage. Thomas Rose lost everything in the floods of 1806 and 1809.

The land on which Rose Cottage is now situated is part of a 30 acre grant to William Mackay made by Governor Hunter in 1797. In January 1806 Mackay transferred the north-eastern half of his grant, described as "that part to Howarth's Farm" to James Roberts. Two months later, Roberts sold this land to WM Nowland, a blacksmith, who then sold the land to Joshua Rose in 1809.

Thomas Rose and his wife had been accompanied on their voyage from England on the Bellona by their four children, Thomas (to avoid confusion, herein referred to as Thomas II), Mary, Joshua and Richard, aged 13, 11, 9 and 3 respectively. After arriving in the colony, Thomas Rose had three more children. Most of Thomas and Jane's children remained in Australia, many establishing farms of their own along the Hawkesbury River. The family appears to have retained a patriotism for England, as Thomas II and Joshua returned to England circa 1803-1806, and father and sons contributed subscriptions to the Waterloo fund in 1816.

Subject: RE: BS: Thoughts on Time in Perspective
From: Donuel
Date: 22 Jan 10 - 02:23 PM

A word of caution regarding looking at your entire family tree.

There is a chance that you may discover an ancestor of such monumental assholedom that you may carry an ongoing sense of shame and embarrasment.

For example would you like to be related to General George Armstrong Custer?

Subject: RE: BS: Thoughts on Time in Perspective
From: Amos
Date: 22 Jan 10 - 02:34 PM

Aw, c'mon, why not? Twenty-four hours before his attack at Little Big Horn he was a respected Army general.



A

Subject: RE: BS: Thoughts on Time in Perspective
From: catspaw49
Date: 22 Jan 10 - 03:02 PM

Actually Donnie, I come from the same part of Ohio as Custer and parts of his family were quite prolific. I recall my grandfather explaining how his mother was somehow related. Then again Donuel, maybe this does explain a lot about me(;<))

This is a fun thread to read Michael. I would think that most 'Catters I know are into this in some way or another. Sometimes it is simply a factor of aging. When I was a child I remember old Mr. Rank still grove his pre-WWII Plymouth with the "A" sticker on the windshield. I thought, "Geeze, what an old heap." Today I think a 1990 vehicle is still pretty new.........certainly not an "old heap."

This is 2010 and has one of those oddities that occur. My Mom died 43 years ago. She was 43 at the time. That doesn't mean anything exactly of course.....just a little weird to think that she has now been gone as long as she lived. I notice that type of thing about my parents as I am now much older than either of them when they died.


Spaw

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Thoughts on Time in Perspective
From: catspaw49
Date: 22 Jan 10 - 03:05 PM

grove? GROVE???   Geeziz......Mi pruufreeding skils r shot ta hell tuda........

Spaw

Spaw

Spaw

Spaw,,,,,,,,,

Subject: RE: BS: Thoughts on Time in Perspective
From: Charley Noble
Date: 22 Jan 10 - 08:32 PM

My father who died at 98 not so long ago remembered seeing Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show in New York City. My mother's nursemaid Ella Madison toured Europe with her Black minstrel bands in the 1870's and 1880's, and filled her head with lots of old songs.

It's kind of fun to sift through the threads of time. Maybe someone a hundred years from now will add something to this thread.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Thoughts on Time in Perspective
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 22 Jan 10 - 10:16 PM

===This is a fun thread to read Michael. I would think that most 'Catters I know are into this in some way or another.===

Thank you, Spaw; glad you enjoy it. - Michael

Subject: RE: BS: Thoughts on Time in Perspective
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 23 Jan 10 - 01:21 AM

The difference in age between a 1959 Ford and a 2010 Ford is the same as between that 1959 Ford and the very first Model T.

Subject: RE: BS: Thoughts on Time in Perspective
From: akenaton
Date: 23 Jan 10 - 05:03 AM

Charlie got me thinkin'.
My own grandfather told me of going to see Buffalo Bill when the Wild West Show toured the UK.....It was in a little town called Falkirk.

He also travelled to South Africa, went to Jo-burg, which he described as a "wee bunch o' corrugated iron huts!"

Subject: RE: BS: Thoughts on Time in Perspective
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 23 Jan 10 - 06:11 AM

Oh heck! You guys are not going to believe this one!

I was reading this thread yesterday, thinking how interesting it was..and then, I rang my friend, Julie, down in Horrabridge. We were talking about a myriad of things and she got on to her grandfather (I hadn't said a word about this thread, or about the subject)...well, from there she went on about Torquay and then...then she mentioned a man her grandfather knew, called John Lee. (!!!)

She told me how John was sentenced to be hanged, even though he'd never committed the crime, and how upset her grandfather was...He'd told Julie that on the day of his hanging, his mother had gone into her church to pray for him. She was on her knees praying when she heard a sound behind her. She turned around and there were three pure white doves flying in a circle inside the church...They'd come in through the open door. They circled above her, then flew out again.....

"Did John Lee come from Babbacombe?" I asked her. "Yes, he did." she said.."Grandad used to ride in the horse and cart with him..."

I told her the rest of John's story, which surprisingly she wasn't aware of...and we decided that each of those doves was for every time they tried to hang him, but failed...Sort of Guardian Angels sent down to let his mother know he'd be OK.

:0)

Subject: RE: BS: Thoughts on Time in Perspective
From: Joe_F
Date: 23 Jan 10 - 06:20 PM

H. L. Mencken, who lived well into my lifetime, was born in 1880. When he was a little boy in Baltimore, there was still an annual parade of veterans of the War of 1812. (They cannot have been stepping very lively.)

My father was 12 at the time of the Wright brothers' first flight. At the time of the first moon landing, I happened to be visiting him in Vermont, and watched it with him on his little black&white TV.

Subject: RE: BS: Thoughts on Time in Perspective
From: frogprince
Date: 23 Jan 10 - 07:19 PM

My father was born in 1905. He remembered hearing William Jennings Bryan speak at a Chautaqua circuit meeting. Jennings spoke on the circuit until 1925, but my father's memory was from when he was very young.
Our family car was a 1934 Ford until I was 9 years old.

Subject: RE: BS: Thoughts on Time in Perspective
From: frogprince
Date: 23 Jan 10 - 07:24 PM

And I remember the same life article on the surviving Civil war veterans that Bill D mentioned. One of them still had thick hair, and attributed that to washing it very infrequently; I think he claimed every two years or so.

Subject: RE: BS: Thoughts on Time in Perspective
From: Paul Burke
Date: 23 Jan 10 - 07:34 PM

Lizzie: quite right. I don't believe it.

Subject: RE: BS: Thoughts on Time in Perspective
From: Marion
Date: 23 Jan 10 - 10:02 PM

I once had a debate with a friend about the song "Four Strong Winds"; she claimed it was a traditional folk song, and I claimed that it was recently composed.

Turned out that we BOTH knew it was from the 1960s; the difference was that she considered the 60s to be a very long time ago, and I considered them to be recent.

This thread also reminds me of the joke: How do you tell the difference between an American and a European?















The European thinks a hundred miles is a long way, and the American thinks 100 years is a long time.

Subject: RE: BS: Thoughts on Time in Perspective
From: Alice
Date: 23 Jan 10 - 11:28 PM

Because I'm the youngest child in my family (b 1951) and my father was the youngest in his family (b 1902), I've had these time spans in my awareness all my life. My grandfather was 17 when he came from Ireland to the USA with his parents and siblings in about 1882. My great-grandfather was born in 1837.

Subject: RE: BS: Thoughts on Time in Perspective
From: GUEST,heric
Date: 25 Jan 10 - 11:04 PM

Adam Cartwright just died of old age. Not quite on point, but still.

Subject: RE: BS: Thoughts on Time in Perspective
From: Ebbie
Date: 25 Jan 10 - 11:30 PM

He was 81 and died of a two-year battle with cancer, heric. Hardly as peaceful as dying of 'old age'.

Now all the main characters of Bonanza are gone.

Subject: RE: BS: Thoughts on Time in Perspective
From: catspaw49
Date: 26 Jan 10 - 12:00 AM

Alice, that is a wonderful time span for you and I suspect perhaps unique.   Quite a spread there.............

I can't claim anything even close but I have often thought my grandfather lived through some very intersting times. He was born before there were cars or airplanes and before he died men had walked on the moon.

Now I realize that the computer has changed the world and technology advances so quickly that no one person can ever stay in touch but to have seen the giant transformation that he witnessed and the way it affected the country and the world.............yeah.......that was a pretty great lifespan.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Thoughts on Time in Perspective
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 26 Jan 10 - 10:22 PM

Refresh — would it not be a perspectival paradox if this thread were allowed to run out of time...