Thread: Back in time

I had a coworker put a question to me today and asked for an honest answer. The question was "If you were alive 150 years ago, what would you be doing for work?" My answer to him was i would either be a river man, a cowboy or a drunkard.

What would you be doing?

I'd be like that guy in back to the future 2, making money on horse races

Based on what I know of my family history, I would likely be a carpenter, a blacksmith, or a horse breeder; personally, I think I would fit carpenter best.

Well, since my father came here from Ireland, it stands to reason that 150 years ago, that's where I'd have been born. With limited options, I would probably be a potato farmer living under very different circumstances. Who knows, I may have been a Fenian.

I have a similar question to pose but I'll wait until this thread has run its course.

Not to be depressing but if you were alive 150 years ago it's likely you would have died from either some disease or from some accident that befell you. If you survived past childhood with few exceptions we'd be laborers of some kind. A few shopkeepers and even fewer professional people.

I'm glad I'm around in this era.

Same as what I do now: publishing.

OK, maybe not ebooks as I do now, but books nonetheless.*


* The Kindle from 150 years ago was incredible. It was platform agnostic, portable, never ran of out batteries, could be read on the beach, in bright light or dim light, and used a durable substrate called 'paper'.

If I was born 150 years ago, then I would be reaching adult hood in 1880. Assuming that I would have followed the same path as my lineal ancestors of the same time, then I would have been either 1) a homesteader in the Oklahoma Territory, or a leader of one of the Native American Tribes in the same location.

150 years ago, in line with family tradition, I'd likely be Vanner Trotting, a musician, or dealing in horses.

Either a bodger or a farmhand. But most probably dead.

I would like to think I'd still aspire to be a writer, and then have the chance to meet some of the greats of literature that were alive at the time.