Howdy sweet chums!! Thanks for stopping by for this month’s Where Bloggers Live 08.2023: Time Travel. This month finds my WBL buddies and I pontificating on, if time travel were possible, to what period we would want to travel. Bettye may have out done herself with this prompt!!
Where Bloggers Live
Before we jump into our time capsule, allow me to explain from where the ideas for this colorful series originate. Many of them come from the creative genius of our fearless leader Bettye. But some of the other members of the group, most enthusiastically Sally, have also brainstormed ideas for some of our brilliant prompts. We have prompts figured out through 12.2024, for heaven’s sake!! No thanks to me. I just sit with my mouth open in awe!! This has been one of my favorite series in which to participate and I hope to continue to join these fun-loving ladies for more thoughtful posts in the months to come.
Bettye at Fashion Schlub
Daenel at Living Outside the Stacks
Em at Dust and Doghair
Iris at Iris’ Original Ramblings
Jodie at Jodie’s Touch of Style
Sally at Within a World of My Own
Leslie at Once Upon a Time & Happily Ever After
Past Posts
If you missed last month’s post, you might check it out. We shared our favorite kitchen gadgets. Before that in June, we took a look at our collections and collectibles. You know, those precious treasures we have picked up along life’s journey. I shared my ❤️(he)art❤️ collections.
In May, we shared a peek into our medicine cabinets. When PC and I had our house built, we realized that medicine cabinets were MIA – missing in action. Or maybe MFB – missing from blueprints. Wherever would we store all of our DRUGS?? Find out here. Then in April, we shared a day in my life, weekend edition. Before that, our favorite website. BTW, mine is PINTEREST…are we friends on Pinterest yet? I just love it!! I pin something new every day.
So, without further ado, let’s climb into my time machine and see where I would have us travel.
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Where Bloggers Live 08.2023
Ever the librarian, even now after almost a decade in retirement, I decided to research some of the popular time travel movies and books, in preparation for this post. One of the movies that popped up was “Peggy Sue Got Married” from 1986, with Kathleen Turner and Nicholas Cage. I was living unhappily in Panama in 1986, and rarely had an opportunity to go to the movies. On the odd occasion that I did, the Army base theaters were relegated to showing older films, not new releases. So, I never saw this movie. Had I seen it in 1986, I would probably have wished to travel back in time in my life…maybe just a few years and undone a marriage and a number of mistakes.
But like George Bailey in one of the most beloved time travel movies, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” from 1946, starring the delightful Jimmy Stewart, I am sure I would have discovered that I didn’t want to undo things after all. Because in undoing just a few so-called mistakes I would have simultaneously undone some of the very best things that have ever happened to me, too.
Wise Words
My wise Uncle Bud, Mom’s older brother by 9 years, always said ‘everything happens for a reason.’ Most people I know would agree with that philosophy. Although, when we lose someone we love or are faced with a terrible accident or illness or other similar catastrophe, it is hard to find the reason behind such an event. Some of my hardest years of life were lived in Panama. But if I had never met my daughters’ father Daniel, had never married him and gone to Panama, I would never have had my Brennyn and my Lauren. And I would never ever ever undo them!!
So, I think the only time travel I would want to do would be travel into the future. And that very reluctantly.
Back to the Future
One of the most popular time travel movies would have to be the 1985 classic “Back to the Future” launching the career of a young Michael J. Fox. Wikipedia reports:
Back to the Future has since grown in esteem and is now considered by critics and audiences to be one of the greatest science-fiction films and among the best films ever made. In 2007, the United States Library of Congress selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.
[source]
Because I was in the States for a few a months in 1985, I think I probably saw this movie at the theater. And have watched it in bits and pieces several times since.
I would enjoy traveling back in time to know more about my parents as teenagers and young marrieds. But would never want to change or undo anything. Nor would I want to know anything about anything in their relationship that I don’t already know. At least I don’t think I would…there was that year my dad moved to California in the mid-’80s, about when this movie was released, and I always wondered if there was more to that one-year of separation from my mom and brother than we were told. But I don’t really want to know. Do I?
My Time Travel
The only way I can imagine willingly climbing into a time machine would be to glimpse at the lives of my 2 beloved daughters, their sweet husbands and my 4 precious grandbabies…and assorted pets, of course. I am 65 this year. Declan turns 2 in December. I know we aren’t guaranteed a minute on this earth but Mom lived 95 long years. If I live 20 years more, I will be 85 and Dec will be 22. Still too young, probably, to be settled in life, but maybe on the road to a career and family.
Forward Thinking
My oldest grandbaby is Cadence, who just turned 13. In 20 years, she will be just a few years younger than her mother, Brennyn, is today. I would love to meet her babies, if there are to be any. To know her partner, to peek at her professional life. And all the same for Lucia, 7 this year (27 in 20 years-impressed by my mathematical abilities?) and Camila, 3 this year, (23 when I, if I am ever 85 years old).
Will my daughters love grandmothering as much as I do? Will they both remain in Texas all the rest of their lives? How many lives will be positively impacted by Brennyn’s nursing in the NICU and Lauren’s medical research? How many lives might be made more healthy by Francisco and Mustafa in their medical careers?
Those are the things I would like to know. Will Cadence dance again, will she become a professional organizer? And will Lucia sing and/or draw while being a scientist of some sort? Will Cami become some kind of cinematic makeup artist, and a ‘ballina’ in her free time? And will my baby Declan drive a big, loud truck?
I can only hope that they will all live long, healthy, happy, successful lives…whatever that looks like for them. Feel loved for the treasures they are and recognize that any mistakes they might make along the way will only help lead them to their ‘reason’ for being. And to where they are supposed to be.
Your Turn
Would you like to travel in time? To the future or the past? Perhaps to a past that isn’t yours? I would love to meet Anne Frank. To have experienced the Great Depression and the storms of the Dust Bowl for just a day or two, an evening out dancing at a speakeasy in a fringed flapper gown, to have traveled for a short time in a covered wagon, landed at Ellis Island, witnessed a WWII air raid, hidden in a safe house on the Underground Railroad…but all just momentarily. Just to know, really know what it was like. How about you?
One of my favorite time-travel movies is “Midnight in Paris,” released in 2011 – I was thankfully long removed from my days in Panama by that time. It stars Owen Wilson and Rachel McAdams.
Sony Pictures describes this way:
…a romantic comedy set in Paris about a family that goes there because of business, and two young people who are engaged to be married in the fall have experiences there that change their lives. It’s about a young man’s great love for a city, Paris, and the illusion people have that a life different from theirs would be much better.
[source]
With all the crazy that has been my life, I have never really wished for a life different from my own. Maybe slightly calmer is all.
Enjoy your weekend. Thank you for finding a few minutes of your day to pop in here with me. Please join me in visiting the blogs of my Where Bloggers Live comadres. Click your heels together and we’ll be transported there together.
Hugs and kisses,
jodie filogomo
That’s funny we both came to the same realization of going back to fix our mistakes but then that would have changed our life which is wonderful now!!
I can’t believe I forgot about the movie back to the Future! That was so good!
Xoxo
Jodie
Sally in St Paul
I was really touched by your thoughts about how the lives of your daughters and grandchildren will turn out. I can definitely see the appeal of visiting the future to check in on them! It’s interesting to consider how we might have answered this question when we were younger and without the perspectives that experience can bring.
Carrie @ Curly Crafty Mom
I hope you do live 20 years longer or even 30 years so you can see how your daughters love being grandparents and how your grandchildren grow up and what they do in the future. I do think I will enjoy (hopefully) being a grandparent someday, so I can see my now teens deal with their own teens themselves! HA!! It would be nice if we could have a glimpse into the future or just to answer a few questions! I do believe that even bad situations sometimes bring about good. Or at least, they have for me most of the time!
Carrie
curlycraftymom.com
Leslie Roberts Clingan
Thank you so much for this sweet comment. I love my grands so much. Best job ever!! You will love being a grandmother when the time comes. And will be one fabulous one.
Bettye
Your devotion to your children and grandchildren is so touching, Leslie.
Sometimes I say like “I wish I’d never ____,” and then someone says but then you’d have never had Katie…and I’m like but I wouldn’t KNOW I hadn’t had her! I wouldn’t know there was ever going to BE a Katie, so I wouldn’t “miss” her.
Leslie Roberts Clingan
Yes, I can follow that logic. PC and I don’t have children together. He has said to me a couple of times that he wishes we had met earlier so our children would OUR children. But if that meant a single thing was different about my girls – which there definitely would be – I wouldn’t want to have them be OUR children.
Thank you so much for the kind comment.
Lisa
I agree . . . if I went back to fix my mistakes, some of the best things might not have happened. I, too, might like to visit for just a moment during some of the past momentous occasions.
Leslie Roberts Clingan
Yes, just going back in time for a moment or two would be perfect for some of the historic events. But I think experiencing some of the hard times would make me more appreciative of the easy life I live.
Joanne
How have I never seen Midnight in Paris?! I often ponder where or if I would ever want to time travel. I’m not sure I want to know what’s in the future but I definitely wouldn’t change anything about my past. I do sometimes think I’d like to see other historical periods but I really am not sure I’m cut out to survive even a single day without all our lovely modern conveniences. I hope you easily get to live 20 or even 30 more years so you can in fact see your grandchildren’s futures.
Leslie Roberts Clingan
Thank you, sweet friend. I love my grands and my daughters and sons-in-law so much. I hope to be able to continue to cheer them on in life for as long as possible.
I hope you will try Midnight in Paris. It is such a good movie. And I think you would really enjoy it.
Marsha Banks
Yes, I would definitely want to travel back in time. The first would be to somehow help my dad not to have his last heart attack in 1973. The second would be to have never moved from up north eight years ago. I have deeply regretted that move ever since, and I don’t think anything would be changed in the future/now. But, now that I think about it, my youngest and my husband have grown much closer with this move. So, maybe I would be sacrificing their good relationship for my own happiness, and I wouldn’t do that. But, I do think I’d try to fix things so Dad would have lived and walked me down the aisle in perfect health. This was a wonderful prompt…so much to think about!
https://marshainthemiddle.com/
Leslie Roberts Clingan
Oh, Marsha, I wish I could give you that opportunity to have your daddy walk you down the aisle in perfect health. If only.
There are little things I would undo if I could travel back in time. Little things that I don’t think would impact the general lay of the land. But those big events, big relationships I would probably suffer through over and over because the outcome led me to where I am now.
Em Dirr
Before I read everyone’s WBL posts, I like to try to guess where they will go based on what I what I think I know about our group. I did not guess well for this prompt…for anyone, actually. However, after reading yours, it makes absolute perfect sense. My mom would likely give the same answer because, like you, she is so madly in love with her family and grandchildren. Like you, she has an amazingly strong foundation and unique relationship with each one of them (and us).
I know this past year or so has been difficult for you, but you are so blessed with your beautiful family…and as much as you love them all, It is very clear that they feel the same about you… what a gift! Your take on the prompt is perfect. (and my mom would LOVE you!!!)
Leslie Roberts Clingan
Oh, my gosh, you never fail to warm my heart with your words. And make me laugh!!
I am so blessed in all the big, important ways…and the problems I have in life are often no more important or serious than a hangnail.
Thank you so much for this beautiful message.
Daenel T.
I love that you don’t want a do-over because it would undo the good that has come into your life.
And, oh, my heart, your focus on seeing the futures of your daughters and their families is so heartwarming. Your family is absolutely beautiful.
Leslie Roberts Clingan
Thank you so much for coming by and for leaving such a sweet comment. I do love my family. Hope if I am remembered by them for anything, it is for having tried to love them well.
Leanne | www.crestingthehill.com.au
Hi Leslie – I think we live in the present moment for a reason…..it would be so messy to be able to go back and change things (man our lives would be chaotic!) and I think a lot of things happen for a reason. I also think we can’t see the future because it might overwhelm us and make us unable to deal with the present. I have to remind myself regularly that all we have is “now” and to make the most of it – because we don’t know what’s coming next!
That being said, I hope I’m around to see how my grandgirls’ lives play out and what careers they choose, and who they marry – and maybe even see their children – great grandkids – WOW!
Leslie Roberts Clingan
Oh, you are a wise woman. How true that we need to make the most of the NOW. We surely don’t know what is coming around the bend and probably don’t want to know!! I am enjoying…I hesitate to even write this…a rare couple of weeks of calm. Can’t imagine what calamity may be coming but need to just bask in the peace of today.
Iris
Oh I totally agree with you about going back and changing things. My two oldest sons are by my previous marriage (not a topic I even like to discuss), and I wouldn’t take the world for them. My oldest son and his wife now live next door to me and as I type this he’s out mowing my yard. I think they have decided it’s their jobs to take are of me. Not that I’m complaining, but… Nope, not going back and changing things. Love you post.
Iris
Leslie Roberts Clingan
Thank you, Iris. Sounds like your oldest son is a keeper for sure. And his wife, as well. But they love you and want to care for you because you loved and cared for them so well.
jess jannenga
This was so interesting to read Leslie! I hear you about your family, and wondering where they might be in their lives in 20 years. I also love the moments in time you would have liked to have visited.. I have read Nightengale, by Kristen Hannah, and wonder what life would have been like during WWII. I love the 20s swing and jazz era, so that would be neat to visit for a day or two, and even join in Woodstock to hear the amazing bands. THis is such an interesting and thought provoking topic. Ah, yes, Loved back to the future!
jess xx
Have a great rest of your week!
http://www.elegantlydressedandstylish.com
Laura Bambrick
What an interesting prompt! I’ve always loved historical fiction so I imagine I’d like to go into the past a couple of hundred years or so!
Leslie Roberts Clingan
If I did go back in history, I would want to pop into about a dozen different time periods. Just for a peek.