Fly on the Wall...

If you could go back in time and be a witness to a historical event, what would it be?

I’d like to be a fly on the wall of the delivery room when I was born, just to see my mom, as I’m sure she was her funny self, in spite of the circumstances. (Plus, it being her seventh delivery, she was probably singing and entertaining the nurses or something like that.)

I’d like to go back my dad’s childhood and observe his life on the farm in Stiles, Wisconsin, during the Great Depression. His parents were strangers to me; I’d like to know more about them personally. I’m also kind of fascinated about the people of that era; what they were like. I know that they were a tough lot; it would be an honor to bear witness to what it was really like.

I’d like to see my ancestors as they arrived at Ellis Island (They were likely in steerage.) To see their faces and know what was going on in their hearts as they made that journey would be something else.

One thing I’m grateful for is that I am a woman of the 20th-21st Centuries. So many opportunities, yes; but mostly for the freedom to be me. When I imagine what I would have been like, had I lived 100 years ago, I cringe. Having to live and breathe for your husband (having to have a husband at all) doing all those damned chores by hand, keeping my mouth shut in the presence of men, etc. YIKES! I love my generation.