If You Could…
…go back in time for one day and experience something, what would it be? Not going back and changing something or doing something huge, but going back in time and simply witnessing or participating in something a large group did. March on Washington perhaps? Or V-E or V-J day? Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee? Or maybe something more simple, like just going shopping…
For me it would be to go to Disneyland on a day in which Guy William appeared as Zorro.
Over a period of just three years, “Zorro Days” happened at Disneyland only five times. These Zorro weekends included a parade on Main Street USA and a stunt show in Frontierland, beginning at the Golden Horseshoe and ending atop the Mark Twain! Followed later by autograph sessions and opportunities for children to cross swords with the fox himself! You can view photos on Daveland.
The event combines many of my passions…first I love Disneyland. Adore it. Seriously. My love for Disneyland could be a blog in itself. Additionally, I love Zorro. The show was so well done, and I love the period of Spanish California and Guy Williams was smokin’ hot to boot. So not only could I get to experience Disneyland in its infancy and ride so many of the long forgotten attractions, maybe even see Walt himself, but get to meet Guy Williams, Henry Calvin and Gene Sheldon!
But until we have time machines or I happen to run into The Doctor, I guess I’ll have to be happy with this glorious footage of Zorro at Disneyland that The Disney History Institute has so kindly shared.
So, where and when would you go?
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But THEN we get into, “Which Doctor”?
This is seriously interesting question and one I’ve toyed with many a time over the years myself, too. There are so many dates – famous and otherwise – that I’d give almost anything to have been a fly on the wall for, but I think that perhaps the date I’d most like to see was that of my maternal great-grandparents (Charles and Marie Burkhard). They both passed decades before I was born, but people tell me I share a lot in common with each of them, and would love witness them in person on one of the most important days of their lives.
♥ Jessica
I would like to go back to the 1940s and go shopping with my grandmother. When she was my age we were living in the same city (Edmonton, Canada) and I would love to experience her hometown when she was young!
Disneyland and Zorro. That is a hard combination to pass up. But since I tend to venture into 30s land, I’d like to be in the 30s, cruising along the coast in a great old car and shop along the way. Only, I wouldn’t be antique shopping, just shopping, because every 30s thing I’d want would just be in the stores, including clothes my size! That or the premiere of Gone with the Wind in Atlanta.
Oh, I loved Zorro so much when I was a kid… I remember my brother and I watching his B&W adventures wearing a black mask, cape and hat….
If I could go back in time I would like to go to a World Fair: Paris 1900, NY 1939, Bruxelles 1958!!! I also always dream to be able to shop in Parisain Grands Magasins in the 50’s!!!
Oh wow! That is a BIG questions and I’m not really sure what my answer is. While I’m sure there’d be some shopping in there somewhere 😉 there are too many choices!
I would love to go back to the Brussel’s world fair of ’58. A few of the buildings do exist untill this day. But I would love to see the whole fair in all it’s glory.
Or to be in the audience when Marylin sang happy birthday…
Choices!
Gosh, being a history major, that question is really hard to answer! I think I would have loved to be on the Titanic. I know that sounds so morbid, but I’m just so fascinated by the ship and the decadence of the Edwardian/teens period.
I know this may sound horrid to people, but I would go back to the day Pearl Harbor was bombed. Why? To know that feeling they felt, and the intense patriotism afterwards to sacrifice, whether it be their lives or their conveniences. It would give me a whole new perspective on things, and make me appreciate that time more than I already WAY totally do.
-Holly
What a good question! I think I would go back and experience V-E Day. I can’t imagine a time in America’s history where everyone breathed a big sigh of relief and finally saw the end in sight, especially with an unprecedented amount of citizens in the military. Everyone was affected by it in a way that Americans today probably wouldn’t allow themselves to be. What a great time of joy for the country, many probably thinking about their loved ones that would finally be able to come home, lives that would be able to start again, how things could go back to normal.
I would go back to 1961 on the day my Grandfather won the first grand prix for Honda. He died the following year during a motorcycle race on the isle of mann. My father was almost one, my aunty was just four years old and my nana was widowed in her early twenties. By all accounts he was an amazing man and to be able to go and be there on a day that he accomplished so much and just to be able to meet him would be amazing.
I’d love to experience the day World War II ended. I’ve been fascinated by World War II, and to be able to see the celebrations and jubilation first hand would be awesome. Both my grandfathers fought in the war and my grandmother was in the army, as well, as she worked in a munitions factory in British Columbia during the war. I think I’d want to go and meet my grandma as she celebrated the end of the war, because she was an amazing woman, and I never got to know her as well as I would have liked because she had Alzheimer’s and passed away many years ago.
That is so fascinating about your grandparents! Both of my grandfathers were in the war too. But I love the fact your grandmother played a part as well! She must have been quite a woman. I am sorry to hear about her Alzheimer’s and her passing.