I wish I was born in 1900.

We currently live in interesting times. Too interesting. As I sit here for my last week of work with nothing to do, and approaching my 30th birthday on Saturday, I’ve been pondering, would I have been better off being born in 1900 instead of 1979?

I’m a pretty simple straight-forward person. Living in this era, I always feel a little bit behind. Yes I can use the computer and can blog but other technological advances such as blackberrys, HTCs, texting, and video conferencing have passed me by. Perhaps I should have lived in a simpler time so I wouldn’t have to stress out over not be able to catch up both personally and professionally

So what would it have been like if I was born Feburary 7, 1900 in Canada.

SCHOOL

I’d be entering kindergarden in 1905. It would be a very small school, probably a one room classroom, and I’d get the same teacher for a few years. I’d know everyone in the class and we’d be in uniforms. I wouldn’t think that there would be a lot of teasing or fighting that we see today. Everyone would know everyone and there would probably be a little boy and I liked for those years.

TITANIC

At the age of 12, one of the first news stories I would have heard is the Titanic. I would read for days how majestic and wonderful it was. The unsinkable ship. Then read more in the following days that the Titanic sank off the coast of Newfoundland. I would grab the newspaper from my dad every morning to read about it. There would not be 24 hour CNN trying to interview victims.

WORLD WAR I

I would be 14 when the war started. I have an older brother who would have been 17. I would assume that during that time I would have had more siblings than just the one brother for this case, let’s keep everything the same and I have one brother. At 17 he may have gone to war. Looking back, that would have been really sad, but at the time people were excited about the Great War and were signing up to go. My brother might have relished a European adventure. I would have been waiting at home for his letters and excited to hear about his journey.

For me back at home, the entire job market would have opened. Even at the age of 14 I would have found a job to supplement my schooling. Anything from a barber to a street car driver. Women took over all the jobs that traditionally men did.

VOTING

Due to women’s influence in the workforce, women were allowed to vote in Canada in 1917. I would have gotten to vote in the 1921 election and would not have been happy as the conservative government was decisively defeated by Mackenzie King’s Liberals. I probably would have a hatred Mackenzie King for many years to come!


PROHIBITION

I would have been 20 during prohibition. This may have been a good thing although I’m not sure how much women’s drank back then. Not like today where girls are always drinking at bars. At work I was always invited to go out drinking and felt like an outcast when I didn’t. I don’t know how it is in other place but in Calgary the bar scene is crazy. Girls are always out drinking and getting into trouble, myself included from time to time. In 1920 I would have been safe

MARRIAGE

I would have been married by now. As an unmarried person turning 30 I hear from my family all the time. And I know many girl over 30 who aren’t married and have no intention of getting married. They just jump from one guy to the other which I don’t like. If I was born in 1900, I’d have been married around the age of 20, to the boy I liked in grade school. No bad dates, no stress. Just marry the boy down the street. As we approach 1929, I would have had a few kids by then, and be an established housewife. I wouldn’t be sitting in a office wondering why I got laid off.

STOCK MARKET CRASH

The stock market crash of 1929. It’s funny but I consider the current economic crisis to begin around October 2008 at the time I was 29 years old and 6 months. In stock market crash was October 1929. I’m 29 years old and 6 months. So either way I’m facing the same situation. The end of the roaring 20s. My husband may or may not have had a job. Going into the depression times would have been tough. No different then they are now.

Anyways, those are some thoughts I have today. I wish I was born in 1900. I was a much simpler time. Even though we know what’s coming as I turn 30. The Great depression, World War II and so on. Here’s hoping we don’t run into anything like that in the years to come because we are exactly at the same stage in history.

How about you? Would you have liked to have been born whenever you were born or been born in 1900?