re: If u could go back to a yr since 1900, which would it be and why?

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But I’d have some damn nice cars.

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That is probably the only thing I would go back and change- in the late 80's I laughed at a guy that wanted $18,500 for a mint '70 Buick GSX, Stage 1 with matching numbers. Or other cars I passed up at that time I could have bought like a Maserati 3500GT for under 10K or Maserati Khamsin for $15K, Aston Martin DB5 for $12K and while my young wife and I would have had to make some sacrifices, a Bizzarrini 5300 GT Strada for $35k!! Today a decent Bizzarrini is close to seven figures! Oh, what could have been!

I'd go back to 1/1/06, a couple days after my youngest child was born. I would make a lot better financial decisions and be retired by now.

1963. I’d stop the assassination of Kennedy. Besides WW2, it was the most seminal event of the century. It gave us LBJ who destroyed this country and sent us down a terrible road. If JFK isn’t killed, we avoid all the destruction LBJ wrought.

I know EXACTLY when I would go back, and I would spend a week.

A week including two weekends-- Saturday, September 12th, 1964 to Sunday September 20th, 1964. About a month and a half before I was born. And I'd do it basically right here in south Louisiana and the Gulf Coast.

In picking this particular time period, I am assuming there is no malarkey about going back and investing in this, or buying that, etc. to be rich when you come home.

Also discounting the whole issue of how do you time travel. Somehow that's a given in this exercise.

I do think you also have to be realistic and factual about how you get by back in time. For instance, it would be cool to go back to say, AD 30 in the Holy Land and see Jesus, but I don't speak Aramaic or Latin, and where would I get money, how would I get along?

You may ask --why the period just before I was born? Because I want to see everything about where I live and experienced things in my life, but as they were at that time

Here is my rough plan:

Before I go back in time, I get a period-appropriate haircut (probably not much shorter than what I have now) and get JUST ONE set of period-appropriate clothes to wear-- basic stuff, probably khakis and a basic white button-down shirt. Either topsiders or penny loafers for shoes.

But more importantly, I'd go online to eBay and acquire 3 or 4 $100 bills dated before 1964. You can get them online for about $150 each today. So, I'd spend about $450-$600 on that. But here's the key-- in 1964, those $100 bills each have the buying power of over $1000 today. Fancy dinner at Antoine's for about $5-10. Nice hotel room for less than $20. Gas is less than 20 cents a gallon. I could have a real nice week on that money.

Finally, I would likely need some ID. Many states back then did not have photo ID driver's licenses, and many weren't laminated with all the security measures that we have today. It would be easy to make a fake one with today's technology (laser printers, Adobe Photoshop, laminators at Office Depot) and in fact there are templates you can follow from pics of old stars' driver's licenses from say California:


When I went back, the first thing I'd do is go is to a bank and break down at least one of those $100 bills into tens, fives, ones and maybe a couple of twenties. I'd get a nice hotel room downtown, maybe in a place that "ain't dere no more" like the old St. Charles Hotel. I'd go to D.H. Holmes or Maison Blanche on Canal and get enough clothes for the week, mostly casual, but at least one sport coat and a tie to go with the khakis and button down so I could go to a nice place if I want. And lastly, I'd pick up a nice rental car, something sporty, WITH AIR CONDITIONING, but probably also a convertible. Maybe a Corvette or a Mustang, and that would be my ride for the week.

And over the next few days, I'd ride all around New Orleans to see what it was like back then. No Superdome. Metairie heavily undeveloped; I-10 construction just beginning. I'd see the house that was on my lot before it was torn down (before I bought the lot and built my house). Would see old Tulane Stadium; everything from Chalmette out to Laplace, and the west bank. Would take a look at Old Pontchartrain Beach, which would be closed, but still to see it. Visit (and eat at) long gone places like Buster Holmes' and T. Pittari's, see some musical acts, all that stuff. And hopefully, from a bit of a distance I could catch a glimpse of my parents as a young married couple, just kids really, soon to have their first baby.

And then on Wednesday night the 16th, I'd go to Tad Gormley and see The Beatles. I'm not really that big of a fan, but it seems like such a neat event that I'd have to do it.

After that, I'd spend the next two days on the road going to Biloxi to see how it was then and maybe see both sets of grandparents and the house my paternal grandparents lost to Camille, which I BARELY remember. I'd set up a charter boat, not to go fishing, but just to go out and see how Cat, Ship and Horn Islands looked back then-- I have seen how the islands have changed a lot just in my adulthood; I bet they were very different back then.

Then I'd take the car east all the way to Florida, through Pensacola, Navarre, Ft. Walton, Destin, all the way to where 30-A is now (Grayton Beach and Seagrove Beach) before it was all developed with high-rise condos and such. Probably go some distance back and stay in a hotel or motel in Pensacola or Pensacola Beach Friday night.

Get up Saturday morning and head back west, crossing the northshore before it got tremendously developed, and get to Baton Rouge late afternoon in time for the nighttime kickoff of the Tigers season opener against Texas A&M (LSU wins 9-6). It would be neat to see the campus as it was back then, and of course Tiger Stadium with NO upper decks.

After spending the night in Baton Rouge after the game, I'd head back to New Orleans on Sunday, returning the rental car and then traveling back to the present.