Today is Pretend To Be A Time Traveler Day. Seriously. I'm not creative enough to make this stuff up. If you click on the link... it breaks down how you're suppose to pretend you've been sent from another time period and act like it.
I won't be doing any of that, but I thought it'd be fun to imagine taking a trip back to 1963, opening a pack of 1963 Topps Astronauts, and pulling this cool card:
1963 Topps Astronauts #54
Like a lot of kids who grew up in the 70's and 80's... I was interested in NASA and the idea of space exploration. It was always a treat to be able to watch the Space Shuttle launches back in the 80's.
And at some point in school... the Mercury Seven astronauts were part of a history lesson and we was required to learn their names: Alan B. Shepard, Virgil I. Grissom, L. Gordon Cooper, Walter M. Schirra, Donald K. Slayton, John H. Glenn, and M. Scott Carpenter.
So when I saw the card above on eBay, I wanted it.
The thing is... I totally stumbled across this card by accident. It popped up on a saved search for Dave DeBusschere's 1963 Topps rookie card... which also happens to be card #54 in the baseball set.
As for time travel... I'm perfectly happy living in the present. But if I did travel back to 1963, the first thing I'd do is start hunting for packs of baseball, football, hockey, and of course... astronaut cards... while keeping my eyes peeled for a few first issues of X-Men and Avengers.
If you had a one time opportunity to travel in time (let's say for twenty-four hours), would you do it? What year/place would you go to?
Happy Tuesday and sayonara!
I'd go all the way back to see how the dinosaurs actually lived - I think that era is fascinating and there's so much we don't know. Close second would be to see the Great Pyramid being built. I'd also like to see the Hanging Gardens of Babylon (if they actually existed). (I'm a secret history nerd I guess, aren't I?)
ReplyDeleteYou'd go back to 1963 and you wouldn't save JFK? WTF.
ReplyDeleteI believe in aliens. Just saying.
ReplyDeleteI probably would go back to a time when either of my grandfathers were alive. I never got the chance to know either of them, as one passed before I was born, and one passed when I was an infant.
I'd do a variation on the Back to the Future 2 thing and go ahead into the future 20 years, figure out which (if any) baseball cards have increased the most in value (maybe check out stock prices too), then return to the present to plan my early retirement.
ReplyDeleteIf this isn't "A Teacher Question" I don't know what is.
ReplyDeleteI don't have any astronaut cards although I considered picking up a pete conrad card for a while. I do have a card of gene kranz that I'll post sometime in the future.
ReplyDeleteI'd rather be able to fly than time travel.
I'd go back to start in 1909.. buy up all the tobbaco (T206) cards from the printers then jump year to year until my 24 hrs ran out.
ReplyDeleteDecember 27, 1960, Litherland Town Hall, Liverpool. There's a band playing that night, billed as "Direct From Hamburg", but they're actually locals. But they've been playing in Hamburg, and they've gotten GOOD. No one expects much of anything, but when they hit the stage, everything will change. Plus the Searchers are the opening act.
ReplyDeleteI'd go back to 1984 and loot a toyshop for all the Star Wars and Action Force toys I never had. (Action Force was a UK/European toy range that got converted into GI Joe when Palitoy got bought by Hasbro.)
ReplyDeleteHad I known, I would have scheduled an appropriate "Time Travel Trading" post for the day. I'll have to make a note to do this next year...
ReplyDeleteMe personally, I'm keeping it simple - I'm going back to 2011 and hoarding boxes of 2011 Topps Update...
I'd love to go back in time for a while. To use your subject matter of this post as one example, I think it would be fun to go back to 1969 to watch the moon landing on TV. I can't imagine how many people were glued to their TV sets for that broadcast, but it would have been cool to experience first-hand.
ReplyDeleteAlways thought it would be awesome to travel back in time to the '50s to see a Brooklyn Dodgers game at Ebbets Field...
ReplyDeleteI don't want to give a cliche answer on how I'd get rich, so I'll say 1969. Best cars, great music, and free love.
ReplyDeleteI would go back and talk to my grandparents, asking them the questions that one doesn't think about asking as a kid. Such as what was it like when they were growing up, why the decision was made to leave Europe and wisdom that they could pass onto me. And I would spend part of the day buying packs of sports cards and non-sports cards to put away for the older me. Oh yeah and tell my mother not to throw out my cards!!!
ReplyDeleteYes. I'd time travel. Probably to Boston in the late 1600s or Revolutionary War era.
ReplyDeleteI thought your post was going to be about Chuck Yeager when I saw the astronaut cards since he starred in the movie "The Right Stuff". Someday I would love to collect all the astronaut cards out there. I would go to the late 1950s in Japan and explore Tokyo.
ReplyDeletenachos grande - i'd be scared i'd run into a t-rex or something. seeing the pyramids being built would be awesome... assuming i'm not being forced into helping them build them. i love history.
ReplyDeleteelliptical man - oops. good call. although... i doubt anyone would listen to some random japanese dude wearing weird clothes claiming jfk is going to be shot.
the lost collectors - it's hard to believe that we're the only intelligent beings in the universe. great idea about visiting your grandfathers. i tell my students all the time to bond with their parents and grandparents while they can
sean - nice. if you do, i hope you'll share at least one of your tips
night owl - lol. very true. maybe i'll use it for my attendance question tomorrow
gcrl - fly like superman? or pilot an airplane? either would be cool.
johnnys trading spot - now that's a blog post i'd love to see
brett alan - i had to look it up... but in the back of my mind, i thought it was the beatles. did you ever see them in concert?
jongudmund - man... i'd love to get my hands on a vintage boba fett or yoda figure still in the package. or an x-wing fighter
matt - lol. the only reason i know is because i always turn to that national holiday website to inspire posts. good call on 2011 update. you could go back to the late 90's and grab the base pokemon boxes too. they sell for way more than 2011 update.
gregory - i'll have to ask my dad and siblings about whether or not they watched the moon landing. i know if i was a kid, i'd be glued to the tv (assuming my family had a tv in 1969).
shoeboxlegends - that would be pretty awesome. since you're in the area, you might as well hit up a yankees at yankee stadium too
grant - that would be cool. the moon landing and woodstock. plus you could watch the miracle mets
anonymous - i'd love to sit down and ask my grandparents similar questions. i'd visit my grandmas at least once a year, but spent most of my time playing with my cousins and eat shave ice. i'd definitely do things differently if i had the chance to do it all over again.
peter k steinberg - very cool. although... i don't think i could do that. i image they'd freak out to see some japanese dude walking around boston
sumomenkoman - by the time you texted me the news... this post had been written and scheduled for a couple of days. as for japan... it'd be cool to go back in time... but i'd be cool with just visiting it at some point in my lifetime
Man, that is tough question. The educational part of my brain wants to travel back to some important moment in history, but the baseball part of me would pick something like seeing Stan Musial in person during his prime.
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