phil has elevated the game like Mile High Stadium with 12 comments.
beth is in Striking Distance like Bruce Willis & boats with 11.
Joe is in your face like your own skull with 8.
Tiffany! has the capabilities to pay the utilities with 8.
prof. fancy pants just wants 
DirtyDanSin has his/her dignity, but only 4 comments
jon has 3 comments and is kicked back like italics.
Stace has only 2 and needs to step up like when the escalator is broken.Imagine you’re going on a trip. You’re not going to leave the town where you live, but you’ll be going back in time 150 years (to 1858). It’s a one-way ticket, so you’ll never be coming back to present time. You can only bring with you one set of clothes (including a jacket) and whatever can be carried in the pockets of those clothes.
What would you bring, and why?
p.s.: Keep in mind, you can’t do anything that would change the course of time to drastically, because that could endanger the future.
→ 7 answers so far ↓
1
Tiffany!
// May 27, 2008 at 11:37 am
I guess my set of clothes would be something like what they wore back them, but with mad pockets to line them. The skirts of the time were heyouge so I’m sure I’d have plenty of pocket space to smuggle bottles of beer etc whilst still looking very much the lady.
http://webbie1.sfpl.org/multimedia/sfphotos/AAA-5364.jpg
Knowing that I’d never be coming back to this time, I’d go heavily in debt with stuff to fill those pockets, and in commissioning North Face designers to make me a long hooded cloak of their most space age weather proof materials, in the style of an 1850s cape, so none would be the wiser. I’d also buy a ton of trinkets and diamonds and such to sell here and there to keep myself afloat or to purchase property. I’d have an elaborate backstory of coming into wealth at an early age through family tragedy or something.
I’d sit around with my money from purchased properties and such, and eat its-its at playland by the sea. I’d also be sure that my main house was one of the victorians in Cole Valley that the fire in 06 will not reach.
2
donovan
// May 27, 2008 at 1:05 pm
I would wear period appropriate attire. I would bring a book about at home treatments for like, cholera and things like that. I would also bring about $200 worth of period money (this may cost me a couple thousand dollars, but so be it).
Then I go ahead and put that $200 in a little business called Standard Oil. I would get a job as a robber baron and make sure I am well-innocualted against the disease of the time, and viola! The good life.
3
Beth
// May 27, 2008 at 1:06 pm
I’d bring as many sizable gold nuggets or precious gems as possible so I could sell them for goods/money/etc…I wouldn’t waste any space on bringing anything I could buy once I arrived, since things will be 1858 prices and I will have a lot of gold and gems anyway (so I’ll be comfortable.)
As for things I would miss from 2008:
I’d bring a recipe for Wakame salad (since I am not sure I’ll be able to find it in 1858 SF). I would also bring with me a small scrapbook of photos and stories of family, friends, loved ones, since I wouldn’t be coming back to 2008.
Lastly, I’d go find Tiffany! in Cole Valley as soon as I “landed” since she seems to have figured everything out.
4
phil
// May 27, 2008 at 1:34 pm
I would bring one of those multi tool devices that have many tools on them. An almanac, some historical price information for various goods so I could make money through speculation. I’d bring a lot of imitation diamonds which would be indistinguishable from real diamonds to people back then.
I’d live and work in a big building in downtown sf and surround myself with yes men. I’d claim I was a sultan or sheikh or some kinf of Eastern bigshot and wear a turban with a ruby in it to explain my strange behaviors.
5
Stefan
// May 28, 2008 at 10:16 am
I wouldnt do it. I would probably trip and die from some infection… Given my age, I would only live another 15 years or less. No way. Also, women at the time probably wouldnt be into what I would need them to do during sexy-time. The only way I could see that happening would be maybe with slaves… So maybe the south of the US? Or straight to africa? Nah, while certainly tempting, I can have it better here… way better.
going back 20-30 years would be totally different. I’d go back with an almanac like Phil, and would just make millions of dollars and move to florida, NYC or LA and hook up with young Latinas and black chicks… totally different lifestyle from what I am trying to do nowadays…
6
Nick
// May 29, 2008 at 3:20 pm
Hey Phil, If I was there, I would punch you in the face every time your turban ruby glistened.
7
phil
// Oct 16, 2009 at 12:06 pm
I think everyone should go to the time travel convention in 2005:
http://web.mit.edu/adorai/timetraveler
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