If you could go back to any age - knowing then what you know now - what age would you pick, and why?

[CorpGovActivist]

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Ah...interesting question...

Maybe age 20...

I think it would be interesting to be exploring any relationshop with men, knowing what I do now of them...

*sigh*

[CorpGovActivist]

2. Ms. Peggy, thank you!

What did you learn about us that came later than you'd've liked?

The time machine question is one of my favorites to ask new friends.

:hug:

- Dave

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. Ah, Dave...

I should have been more adventurous with men...

If you get my drift...

I was late coming to sexual behavior, and never did experiment...

I regret that...

[CorpGovActivist]

4. What held you back?

If I'm not being impertinent by asking?

[CaliforniaPeggy]

5. I'm moving to PM mode...

Give me a couple of minutes...

[CorpGovActivist]

8. Down periscope.

[EMdamascus]

76. I'm sure they regret it also

:) A lot!

[Fox Mulder]

6. 18

I'd make a different college choice and a different choice of major.

[CorpGovActivist]

10. Switching to which and which?

[Fox Mulder]

19. Hmmmm...

I don't know which college, but I'd switch my major to history and anthropology.

[CorpGovActivist]

33. You're getting a fine education right here.

DU Archives = History

GDP = Anthropology (with a minor in Sociology)

[End Of The Road]

77. 18 for me too, for same reason

I majored in music. Loved it, still do. But if I had it to do over I'd pick something, ANYTHING, with more earning power.

[LeftyMom]

7. I wouldn't want to be any younger.

I'm finally starting to feel comfortable with my body, though it's starting to look a bit lived-in.

[CorpGovActivist]

11. Besides, you're just the right shape and size to hug your kids "just right," right?

:hug: <---- mom hugs rock

[LeftyMom]

13. Just the one, thank goodness.

He's going to be bigger than I am in no time, and he's not quite seven.

[CorpGovActivist]

34. The first time he can lay his cheek on your head...

... will be very special for him. That's a hug he'll always remember. Chances are pretty good, you will, too.

[Arugula Latte]

59. Oh god, my 11-year-old seems like he's getting close to that ability.

Luckily my daughter is still relatively small.

[CorpGovActivist]

63. A hug that burns itself into the memory...

... of both, I think.

*sniff*

[Radical Activist]

9. 21

I'd have more fun and realize that being reckless and irresponsible is the entire point of being young.

[CorpGovActivist]

12. Where would you visit at 21 that you didn't make it to?

[Radical Activist]

14. Europe

and the west coast.

[CorpGovActivist]

15. Backpackin'.

:thumbsup:

[leftofthedial]

16. The Sixties

and I'd take FULL advantage of all of Obama's excesses

[The Animator]

17. About as far back as I could go...

I'd just love to live my whole life over. Do a lot of things differently. And change a little history.

[asdjrocky]

18. May 22, 1975 I think it was a Wednesday afternoon-

I was 15. It was Debbie Cox and me, in her parents bed.

[CorpGovActivist]

21. Rocky. You're killing me, softly. With your song.

Timing sucks tonight. Shake Willy is off, to shake, perchance to ...

:evilgrin:

Step carefully, carefully out onto that balcony tonight, sweet Rocky-et.

"It's soft! What light touch, ponder whe'er to take? I'm facing East and you had better run!
Arise fair son no pill, lacsivious boon. I'm facing East and you had better run!"

[Radio_Lady]

22. As long as we're remembering dates, it was June 25, 1955 in my own room with my parents gone.

Then there was this little jaunt by ferry boat to Sanibel Island to a tiny motel by the sea. Mother said I had to be home by 2AM, so we left at 2AM the preceding day! I was such a bad girl, but what's a mother to do? (This man and I just got through a wonderful telephone call reminiscing about the whole romance on Monday evening. His birthday is the same as my wedding anniversary, February 4. I sent him some up-to-date pictures this year, and he promised to send me some of him at age 72, and his brother who turns 82 on April 25, 2008.

My lover took this picture:

[asdjrocky]

51. What a babe.

And Radio-Lady, is that because you work in radio? My god, I worked in radio for 9 years, about 8 years and 11 months too long.

[CorpGovActivist]

68. Ain't she, though?

"I worked in radio for 9 years"

Ah. More. Sense. More. Clarity.

[Radio_Lady]

20. I was quite the libidinous rebel in my teens and must have had estrogen excess in my blood...

Frankly, I was very self conscious because I had facial acne for many of my adolescent years.
Here's the package at an early age (Sorry if you've already seen it as many have -- I have to change some of these photos around.)



I think I might have gone to a more upscale college in the Northeast, and met and married my current husband at about age 20. I would have taught him a thing or two. Regrettable, we didn't meet until 1972, which was a big waste of MY time, I'll tell you. He was busy being married to someone else and having three kids with her before she died; I went through two husbands and a lover or two or three before I finally met him as a divorced woman with one stillborn child by my first husband and two very alive children 14 months apart by my second husband.

Once, Al and I figured out that he married in Boston on November 30, 1957. I was in college at the University of Miami in November and December, and I appeared on a one-hour daily television program for children at 5PM ever weekday. We frequently went to Miami Beach for parties. Al and his bride flew to Florida for their honeymoon at the San Souci Hotel, where my family and I were guests at other times. Our paths did not cross then...

Does anyone remember the original movie "The Heartbreak Kid" with Cybill Shepherd and Charles Grodin where he plays a newlywed whose honeymoon is interrupted by a gorgeous girl he meets on the beach? Now that COULD have happened by some stretch of the imagination.

But we got it together in our thirties. Some people meet the love of their lives later than that, and some never meet at all. What are the chances, starting with that particular sperm meeting that particular egg?

Wedding day 2/04/73


Did you see the movie "Sliding Doors" with Gweneth Paltrow? I do remember feeling like that -- the door not opened, the road not traveled, a shift here or there. One shift might have been accepting an offer of $100,000 for a talk show with ABC Radio that I was offered in the 1970s -- but passed it by. We had five children in public school and a beautiful home with a backyard pool -- the older stepkids didn't even want to move to Merrimack, NH when their dad got a job at an advertising company in Bedford, NH. His drive to work was more than an hour one way, and that didn't count the days when there was snow. The trip was even longer then.

So, I will say that I should have gone to an Ivy League school in Boston, met this wonderful engineer by chance on Commonwealth Avenue, had a couple of beautiful dark haired children with him, and they all lived happily ever after.

Hey, I'm almost there right now!

Thanks for letting my imagination run wild.

In peace,

Radio Lady and Audio Al

In London, in love on Ellen's birthday.

[CorpGovActivist]

66. Thank you.

That is such a lovely story. I am sitting here with some very moist eyes.

You two look like a lovely, loving, fun-loving couple. And the backstory!

: )

Do you ever get DCish? http://patrickj.smugmug.com/">Patrick and I would love to meet you and spend a quality evening over dinner, followed by a nice day of unconventional site-seeing.

No radio, soap!

[Book Lover]

23. Three days after I turned 23

so I could prevent a young relative's death.

[Adsos Letter]

24. oh...about 6 yrs. old...

so that I could go through all of the alcoholic bullshit that my parents were about to ramp up, with an adults perspective...

[MrSlayer]

25. 18 sounds great.

Imagine knowing for sure which stocks are going to climb and when they are going to bust, knowing for sure who is going to be a star athlete and who isn't, what albums are going to sell millions, what movies are going to be blockbusters and which book series are going to develop cult followings. I figure I could deal with the last 4 months of high school and then go on to write many top selling movies, albums and books while investing in all the right places. I figure by 22 I could've been a billionare rock star, movie star, fiction author, screenwriter, professional sports franchise owner.

But I'm going with 25 because I'll have my wife and kids and still be able to do most of those things.


There are a lot of negatives to going back even 12 years though, being so used to today's technology would be a problem. Going further back to 1988 might sound cool because I get to be really young again with a ton of knowledge and wisdom but having to deal with 1200 baud rate modems and BBS boards and shitty video game systems like the NES would suck. Having to wait for all the cool shit we have now would really suck. Not having my .mp3 player would suck most of all. I do not long for the days of carrying around a sack of cassette tapes for my boombox or walkman because CD players weren't even close to portable yet. It would also be strange for everyone who was around me. I am a very, very different person than I was then. The personality shift would be very extreme and very noticable. The change would be a great relief to my parents and I'd probably be ostrasized by my friends.

I might also be able to save Michael Dukakis from the Tank incident and the rape question.

This is always an interesting question.

[LiberalEsto]

26. Third grade

I would fix Miss Merrop's evil ass BUT good.

[DarkTirade]

27. Senior year of high school.

Would have prepared myself for college better.

And woulda lost my virginity before I left for college. :P

[BarenakedLady]

28. 19

I would have stayed in college.

[Orsino]

29. None.

I'm in too beautiful a place to risk altering the timeline.

[RebelOne]

30. Age 16. I eloped to Georgia and got married.

Oh, boy, if I could only go back and change things.

[kedrys]

31. 36

After I got married, but before we bought our first house and got hopelessly tooled, which triggered a cascade of bullsh*t and bad decisions that got us where we are today: broke, about to be evicted, half-unemployed, and very unhappy. :(

[raccoon]

32. No effing way! Only way I'd go back to my childhood/youth is if some things

could be VERY different. If circumstances were the same, it wouldn't really matter a rat's ass what I knew. As a kid there wouldn't be a damn thing I could do about it.

[fight4my3sons]

35. Probably around 15.

I just fucked up a lot of things back then. I definitely would not have failed out of college the first time around for lack of effort.

[lizziegrace]

36. Summer of 1987 (26 years old)

My daughter was born in March. I was ready to leave her father when she was 3 months old. I wish I had left and not wasted another 15 years of my life. :(

But I'd NEVER got back to an age before Lelapin was born. Never.

[SacredCow]

37. I'd do college over again and change some things....

I'd probably major in something different and change my party/study ratio a bit...

[PRETZEL]

38. Two part answer for me,

I'd like to restart my life at college. I was the only one in my family to go to college and their hope was for me to go on to law school. I did my undergrad in political science/public administration with that in mind. The only problem was that that was their dream, not mine. I really enjoyed math in high school and would have loved to pursue that, but didn't. If I had to do that over I would have. Not doing what I wanted left me somewhat apathetic as to what lied ahead. Even though I have 2 wonderful kids as a result of my first marriage, my life in general has been very unfulfilling. And lately it's been downright horrible in every imaginable fashion.

But before I went to college I wish I learned many of the social skills necessary. I was (and still am for the most part) a terribly shy and introverted person. Even though I enjoyed growing up the way I did I wish I would have learned to be somewhat more outgoing. Sometimes I feel like I've missed out on a lot of life because I was afraid to take the chance.

[Aristus]

39. 15. I became a straight A student in college, but I wish I could go back

and start high school all over again, and make straight A's there. I could have written my own ticket; applied for every scholarship under the sun and attended an Ivy League school on a full-ride.

Plus, redoing high school with the general world knowledge that I have now would have made it easier. I probably would have had more success with the girls. B-)

[WinkyDink]

40. 1964. All the Philly acts such as Dion, Fabian, Bobby Rydell, Frankie Avalon, played near-by and I

never knew it!

Dang, but I'd have loved to have seen them all.

[1gobluedem]

41. 21

I would just want to see if a great relationship could've come from getting together with someone I didn't realize had feelings for me until it was too late. To this day, I wonder what would've/could've happened. He was a great guy.

How different would my life be, I wonder?

[CreekDog]

42. The Bronze Age

I would so totally own. :evilgrin:

[halobeam]

43. I'm loving this question

I believe I'd like to go all the way back to 11. I believe when you choose friends, you choose a certain path to travel with them. Friends are everything, beginning around that age and most kids don't have a really clear idea as to what a real friend actually means, and the deep understanding of how much they influence your perception. You really do travel into your future with them. I've had quite a bit of fun with my oldest friends, but considering what I know now, I might have had/ and still be having a fuller life, if fun wasn't the only thing that mattered with the friends I chose.

Once the other elements of life presented themselves, I might have had a better handle on how to deal with them, and had friends who were more capable and able to handle sticking around when times got tough.

Yeah, I'd go back to 11 and ONLY with what I know now. I wouldn't go back and re-live a day, without that.

Wow, that's kind of sad, isn't it. Maybe I don't REALLY love this question after all. I'll give you props though for such an insightful question, and the therapy session it consequently brought on.

LOL. You had to ask.

[northzax]

44. definately the Stone Age

with my ability to make wheels and axles I would be a god.

[Dr. Strange]

57. Good choice. Me too.

I'd go back there and tell the cavemen, "Hey, you guys were created, you didn't evolve from lower lifeforms."

And they'd be like, "Oog! Let us worship this God that created us."

Then they'd get stepped on by a dinosaur, which would be a little sad. But then I could introduce the electric guitar and beer, and they'd be all happy again.

[Blue-Jay]

45. Late December back in '63.

What a very special time for me....

[Arugula Latte]

60. Oh, what a night.

But did you even know her name?

[redwitch]

67. I HATE THAT SONG!!!!

AND IT STILL GETS TOO MUCH AIRPLAY!!!!


:-)

[azmouse]

46. 17

That's the age I was when I met my husband.
I'd like to do these last 29 years all over again. They've been wonderful years!

[fudge stripe cookays]

47. 20 or 26

At 20, I was dealing with lots of serious crap, family and relationship. I couldn't see beyond the dorm I lived in and the stupid university scene. If I'd only known more of the world, and known there was more out there, I wouldn't have been such a basket case.

At 26, I was at the height of my physical perfection. If I'd prepared better (see answer #1), I would have had a better career by that point, and would have been living high on the hog and loving life. Instead, I was busy trying to get my ass back to school and GET a career, when everyone else was enjoying the kick-ass job market of the 90s.

Oh well, live and learn.

[EstimatedProphet]

48. The Gilded Age

I like gold.

[The2ndWheel]

49. A twinkle in the eye?

Honestly, everything after that is just complicated. It eventually kills you.

[CorpGovActivist]

52. Bertram?

[bikebloke]

50. Mid-20's

Instead of wasting time with a Swiss chick, who turned out to be a big time druggie, I would have hitched to Berlin, where another woman was waiting for me. Fate may have unraveled the same in the end. Or maybe not.

[av8rdave]

53. July 24, 1981

[skater314159]

54. Four.

I got kicked out of my first school on the first day of preschool... the first of many such incidents. Here's how it went down:

I could already read pretty well, I was a total ADHD kid, and my dad was a single dad, so he had to put me somewhere where I would be taken care of while he was at work, and where I would get intellectual stimulation... so he chose this pre-school that was *supposed* to be good to send me to.

Now my dad was a total hippie - we never had sweets or processed sugar in our house. My dad made my lunches and snacks (little containers of celery or carrot strips with homemade dressing) for me. He told the teacher to ONLY let me eat what he had packed for me and to NOT give me milk, sweets or other stuff that was garbage. Sounds reasonable eh?

Well, my teacher was a douchebag... and for our snack break, she didn't give me what my dad had packed, and I asked her for it, and she told me "No. You eat what I give you."

I was stupified... I'd never been told I couldn't eat good food... but then she gave me the "approved snack". I didn't even know what the heck she had given me. It was in this plastic wrap, it was like yellow, it didn't have a smell when I unwrapped it, and it had a really weird texture - like a Nerfball I had that I played with. I was all like what is this?!?! The other kids seemed excited to be eating their THING... but I didnt want it. It scared me.

The teacher came back over to me and asked why I wasnt eating my "twin key", and I was like "I want me celery. Please?" and she was like "No. Eat this or you will get a time out." So, being me, I took the thing, the WHOLE THING, crammed it in my mouth and spit it out on her.

I still got a time out... but my dad, being my dad, since it was my first day, came over on his lunch break to see how things were doing and if I was ok. He FREAKED OUT when he found out WHY I was on the time out duct-tape X and WHAT she had made me eat.

I'd go back to then, and tell her "Fuck off. My dad made me my snacks. Give them to me or I'll call him and tell him what you are feeding me."

Also, I'd be willing to grow up all over again, just so I could tell all the assholes and jerks I had to deal with, but at the time didn't KNOW they were assholes and jerks, what I REALLY think about em.

Yep. Four.

:hippie:
skater pi

[davsand]

55. I am me right now because of what I was then.

I'm not sure I would decide to change much of anything about my earlier life if I had the opportunity. I am the person I am now precisely because I failed at things and because of the hurts I suffered. I EARNED these gray hairs and laugh lines, I would not choose to give them up, I don't think...

Interesting idea to consider. Good question!


Laura

[CorpGovActivist]

64. : )

It's truly my favorite ice-breaker, with very little ice in a very tall glass of booze, while I STFU and listen to the other person's story.

: )

Great at small dinner parties full of interesting people. Stealthy way to get deep introverts to talk, too.

- Dave

[Scout]

56. if we could stay that age, i'd go back to age 10

if we had to live life over again from the chosen age onwards, forget it, i'll stay where/when i am

[chknltl]

58. I would step back to the year 2000

My father and my cat were still alive. Because I miss them both.

[carly denise pt deux]

61. birth

then I would have my entire life to do right, right from the start....
Carly

[Auggie]

62. 16

To get more out of high school and college. I'd pick a different career and date more ladies too.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

65. Any number of ages

19: I would not break my date with that guy

23: I'd take that chance to travel to Japan, because I didn't get another chance for five years.

32: I'd take that job in Norway.

36: I'd follow my gentleman friend back to Australia

40: I'd quit teaching and become a translator earlier than I did

It's interesting to speculate on how my life would have been different in each case.

[SarahB]

69. 18

I'd run off to Philadelphia and seduce, enchant, and fall in love with this cute guy from Temple, run off to NYC with him, eat tuna and peanut butter until we achieved our dreams and then have a bunch of beautiful little babies with him.

Why? We got it so wrong the first time, but we love our children so much. I wish we could have done it right together the first time.

[Digit]

70. When I re-ran into my first and only love of my life, he invited me to Woodstock,

...and I did not take him up on it.
I never saw him again.

[Art_from_Ark]

71. 8 years old

Gold was $35 an ounce. Saturday matinees were 25 cents. As were the swimming pool and skating rink.
There was great music on the radio and lots of great programs on TV.
My grandparents were still alive.
I was just starting to really discover my world.

[CorpGovActivist]

72. 8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jeq5a8bBh8c">Enjoy.

[RFKHumphreyObama]

73. Two ages

19 -When I was 19 years old, I was experiencing the best year of my life. In retrospect, I'd go back and try to prepare myself for the hard years ahead and the personal challenges I would face. I would have made many different choices over the subsequent years And to try everything within my power to prevent the events of 9/11.

26-I made some very bad choices last year. I'd go back and make the right choices

[laylah]

74. I would go back to when

I was 51...I'd still be in Colorado with my family.

[NewWaveChick1981]

75. I'd go back to my freshman year in college.

:hi: There are a LOT of things I would have done differently had I known.

[x-g.o.p.er]

78. 17, beginning of my senior year in High school

I dated the same girl my junior and senior years, but it had run it's course by the end of our junior year. I was the starting quarterback for our football team, and there was a CUTE girl that was in my homeroom I later found out liked me our entire senior year. Anyways, I also had a chance to play Div III football at a college in Wisconsin, but I didn't because the girl I dated didn't want me to go, so I didn't. In fairness to her, my Dad didn't either, but I think he would've been okay with it.

So my g/f and I break up two weeks after graduation and I run into this other girl, and we started dating. Didn't go very far, but I did eventually date her for awhile, and she had the football opportunity was one that I shouldn't have passed up.

I would have broken up with my long time girlfriend, dated the other girl, and gone to that school in Wisconsin.

[femmocrat]

79. I would go back to college.

And take it a lot more seriously, with less partying.

Well, maybe..... :eyes:

[Ariana Celeste]

80. 18.

I would have stayed home instead of moving out of state and got a job and GED and all of that shit right then instead of waiting to screw my life up first.

[BuelahWitch]

81. I have two possibilities

I'd either go back to 1983 when I was 20/21, had a really nice figure, and go have a damn good time.

My second choice would be early 2001, right after my mother died when I was looking to leave Salt Lake and had the money to do so. I'd certainly look into moving somewhere other than Kansas, like Chicago area or Atlanta.

[China_cat]

82. It would have to be sometime after the age of 27.

As much as I'd like to go back to being 18 again, to do so would mean that my sons and my grandchildren would not exist. If I knew then what I know now, I would have to avoid the events that brought them into being. I don't think I could live through them again.

So...30 would be good. Young enough to still look forward to all the things I want to do and old enough to have gotten (most of) the wildness out of my system.