Historical Figure You Would Like to Be for a Year

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glider18
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04 Oct 2025, 4:46 pm

There have been a number of historical figures that I think it would be neat to live a year in their shoes. Let's suppose we could do that in some type of Time Machine that could transport our consciousness into that person. Bear in mind that historical only implies going back at least a generation.

Who would be the person you would be for a year?

When did they live?

What year in their life would you want to live as them?

Where did this person live?

What did this person do during the year you have selected to live as them?

Why do you want to live as this person for the year you have selected?

Anything else you would like to add?

I will answer my choice(s) after I get a response or two. I don't want to go first, LOL.


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CockneyRebel
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05 Oct 2025, 5:36 am

I'd like to be John F Kennedy because he was the best president America ever had.


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Tamaya
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05 Oct 2025, 1:28 pm

I just want to be a bloke in America producing music in the 19th century.

But all I am is a boring woman in boring Britain in the boring 21st century.


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glider18
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05 Oct 2025, 1:39 pm

My first pick (in no particular order if I post more of my picks)

Who would be the person you would be for a year?
Harry Traver

When did they live?
1877 - 1961

What year in their life would you want to live as them?
1927

Where did this person live?
Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania

What did this person do during the year you have selected to live as them?
He built the three Cyclone roller coasters he had designed for Crystal Beach, Canada / Revere Beach, Massachusetts / Palisades Park, New Jersey

Why do you want to live as this person for the year you have selected?
I want to experience seeing the most terrifying roller coasters ever constructed appear before my eyes and know that I designed them. Then I could ride them.

Anything else you would like to add?
Bring back the Cyclone.


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05 Oct 2025, 2:35 pm

Prince Rainier of Monaco in 1948, the year before his coronation.


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Texasmoneyman300
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05 Oct 2025, 3:54 pm

HL Hunt when he was the richest man in the world.



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05 Oct 2025, 5:29 pm

Being Ernest Hemingway would be interesting. Maybe I could rescue the fate of the Spanish Republic single handed!



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05 Oct 2025, 6:14 pm

John Brown the abolitionist.


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Tamaya
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05 Oct 2025, 7:27 pm

Who would be the person you would be for a year?
Stephen Foster

When did they live?
1826-1864

What year in their life would you want to live as them?
1862

Where did this person live?
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

What did this person do during the year you have selected to live as them?
Writing songs and getting drunk

Why do you want to live as this person for the year you have selected?
Because he was the same age as me then I guess - and he was single then

Anything else you would like to add?
I love him.


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Red82
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06 Oct 2025, 2:09 pm

AnonymousAnonymous wrote:
John Brown the abolitionist.



He was another great historical figure. Have you heard Paul Robeson's version of the song John Brown's Body? It's a favourite of mine.



Texasmoneyman300
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15 Oct 2025, 12:13 am

I think it would be cool to be King Solomon for a year when he was the richest man in history. I also think it would be cool to be early Restorationist Movement pastor Alexander Campbell when he was leading the Church of Christ.It would be kool to be John D Rockefeller if I could move to Texas when I was him. It would be nice to be President Ronald Reagan for a year.



glider18
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16 Oct 2025, 5:24 pm

Who would be the person you would be for a year?
Andrew Stuertz, the Tattooed Boy

When did they live?
1893 - 1962

What year in their life would you want to live as them?
1907

Where did this person live?
Born in Philadelphia, became a showman at the age of 13.

What did this person do during the year you have selected to live as them?
Although the following year he hit the road traveling with the circus, several things happened to him during 1907. First of all, being an orphan and living with relatives in Philadelphia, he took off on his own for New York City. There, he met Charley Wagner (a tattoo artist) in the Chatham Square section of the Bowery and was tattooed into a circus sideshow attraction becoming billed as the youngest person ever tattooed extensively. He then joined T.E. Caffrey's Imperial Dog and Vaudeville Show.

Why do you want to live as this person for the year you have selected?
Although I never experienced poverty, Andrew did. Being an orphan during this time usually meant an early life of struggles. But Andrew escaped that by taking an extreme dare -- becoming heavily tattooed for the sideshow industry. I think it would incredible to have experienced this and enjoy the showmanship that he exhibited. He apparently "ate it up" and enjoyed every minute of it. He was able to escape a major barrier and find something that must have been a fantasy for him. He lived a dream as a youth.

Anything else you would like to add?
After the vaudeville show, he worked in the sideshows of Gollmer Brothers, Hagenbeck-Wallace, and Barnum & Bailey as a teenager before becoming a tattoo artist. He married a snake charmer performer of the sideshow and had one daughter. His wife died at the age of 51 when he was 52. As he didn't drive, he lived with his daughter and her family. Unfortunately, Andrew took his own life at the age of 68. However, the time period I would've wanted to have lived as him would have been the one year covering his age of 13 to 14.


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pcgoblin
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16 Oct 2025, 6:09 pm

Who would be the person you would be for a year?
Leonardo Da Vinci

When did they live?
1452 - 1519

What year in their life would you want to live as them?
1503

Where did this person live?
Florence, Italy

What did this person do during the year you have selected to live as them?
He worked on The Battle of Anghiari while Michelangelo worked on The Battle of Cascina, in the same room.

Why do you want to live as this person for the year you have selected?
I want to know what it is like to experience his thoughts and understand his emotions. He did not get along with Michelangelo. I would like to know why. Unfortunately, it might be stressful.


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