What era do you wish you had lived at 21?

[Trevor]

I was 21 in 1988: a time of great change in South Africa, the world but not in my underpants 

[frank]

The 20s in any big city like Berlin, Paris, Praque. Would need some cash, though...

[BoyScoutKevin]

I have always been a fan of history, so I'd like to go back some 460 years to England, when Lord Guildford Dudley was alive, as I'd like to see what it was like to be him.

1st. Extremely good looking and skilled in all sports. (Which I am not. Not.)
2nd. Son of the most powerful man in the country.
3rd. Married by my mid teens.
4th Joint ruler with my wife of the country. Though, our rule would last less than 2 weeks.

Of course, I'd never would see my 21st birthday. I'd be dead by the time I was 16. Maybe not even that old. Maybe 15? Of course, knowing what the penalty was for someone convicted of treason, having my head chopped off, was merciful on the part of the person who signed the warrant for execution.

Of course, I'd want to be him, because I have so many questions.

1st. How did my wife and I really get along?
2nd. What was my last speech? I gave one, but unlike my wife's, no one thought to write it down?
3rd. Why was I even executed? I was no threat to the ruling monarch.
4th. And why did my reputation go south so fast, especially as I was still a child by today's standards, and children normally come off better than that?

Of course, if wishes were horses, beggars would ride.

[ER]

I think one of the more interesting times to live through is the waning of one century and the beginning of another, so I am happy enough to have turned twenty-one in the last week of what people marked as the twentieth-century. (That tiresome "does it start in 2000 or 2001" debate sidestepped by how I worded that, ha.)

In hindsight, knowing 9-11 loomed, as did the late Third Turning climate of this polarizing struggle of a century so far, it's easy to forget how bubbly and optimistic those turn of the century times were, with the dot.com boom still chugging along and the economy mostly good, and peace looking like it just might hang around indefinitely, and well, surely crossing that threshold into a new century just had to promise something awesome, right? So I'm glad I was there to feel that, however fleeting it was and however innocent it seems seventeen years removed.

All that said, I never seem to have much luck with those supposedly significant personal milestone years since both sixteen and twenty-one contained some especially hard times, and twenty-five was a manic free fall. Well, at least thirteen wasn't bad, and thirty was sweet. I refuse to think ahead to forty. :-)

Good topic!

[javakoala]

I'm making the wild assumption that we'd know what we know now, but in a different time.

If that is the case, I would like to be 21 in the early 70s. Why? Independent films. I would find a way to get to L.A., find some independent filmmakers, and start doing whatever dirty work they needed so I could learn the ropes. I think working in independent films back then would be taxing but fun. Plus, if I had my current memory, I'd have a much better idea who to work for and do some name-dropping to get hired.

And I'd also find a way to keep Harry Novak from hoarding so many great drive-in flicks. There's no telling how many of those films are lost now because they were basically left to rot while tied up in legal hassles.

[JaseSF]

The 1950s - the cars, the music, the drive-in movies, the styles, etc.

[Alex]

I'd like to be 21 in two or three hundred years time, so I could look back and see what people in the future think of our world.