Sometimes I wish I could just time travel back to the 1920s.
Because then I could use my knowledge of coming world events to make an absolute fortune, perhaps even become the most powerful person on the planet if I play my cards right. I’ll know everything that’s going to happen, from wars to natural disasters…and I’m actually not sure how I’d turn that to my advantage, but I would! Then it would be a matter of either traveling back to the present with my riches, or sticking around and having those riches actually be worth something.
A small fortune in 1940s money…or my smart-phone? Hmm…decisions…
I know just the industry where I’d make my millions as well. Going back then, a woman like me would have her career options limited. But back then, kitchen renovations companies near Melbourne were just taking off. And where did women back in those days spend most of their time…?
Well, the home. But also, the kitchen. So even though the business world was filled with chauvinist types, I’d probably be able to make it as a kitchen designer, because who knows the kitchen better than a 1920s housewife? And before any of those corporate fat-cats know it, I’ll be the best kitchen designer Melbourne has ever seen, which isn’t really saying much because it will be a new field, but whatever. I’ll own a small empire, which will turn into a LARGE empire with the outbreak of World War II. If there’s one thing people really wanted during the second great war, it’s kitchen design. You know..to take their minds off all the bad stuff.
And so, the name of my kitchen designers will grow, so by the time the war is over I’ll be a legend, a businesswoman before the term is even invented, and *maybe* married to a soldier. Some details are in flux. But it’d probably be a little bit stressful if I brought him fifty years into the future. And then tried to teach him how to use a 21st century kitchen, because it’s not just women who do that now.
-Barbara