Have you ever wished you could travel back in time? In various ways, many of us enact nostalgic fantasies - dressing in period clothes, learning old dance steps, watching old television shows. Nostalgia refers to a feeling of homesickness for the past. Pleasantville, a 1998 film starring William H. Macy and Joan Allen, centers around a teenager's desire to escape the struggles of his everyday life to a simpler time when decency, courtesy, and honesty weren't empty words - where the platitudes and simple stories 1950s family television shows like Leave it to Beaver weren't viewed as kitsch or mere fashion. They told a story of ideal public life that is hard to find in popular culture these days. Here's an activity that might help us explore "tomorrow's cities of yesterday" more deeply. Take out a scratch sheet of paper and answer this question: if you have a time machine, where and when would you go? The key to this activity is your analysis of why - what reason compels you to visit a particular locale? Is there something about this time/place that can't be found in your life today? Please be prepared to share your responses. Here are three examples submitted by students of the Spring 2000 class! "I would go back to the mid-late '80s. That was a time when I was allowed to play freely in my yard and when there was no pressure to do anything other than clean my room. I was allowed to stay out past dark and my parents would not worry about me like so many do now. Halloween had hundreds of kids on the streets and you were out for hours getting candy. I was free to run over to the park and empty field to play for hours . . ." "I would like to "visit" the mid-nineteenth century California (Los Angeles before the smog and overcrowded conditions). There would be no freeways or suburbs - the weather would be great and a possibility exists that we might not pollute and rape the land of the future." "I think I would like to live in the era where the Spanish still controlled California. I guess that would be between the late 1700s through 18949. This was a time where the people lived lard lives, but they had a beautiful mix of civilization and nature. They rhythm of my day would be governed by the sun and time of year. One other reason is that the coastal ranges of Redwood forests were still untouched by loggers. I would love to see the original "wild" California . . ."