I found this note buried among a bunch of stuff from the mid-80s.
The best time travel stories are those in which all times coexist - notably Green Knowe; also Traveler in Time. Requirements are an old, history-laden place, quite private, in which the movement from one era to another is not readily discernible. The place is the magic. The only examples I can think of are English, but I get the feel of them in San Antonio, and such a story about San Antonio is a natural and must. Eras - 1840s, 60s, 18th century; modern; 20s. Age group - 7 to 14
It's odd that I still haven't quite done this. Possibly because the sense of moving from era to era while going about my business has been a part of my daily existence for so long. Switching Well is as close as I've come.
The point is - it's not just San Antonio that this can be done with. The past is present everywhere. Ask any archeologist or historian.
So here's a challenge for you. What happens when you peel back the layer on your own home's history? It's not true that there was "nothing" there before your particular subdivision went up. The ground underneath it is billions of years old, and I guarantee you people have been moving across your landscape for a long, long time.
Besides, animals have stories, too.
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Yeah, I know, you were expecting a Mother's Day story idea. I don't think on the Hallmark calendar. But Hi, Mom!
For the most part, I don't like Chris Ware's cartoons -- most of them are way too depressing. But I really liked one he did which showed a house, with little inset "windows" showing what this or that part of the house looked like at different points in its history. Sometimes there were people in them, acting out little scenes, but most were just the house itself: what the undeveloped land looked like before the house was built, what it looked like under construction, what it will look like in the future when it has been destroyed as part of some great catastrophe, &c. I liked that one.
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