One Time, One Day: My Time Travel Story

There is a legend in my family, passed down through time. In the legend, members of my family are capable of traveling through time. There is one hitch in that legend, you can only do it once and for one day, at most. Thus, when members of the family reach a certain age they are informed of this ability, how to access it, and the very important rule about its use. One time, one day. That, naturally, sets the stage for how you want to use your one time and one day.

How do you decide? Where do you want to go and what do you want to do? It's an impossible choice as what if you choose to go right away and find that something tragic happened? You could have used your one time, one day, to save someone you love from death. But, if you're too cautious and you don't use it, what if you die before you can use this amazing power? I had an Uncle who held on to his one time until he was 72 years and before he could finally go back and do something he wanted to do, he dropped dead.

"Don't be Uncle Tony," that's what my Dad told me. Dad used his one time, one day, to visit his father. Dad went back to 1975 and had lunch with his own father before Granddad passed away. He said it was the best choice he could have made. He could have gone back and done many things, really anything. Like anyone else, Dad made bad choices here and there, he had regrets that he could have perhaps corrected. He could have tried to find a way to make a quick buck, but for dad, spending one last lunch, one last few hours sitting across from his father was everything.

Granddad recognized him immediately. Dad may have been 8 years old at the time he traveled back to but Granddad still recognized his nearly 60 year old son when he saw him. They cried together, laughed together, enjoyed a meal together. My Granddad passed away on May 15th, 1975 when he was shot while trying to stop a convenience store robbery. Before he died, he told my dad not to try and change his fate. He was worried that the ripple effect of his death that day would be too catastrophic to the future of the lives he saved that day stopping that man from killing more than just him.

That's another thing about this ability of ours, you have to be responsible with it. You have to understand the ripple effect of your actions. One false move and you could remove a generation of your future family. You could come back from a day in the past to an entirely different present. It's best to try and observe history or, in some cases, nudge it in your favor. Repair a failure, fix something you regret. Just know that there are potential consequences to every choice and make sure you can live with what you choose to do.

Which leads back to me. I have a huge decision to make. What will I do in the past? How can I keep what I do from negatively affecting the future? What can I do that will be emotionally satisfying and useful to my present situation? I think I know what to do. It's a bit mawkish, if I am to be self-critical. There was something I wanted to do as a kid but never had the chance to do. I always wanted to see a baseball game with my grandfather at Wrigley Field.

He was dead before I was born but the stories of my Granddad's Cubs fandom were nearly as legendary as any of our time travel stories. Granddad worked a part time job on weekends in the winter solely so he could afford his Wrigley Field season tickets, two tickets on the left field line. They were his from 1947 until the day he died. Two tickets, just in case he ever had a special visitor. He always kept a seat open just in case someone wanted to use their gift to spend a moment with him.

You see, he knew, he knew better than all of us the consequences of our choices. With that he created a safe place for us to go if we were worried about effecting the past too much, changing too much, and so on. He told my Dad and my Dad told everyone for every following generation. My brother's, sister's and cousin's, even kept a calendar handy and made notes if they had picked a date to go see Grandpa. That way, we all had dates available if that's what we wanted to do.

Me, I've waited 8 years, considered my options, and always kept the date, April 8th, 1969 circled on my calendar. On that day, the Cubs beat the Philadelphia Phillies 6 to 5 in extra innings on a walk-off home run to right field. My plan is to go watch this incredible game and then walk over to the Billy Goat Tavern and share a beer with my Granddad. I have a feeling like he's waiting for me, like he will know it's me when he sees me, even as we never had the chance to meet for real.

I can't think of a better way to spend my one time, one day.