The Bookless Club: If you could live in an earlier era, which would it be?

Time travel is tricky.

Tickets are difficult to arrange and, legend has it, the return trip is uncertain. Nevertheless, the journey is generally viewed as a risk worth taking. At least that’s according to books and movies.

And so we dream.

Yesteryear is always beguiling. The hats. The clothes. The manners. Rightly or wrongly, the past is endowed with a lovely patina of gentility. Along with those more codified civilities, an element of intrigue seems to hover. A man in a fedora is always going to be more interesting than a man in a baseball cap. A woman removing opera-length gloves? Mesmerizing.

Short of wand-waving or cutting deals with genies, what’s the next best alternative to being magically transported to a grander time and place?

Well, here are some options for you:

How about Le Bal du Siecle — The Ball Of The Century — coming up next month in France?

On Monday, Nov. 30, the Palace of Versailles will host a roaring-’20s costume party. And lest you think you can pop in with just an extra-long string of pearls or a wide tie — mais non. Your costume is essential. You won’t be allowed in unless your vintage apparel is up to snuff.

The event organizers underscore that YOU are the event, so you had better put your best wingtip forward. Apparently, guests live up to this challenge and the evening is rife with spectacle.

The event takes place in various locations throughout Versailles, which is reason enough to want to attend. From fireworks to dance performances, the organizers promise all sorts of surprises throughout the night. By the end of the evening, guests will have mastered the Charleston and the foxtrot, courtesy of dance instruction at the event. The Ball Of The Century starts at 7 p.m. with an after-party wrapping up at 1:30 a.m., hopefully, without the Hangover Of The Century. Tickets range from 350 euros to 670 euros.

If Versailles is too far away for you, how about a little vintage train travel in New York City? For only a standard subway fare, you can jump on board a subway train that will make you feel like you’ve found a portal into the 1930s. New York’s Transit Museum has operated its annual Holiday Nostalgia Train since 2004 and, boy, is it popular. Every Sunday from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. eight subway train cars from the 1930s travel from 2 Avenue/Houston Street to 96 Street/2 Avenue and back again.

The trains feature vintage ads and wicker seats, but it’s the crowd you will come to see. People go all out. Sure, you would expect veiled hats and watch fobs, but the props are astounding: old-school briefcases, lunch boxes, hat boxes, authentic newspapers and magazines from the era tucked under the arms of tweed overcoats or cinched gaberdine trenches. There’s a party-like atmosphere onboard as well in the stations, and you should expect pop-up dance bands as well as dancers suddenly busting out expert choreography.

Is there a correlation between hats and manners? I don’t know, but there certainly seems to be a correlation between hats and fun.

Jane Macdougall is a freelance writer and former National Post columnist who lives in Vancouver. She writes The Bookless Club every Saturday online and in The Vancouver Sun. For more of what Jane’s up to, check out her website, janemacdougall.com

Question: If you could live in an earlier era, which would it be?

Send your answers by email text, not an attachment, in 100 words or less, along with your full name to Jane at thebooklessclub@gmail.com. We will print some next week in this space.

Question: What are your ‘deer in the headlights’ encounters?

• While we were driving home at dusk on Boxing Day from Sun Peaks Mountain in our eight-day-old Mercedes, a deer came out of the side bush and crashed into us. The deer escaped (and hopefully lived) but our new car suffered $18,000 damage. We retrieved the Mercedes silver car emblem from the road, and it hangs every year on our Christmas tree as a memory.

Marilyn J. Clayton

• We were driving up to Powell River from the ferry when a deer with antlers leapt out of the forest onto the road. We tried to miss it, but no luck. It struck the front right of the car and spun off into the ditch by the road. I pulled over and went down to the ditch. As I approached, the seemingly lifeless animal leapt up, almost skewering me with its antlers, and ran up the bank into the forest. So a relatively happy ending except for the dent in the car.

Brian Montpellier

• One thing you always have to bear in mind when travelling through deer territory: When they are frightened and want to escape, they will always head for the open space, which is usually the other side of the road. Do not try to speed up and pass them — instead, slow down and allow them to find their escape route.

Robert Dares

• While working in Zambia I went to Kafue National Park to see the fabulous wildlife. While returning from a waterhole on a dead-end road I encountered an elephant blocking the road. If the elephant advanced, I couldn’t retreat far until the end of the road. What then? If I drove toward the elephant, might it respond aggressively? In the end, I sat tight, the elephant advanced, and then sauntered off the road onto the grassy plain. Rather than accidental collisions with elephants, water buffalo and hippos, motorists were more likely to be charged by wildlife if they were driving too close to them.

Derek Wilson

• Car rental places should, indeed, remind motorists that wildlife on roads are a hazard that they have to be mindful of. People who don’t live in rural areas are unaware of just what a huge hazard wildlife presents.

C. Leong