Some futurists insist that some day, time travel will be possible. We asked several brilliant readers of travel4seniors.com if they had fantasies about doing it. And if they did, what would be their first trip back in history?

PLB, Memphis TN: I’d return after 50 years to high school days here in my hometown of Memphis. There was the very special girl I took to the senior prom and ….

Mrs. CNMcR, Boston MA: One memory always haunts me. I was a teenager in Palm Beach, Florida, in May 1963. As I wandered along the ocean front, there was a familiar group tossing a beachball around. As I approached, suddenly two Secret Service guys blocked me from the Kennedy family. Just a few months later, the President was killed. With time travel, I’d go back just to shake his hand.

JRN, Los Angeles CA: I’d go way, way back to visit Gettysburg in 1863 to witness Lincoln’s famous speech. I’d tell him that just months after the bloodiest battle of the Civil War there, his message about freedom for all Americans is as fresh today as it was at that historic moment.

United and other airlines are tightening their rules for people who go aboard with dogs, cats, pigs, lizards and, recently, peacocks. To ride in the passenger areas with their owners, the animals must be medically-certified and properly inoculated.

The stricter rules bring up memories of your travel4seniors.com editor’s first civilian air flight in 1945, at the end of World War 2. With a forward Navy unit in the Philippines, I was sent from Manila, Luzon to Mindanao to inventory Navy gear and weapons to be shipped home.

The Philippines Airline was beginning regular service. Aboard with owners were all kinds of animals, including cattle and poultry. They roamed the aisles for two hours, accompanied by loud voices and heavy odors. Fortunately, on the return trip I hitched a ride on a Navy submarine back to Luzon. So, on your next United flight, hope your seat mate isn’t traveling with a medically-certified comfort goat.

Your travel4seniors.com editor recalls three memorable train rides. My first was in January 1942, when my Philly high school senior class went to Washington DC. I was impressed by the city, but remember the experience because it was a historic and hysterical time in U.S. history.

Just three weeks before our train trip, the nation had been shocked into World War 2 by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. As we rode our bus through the capital city, we could see armed soldiers at many of the major buildings. They were on steps, at street corners and on rooftops.

Guest Senior Correspondent PDLeF, San Diego CA: I’m a retired Navy vet, and enjoy seagoing history. Here are my favorite European warship museums:

HMS Victory, Portsmouth UK: Commanded by the legendary Admiral Horatio Nelson, the HMS Victory was his flagship during the 1805 Battle of Trafalgar. Restored and still manned by a Royal Navy crew, she's berthed at the Portsmouth Naval Base on England's South Coast.

There are year-round programs aboard HMS Victory, allowing visitors to experience how British sailors lived and fought more than 200 years ago. With a tour group, I saw crew living quarters, armaments, the cabin where Admiral Nelson died and many other areas of the ship.