"I wander around, get the lay of the land and try to imagine what kind of people would have lived there in that historical period. What would they eat? What kind of clothing would they wear? How did they shelter themselves? How did they get around?"
About this Quote
The checklist of questions is telling. Food, clothing, shelter, movement: the unglamorous logistics of survival. Welch’s subtext is that history becomes real only when it’s inconveniently specific. “What would they eat?” isn’t a trivia prompt; it’s a way of forcing the writer to confront climate, labor, trade, scarcity, and ceremony - all the pressures that shape a life more reliably than grand speeches. By focusing on “how did they get around,” he’s also rejecting the museum diorama version of the past, where communities are static and picturesque. People travel, adapt, flee, hunt, visit, return; mobility is plot.
There’s an implied critique of armchair storytelling here. “Wander around” isn’t just method, it’s resistance to the colonial habit of mapping first and understanding later. Welch’s intent is to rebuild interiority from the outside in: start with terrain and material culture, and empathy follows - not as sentiment, but as a disciplined act of imagination anchored to reality.
Quote Details
| Topic | Wanderlust |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite | Cite this Quote |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Welch, James. (n.d.). I wander around, get the lay of the land and try to imagine what kind of people would have lived there in that historical period. What would they eat? What kind of clothing would they wear? How did they shelter themselves? How did they get around? FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-wander-around-get-the-lay-of-the-land-and-try-135631/
Chicago Style
Welch, James. "I wander around, get the lay of the land and try to imagine what kind of people would have lived there in that historical period. What would they eat? What kind of clothing would they wear? How did they shelter themselves? How did they get around?" FixQuotes. Accessed February 2, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-wander-around-get-the-lay-of-the-land-and-try-135631/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I wander around, get the lay of the land and try to imagine what kind of people would have lived there in that historical period. What would they eat? What kind of clothing would they wear? How did they shelter themselves? How did they get around?" FixQuotes, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-wander-around-get-the-lay-of-the-land-and-try-135631/. Accessed 2 Feb. 2026.
