21. Something I Wrote A Long Time Ago

I recently came across a floppy disc.  Yeah, that's right.  Something that I used to once think was pretty cool to save files on and take them with you.  And now in the world of removable memory something that holds just over 3mb is laughed at.
I thought I would check and see what might be on this discs and so I thought I would pop them in the computer.  Oh wait, my computer doesn't even take floppy discs.  So I took them to work with me because I knew we had one computer that still read them.
On one I found a folder called creative.  It was a half dozen stories I had written for a creative writing class I took at the college while I was a senior in high school.  So that means this story is about 13 years old.  I read through it and it cracked me up.  This is mostly because it takes place in the future - in the year 2025.  And some of the technology stuff is already outdated.
So here you go.  One of my favorite stories I have ever written.

THE MOVING SIDEWALKS OF NEW YORK CITY

(Because laziness knocks on your door every so often.)

Written in the year 2000

  

            “Now students, when you finish typing this assignment, e-mail it to me.  For those of you who have forgotten my e-mail address AGAIN it is:  2025apples@futureshock.com.”  Mrs. Webb sounded irritated.  Actually, Mrs. Webb didn’t sound like herself unless she sounded irritated. 

            My name is Taylor.  I go to the HUGE Sixth Street School in New York City. The big brick building on the corner.  You couldn’t miss it.  Our teacher, Mrs. Webb, reminds me of my grandmother. She isn’t as old though.  But she always looks down her nose at us if she sees us playing games or talking. Yesterday, Mrs. Webb told us about high school in the year 2000. We couldn’t believe how different it was from our school.  Twenty-five years really makes a difference. 

            One thing that is so shocking for my friends and me is how the students bought paper and had to write their work out on it.  We each have a lap top computer to take home for our homework (like we ever have any), and a ZYX computer to do our work on at school.  When we finish our work, we just send it on over to our teacher’s computer. 

            “Students, you were so interested in the schools in the past, I found a really neat website with pictures and all sorts of interesting stuff. I have transferred it over to your computers. It should be on file now.”

            “High school students went to seven different classes a day; one for each subject,” I read to myself. 

“Hey Ben?” I called out.  “Good thing the teachers come to us now, you get lost finding our classroom when you come back from lunch.”

“Aahh, shut up, Taylor!” Ben knew it was true.  The robo-dog had to bring him back at least twice a week. 

One school mentioned in all the information our teacher found, was Chester High School.  This school was a little school in a little town where everyone knew each other.  That must have been annoying.  The funniest part was that the students in this high school would try to sneak food and drinks in the classrooms.  They weren’t supposed to have them and when they got caught, they would not get to leave for lunch. I don’t understand why they were so strict.  At my school, each student has their own area with a desk for our computers, a lamp, a clock, an electric pencil sharpener and stapler, and a phone.  Uhmm, let’s see what else. Oh, all the usual supplies like: pens and pencils, tape scissors, markers, white out, and a CD player.  Some of this stuff we don’t even use, like the pens and pencils.  The computers cancel out those things, but the janitorial staff keeps replacing the ones we throw away.  And as for food, on the side of our desk there is a refrigerator and freezer and a microwave.  We can eat or drink whenever we want.  At the back of the room there is a bigger computer where we can order things like pizza, fries, milkshakes, and pretty much whatever we want.  Then what we order is brought to us in about ten minutes. 

 “Taylor,” whispered Madison.  “Can you believe they only had a half-hour for lunch?  Hey, that reminds me, that new movie we wanted to see is out. Do you want to go at lunch?”

“Sure,” I said. Madison has been my friend longer than I can remember.  Our mothers have been friends since they were in high school. 

We both finished our work early.  We went into the game room and played some video games and watched TV as we watched the minutes on the clock tick by.  Finally, it was eleven o’clock and the dismissal announcement went off over the loudspeaker.  We practically ran down the escalators. We stepped on the sidewalk going in the direction of the mall, which reminds of another funny thing of the past.  Our sidewalks move.  They are like flat escalators and take you where you want to go.  Those in the past actually had to walk to their destinations.  Anyway, we went to the mall and ate some lunch and then we went to the movie.  The movie ended around 2:00 and we had another half an hour before our lunch break was over, so we did some quick shopping.  When we got to class, we put our bags in our storage areas and noticed there was a new assignment on the board. 

We were supposed to look up some information from the past on the Internet.  Mrs. Webb wanted us to do a report comparing the past to the present day.  Everyone was complaining.  This was the second report we had to do this year.  Mrs. Webb is always overloading us with too much work.  I don’t ever know how I will get it all done.  What does she expect?  Again we were shocked when we found out that they used to have machines called an automobile.  We used to have something like what was described.  Except, the information said that instead of flying through the air, the automobile drove on a hard pavement thing called a street.  These automobiles were also very hard to look after.  They required constant check-ups and fluids to make the car run.  Not only were these cars five times as expensive but the fluids they put in their car were expensive too.  We call our type of transportation a saucer and we don’t have to feed the saucer with any special chemicals.  Once a month you add water to the steam pipe and you are set for the next month. 

Madison and I were working on this assignment together.  We found out that because the automobiles had to stay on the street, it caused the streets to be very crowded.  There was even a time they called “rush hour.”  We don’t have that problem since we can go anywhere in the sky.  Like we would have the time anyway. 

We never knew so much about the past. Our parents never talk about it.  They must be trying to block it out of their memory. I would, if I were them.  It’s 3:30 and time to leave school.  Tomorrow is Friday, so I don’t have to be there until 9:30.  Maybe I will finally catch up on my rest.  School has been so exhausting lately.  I think they should extend our lunch break so we have time to take a nap if we want.  
The End 

I wanted to change and fix a few things in that story but I thought that would ruin the "written a long time ago" factor. Maybe it is time to write another story that takes place in the future and see where technology takes us.  I hope I remember to pull this story out in the year 2025 to really compare.