Some uncannily accurate predictions are found in a letter from a schoolgirl who anticipated what life will be like in the future in the 1960s.

When Rosa Beckerton and her husband Peter from Cambridgeshire were reupholstering a used sofa, they came upon the more than 50-year-old letter.

 

It had what seemed to be a 1969 school project completed by an 11-year-old girl describing her predictions for how life would be in 1980 stuffed into the back of it.

While some of her predictions were a little far-fetched, like the idea that we would all be eating chewing gum, others, like her prediction of the video-call platform Zoom, were dead on.

 

“The year is 1980, the time is half past moon dust,” the letter, dated February 23, 1969, begins. I’m sitting here at the age of twenty-one on an air cushion.

 

“I recall going to school when I was 11 years old; things have changed since then. The television, for instance, has changed.

 

“In 1969, it was a boxy shape with knobs on the front. Now, you can turn it on and off using knobs on the arm of your chair.

 

You can see how closely this resembles the concept of remote controllers, which only gained popularity in the 1970s and 1980s.

 

“I am married and work at a bank, dealing with money,” she added. A bank assistant has always been my dream job.

Well, my husband will be coming home from work, but unlike in 1969, I don’t have any tea to make.

 

“The only food we have is a bit of chewing gum. You may believe that we do not have enough food, but you would be mistaken because this bit of gum is food.

 

“When you chew this gum, you can feel the meal entering your stomach. It’s also palatable. No messy cleanup is required afterward.

 

“Now, here is my hubby. “Push the button, sweetie,” We have electric doors, so what I intend to say is press the button to open the door.

 

And this is where Zoom comes into play: “In 1969, a telephone was simply a square box with a receiver perched atop it.

 

But now, despite the fact that it still functions as a receiver, you can see the persons you are speaking to thanks to a screen. It is somewhat akin to a television.

 

“Really, looking back over those ten years, I can see how much has changed.”

 

Rosa described how her husband, an upholsterer, discovered the amazing find: “He found it down the side of a sofa that he was upholstering for a customer.”

“It was just so amazing,” she continued. “Looking back, she was kind of right about a lot of her predictions, but in her pure, innocent manner, she thought it would all happen in ten years.

 

“Unfortunately, there was no name on it, but the teacher gave it a “Good” rating, which I thought was wonderful.

 

“I only wanted to share it in the chance that the author may come across it and recognize it.

 

“My husband has previously discovered all kinds of trash down the sides of sofas and other furniture, but never anything as amusing as this,” my wife said.

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