A Rosy Glimpse of 2015 . . . From the Class of ’90

Recently I quoted here from letters written in 1940 and 1965 by the eighth-grade graduating classes of Malaga Cove Intermediate School, in Palos Verdes Estates. The letters were to be opened in 1960 and 1990; they described life on the peninsula as it was in those early years, and predicted what it might be like when the letters were opened.

Carl L. Lane, principal of the school, writes that as a result of that notice the school was featured on national and local television and written about in local newspapers, and several schools (one as far away as New York) have established similar traditions.

Lane, meanwhile, sends me a copy of the letter written by the class of 1990 to be opened in 2015. The most remarkable change on the peninsula since 1960, the letter notes, is the cost of housing. Prices range from $437,500 to $5.2 million. The most expensive vacant lot is priced at $2,995,000.

In reporting that the peninsula has 16 churches, the class sounds an ominous note. “Architecturally, the most well-known church is the Wayfarer’s Chapel. We are concerned because it is located in a landslide area. We hope it is still in existence in 2015.”

One wonders what the class of 2015 will think about 1990’s taste in music and dance. “We enjoy listening to heavy metal music, which is loud and fast guitar music. Rap music is also popular and consists of rhythm and blues with rhyming lyrics. . . . Most of the dances that are popular go along with rap music. The titles of these dances include the Cabbage Patch, Running Man, Roger Rabbit, and the Troop. Dancing that goes along with heavy metal and punk rock is Head Banging and Slamming.”

A glossary of slang in use by the class suggests that the 1990 students are not skilled in the art of gracious conversation. Positive words in favor are rad, gnarly, stoked and awesome . “ Bail is used to tell someone to leave. We also refer to one another as stud , dude , nerd or loser .”

The letter reviews our times--the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the reconciliation of East and West, the advances in medicine and communications, and the burgeoning of environmental concerns. Most of the students, the letter notes, have cable television service in their homes.

Then they look into the future. What will the peninsula, and the world, be like in 2015? No one can foresee the future, as our political pundits proved by failing to foresee the fall of the Berlin Wall. But it’s fun to try.

The class of 1990 predicts that in 2015 people won’t bother to carry money. “Everything will be bought with a card.” (About the only thing I need money for already is valet tips.)

They predict that there will be no more empty lots in Palos Verdes Estates--at any price.

“There will be a few people that will live on the moon for a very brief time, perhaps one or two weeks.”

OK. That’s possible. But I wouldn’t want to be among them, for reasons I shall explain.

They say there will be cures for cancer, and AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.

“Doctors will be able to cure memory loss and other diseases because they will understand the brain better.” I can’t wait.

“People will think more of the environment and of other people. The world will be in an improved state.”

That’s a pretty optimistic vision of the future. Of course, as some readers pointed out after reading the 1940 and 1965 reports, the children of Palos Verdes Estates enjoy a higher standard of living than those in many nearby communities, and perhaps have a rosier view of things to come.

Before the world reaches that “improved state,” we will not only have to eliminate AIDS and cancer; we will have to reduce population growth, eliminate enmity between states, adjust inequities between the races, find a way to clean the air and get rid of trash, save the forests, ease traffic congestion, reduce crime and improve education.

With our cities generating millions of tons of trash daily and running out of places to put it, I predict that the moon will be used as a trash dump, and will soon become uninhabitable, except for an army of bulldozer operators. Then, when we have a full moon, we will not see the luminous disk of song and poetry; we will see the glint of billions of unrecycled cans, bottles and plastic containers. I predict that before this decade is over some entrepreneur will petition whomever the governing body might be for a permit to shoot trash to the moon.

And Neil Armstrong’s words--”That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind”--will be a mockery.

Meanwhile, if the students of Malaga Cove have nothing better to do for recreation than Head Banging and Slamming, I predict that the Wayfarer’s Chapel will indeed slide into the sea.

But of course they can’t all be nerds. I’ll bet most of them are gnarly.