A letter dated from 1969 was retrieved at the back of an old sofa, and it contains spookily accurate predictions about today!
In the UK, Rosa Beckerton, 66, and her husband Peter Beckerton, 67, found the letter and is believed to have been written by a schoolgirl over 50 years ago.
The elderly couple discovered it while Peter was restoring the old piece of furniture for a client.
Rosa from Peterborough, Cambs, chose to share the letter with the public in an effort to find the writer, who would now be in her 60’s if she is still alive.
The letter is dated February 23, 1969, and seems to be written by an 11-year-old girl envisioning the state of the world in 1980.
She correctly predicts a huge shift in technology and even forecasts the Zoom revolution.
The old letter was found stuff down the back of an old three-seater sofa which had been bought second-hand and sent to be restored by an upholsterer.
“My husband works as an upholsterer, and he found it down the side of a sofa that he was upholstering for a customer,” Rosa said. “They had no idea it was there. It was really surprising.”
“When my husband showed it to me I couldn’t believe it,” she said. “I thought oh my god, look at this.”
“It was just so interesting because looking at it today she’s got a lot of her predictions kind of right – but in her childish innocent way she thought it would all happen in ten years,” she continued. “It didn’t have any name on it, unfortunately, but it was marked “Good” by the teacher, which I thought was nice.”
“I just wanted to share it in the hopes that maybe the author might see it and recognize it,” Rosa continued. “My husband has found all sorts of rubbish down the side of sofas and furniture before – but never anything as interesting as this.”
The letter is unnamed but comes complete with a teacher’s corrections and comments in red pen, including a verdict “Good”.
The 11-year old seems to have written down her ideas for the future as part of a class assignment, the note contains some teacher’s remarks too.
The schoolgirl appears to have anticipated video-call platform Zoom, implying that all phone calls in the future would come with a video feed.
The letter reads:
“In 1969 the telephone was a square box thing with a resiver(receiver) on top of it.”
“But now it is still a resiver(receiver), but you can see the people you are talking to, for there is a screen where you can see the people. It is a bit like a television.”
“The year is 1980, the time is half-past moon dust.”
“Here I am twenty-one years of age, sitting in a cushion of air.”
“I remember when I was 11 years old and I was at school, things have changed since then. For instance, the television has changed.”
“In 1969 it was a square box with knobs in front of it. Now it is a big screen with knobs on your chair arm to switch it on and off.”
“I am married and I work in a bank, dealing with money. I have always wanted to be a bank assistant.”
“Well, my husband will be home from work, but I have no tea to prepare like we did in 1969.”
“All we have is a piece of chewing gum to eat. You may think that we have not enough to eat but you are wrong, because this piece of chewing gum is food.”
“You chew this gum and you can feel the food going down. You can also taste it. There is no messy washing-up to do afterwards.”
“Here’s my husband now. “Press the button, dear”. What I mean is press the button for the door to open, you see our doors are electric doors.”
“Hello dear”, he said to me. “I’ve just got to ring up my friend on the telephone”. Well you’d better tidy yourself up a bit, I said.”
“In 1969 the telephone was a square box thing with a resiver [receiver] on top of it.”
“But now it is still a resiver (receiver), but you can see the people you are talking to, for there is a screen where you can see the people. It is a bit like a television.”
“Really when I think back over those ten years, things have changed tremendously.”
The author would now be aged around 62.