AN: All the following essays were written for my Adv. World History class. Shultzy had us write little essays throughout the year, and many different projects. Here are some of the ones I kept.

AN 2: An experiment in a free form essay. What if one of America's cities was covered in a volcanic eruption, much like Pompeii? What would later generations uncover?

A Fateful Day

“It had been a fateful day.” That is the quote about the city that had just been uncovered. It is quite remarkable actually, all that survived in the eruption. I had just picked up the e-paper this morning and looked at the Life&Living section. There was a whole front-page 3D picture devoted to one of the sites the archaeologists were digging at.

The first two paragraphs told about the colossal stadium that had been found. It had been covered in volcanic ash causing it to petrify and the lava had hardened over the dome to make it look like a black hill. The excavation began and the archaeologists were amazed to find that the people of this city knew how to weld metal, for the stadium was enormous and almost entirely made of steel. “However,” the scientist was quoted, “the people were still primitive considering brick was also used in the construction.” That was the same conclusion I would have come to as well.

The next paragraph spoke of the city’s citizen’s methods of travel. Strange metal contraptions had been petrified on long bridges that spanned many kilometers. These curious devices had wheels on them. The scientists formed the hypothesis that this was the hovercraft of this city’s days. They appear to run on fossil fuel. How wasteful! Didn’t these people know anything? Eventually they would have run out of ways to run these crafts.

My favorite find, which was spoken of, was the building full of old-fashioned “books” as they were called in school. I love fantasy stories and I would spend hours as a child reading the classics of Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and George MacDonald. They were my favorite authors. Though instead of the sheets of paper in bindings, we use datapads and holoscreens to read the famous words. This building had preserved the books incredibly well the archaeologists said. “There has been left a fine example of what they thought to be important,” is what the archaeologists said.

After I read and reread the article, I set down the e-paper and picked up a writinginnovationpad (w.i.p.). I needed to write my lecture for tomorrow, perhaps I should tell my students of literature about this city that thought books important. As we all know well in 2245, history is the bedrock of the future.