Americana: Future Shock

What will life be like in 1978? It was a question that opened up tantalizing new worlds of speculation for Richard Auerbach's fifth-graders in Buffalo 25 years ago. Upon opening the envelope of predictions last week, Auerbach found that his pupils had envisioned some wild and fantastic advances. Like supersonic planes crossing the Atlantic in three hours, as Michael Lappin predicted. And as David Scatter speculated, "Men may even walk on the moon." Marion Speich fantasized that there would be pushbutton telephones. Ah, but those that dreamed more down-to-earth dreams, how little they knew. "There might be a cure for cancer," thought Gail Lewis. And warmer winters in Buffalo were the vain hope of a boy named Francis.