This was a 7th grade English assignment to “write a story from the future.”
It was 1975, I was 12 years old and obsessed with hovercrafts.
I’ve copied the story for easier reading, and below you can see the back of page with a detailed diagram of my hovercraft design.
There are a couple of teacher corrections – Lack of indent and the correction of ‘good’ to ‘well’ but sadly, no grade for this bold and innovative work.
My Story (Future Story)
The year is 2011.
An atomic bomb was dropped on the southern portion of the U.S.A. In 1997 demolishing 30 of the 54 states at that time.
All humans still alive moved north in search of somewhere where radiation hadn’t struck.
There was nowhere except the ocean. So they started building citys around the ocean and it seemed to work out fine except there was no transportation! So some smart people tried to think of something that could go on water and land. They tried boats with wheels but it wasted gas. (In the whole world there was only 300 gallons) So they resorted to solar power and water power. So what kind of car could run long distances on electricity and they came up with hovercrafts that could run on water or land. So they manufactured them and sold them and everyone lived pretty good.
The End.
I was often designing things from my imagination as well as science fiction books and TV shows. By that age I was also taking things apart to figure out how they worked, and constructing little gadgets from motors and batteries and whatever I could scavenge.
Looking at this drawing now, I like how there is a balloon concealed in the dashboard – much like a modern auto airbag, although I believe the idea was for ocean flotation in the event of motor failure; still, safety conscious!
Where the occupants were meant to put their legs is rather open to question however.