In the year 2040…

Author: Jason Strohl

While looking through old yearbooks for pictures to accompany Sweeten’s holiday card this past winter, I came across the photo above in the yearbook for the Class of 1939, presumably captured during that year’s Alumni Day. While there is no holiday theme and the picture was unsuitable for our card, I scanned it anyway because it fascinated me. Even now, in 2012, 2040 seems far away and futuristic; the stuff of robotic butlers and flying cars and meals served in pill form. In 1939 or 1938, whenever this photo was taken, 2040 must have seemed even farther away. Sadly, the photo was uncaptioned, so we will never know who this little boy was, who he became, and the things he accomplished. However, I would like to think that in 2010 he attended his 50th Penn reunion, and in 30 years  he will return for his 80th reunion. I would also like to believe that  I will be here to greet him, myself an old man at that point. So, my friend, I ask you, in 2040 I will be back…will you?