The Year 2000 Is Only 30 Years Away
It’s Thursday and 1970 starts today as the 60s are now in the past
In the Cotton Bowl we will watch Texas play Notre Dame
After we watch the Cotton Bowl and Tournament of Roses Parades
And the reporter just said the year 2000 is only 30 years away
Soon I will graduate high school and start college
I sure hope I never have to go to Viet-Nam
And I can’t help but still be amazed that just last July
Our American astronauts really walked on the moon
I wonder what the future holds in store for me
In the 2000s that are so, so far away
Will I vacation on the moon or maybe on Mars?
Will I marry? What will be my job? Where will I live?
I love to study history, to read and write
A poet and author is all I want to grow-up and be
But a doctor, dentist, or accountant is what I think my parents want me to be
I might apply to Congressman Teague for an appointment to the US Air Force Academy
January 1, 1970
Jimmie Aaron Kepler
This is one of the oldest poems I have written by me. It was in notebooks and papers my mother gave me about a year ago. I was in the eleventh grade at DeSoto High School, DeSoto, Texas. I remember writing this one. I had attended an all night New year’s Eve party at my church, Calvary Baptist Church, getting home around sunrise. My father made me get up to watch the parades and be ready for the Cotton Bowl football game. I remember Texas won and were named national champions. I sat writing this poem and thinking about the future. I remember one of the announcers for the parade said something about the year 2000 being only 30 years away and that the kids in school today would be living in the 2000s. His words got me to writing.
