Letter to my Great, Great Grandchild

Dear You,

Hello! I’m reaching out to you over the ages to tell you what life was like in my day (1945-2025) and to inquire about your life.

We used to have a good eating fish called salmon. It was pink, if you can believe that, and would swarm up the Pacific Ocean, along the west coast of the United States, every year to their spawning grounds. Now, salmon are threatened by many things, and the efforts to breed them through “farming” are resulting in weaker stock. I don’t expect salmon will survive for your generation. You would have loved it, so good on top of salad greens or baked with lemon and rosemary.

In my lifetime, we learned about DNA and there is something called a human genome project that hopes to be able to determine if people have a gene for cancer or Alzheimer’s disease. The ethical dilemma is whether or not the information could be used against them. Insurance companies turning them down, for example.  For now, people are finding relatives they didn’t know they had through DNA. Also, it’s been handy for finding criminals. And, believe it or not, young women used to not be able to prove the fathers of their babies. Many young men avoided responsibility before DNA analysis.

I wonder what kind of birth control you all have. And do you have child care? In my lifetime, childcare is very expensive and people need to limit their families if both mom and dad want to work. More than one or two children is prohibitively expensive.

Do you have plumbers and electricians and other trade professionals? What kind of schooling do you have for them? In my lifetime, we went overboard on white collar college degrees and students went terribly into debt. I hope you have access to more reasonably-priced education. In my opinion, just as in the 1920s public education became free through 12th grade, I hope the first two years post-high school are free for your generation.

Speaking of high school, our country is unique in the world that our students worry about mass shootings in their schools. In my lifetime, people have started carrying guns everywhere, even to the grocery store. We have terms like “concealed carry,” and “open carry.” I hope your generation is safer from guns. And please be aware that this is a problem unique to the United States of America.

Speaking of the USA, as of this writing we have 50 states. Did Washington DC become a state? How about Puerto Rico? And did some states leave? I’m thinking of Texas, for example. Are they now a separate country? This week, Canada talked about annexing California, Oregon, and Washington, in retaliation to some of President Trump’s proposals. Has that happened? Seems like kind of a good idea, to me. Also, is Florida under water now?

And speaking of President Trump. I’m wondering if we now have an inherited monarchy and if his son Baron has been King, as well as his children? I am a member of the last generation to have a Democracy in our country. Believe it or not, we used to have a saying, “of the people, by the people, and for the people.” That is already lost in our country, as both parties in Congress seem to be out to enrich themselves. Is greed still a problem in your generation? Also, sorry to say, it is my generation in which the executive branch of the government began to ignore the judicial branch. Until now, the "checks and balances" worked, if imperfectly. We always used to say, “No one is above the law,” but that became a joke in my generation. So sorry about that.

So, is English still a predominant language? How about Spanish? I am proud to be able to speak Spanish myself, and hope you are bilingual.

Have you traveled much? I hope you have. Getting out and seeing the world is the best way to become tolerant and interested in others and the way they do things.

Do you believe in God? I hope you do, and also hope you know nothing can separate you from the love of God. I am a big Jesus person myself, and hope you have learned about him.  Personally, I think Jesus is the perfected Muslim, the perfected Buddhist, the perfected Hindu, the perfected Jew, the perfected Great Spirit, as well as the perfected Christian. It’s all about loving your neighbor as yourself, isn’t it?

I wonder about the Middle East in your day. Is there peace around Israel? Have the Arab states accepted Israel’s right to exist? The wars in that part of the world have gone on for thousands of years.

I hope Orthodoxy has died in all its forms, and moderation has come in style. I hope you are able to express yourself through art or music, and feel free to be your unique self. Right now,  I am worried about conformity and people telling others how to live.

BTW (that’s how we say “By the way” these days) tattoos are really popular right now. Some people have them on their face even. Some are like artwork, colorful landscapes that cover an entire thigh or upper arm. Face piercings are also popular with some. I, your great great grandmother, have no tattoos and only one piercing in each ear lobe. Also, point of interest, I am one of the few people in my generation who has never smoked or used marijuana. It’s becoming more and more legalized however, and I have a feeling it will be quite common in your generation. Don’t become too mellow, please. Regular smoking, of tobacco, is passe right now, but some people go to vaping parlors. Have you heard of those?

I’m hoping drug companies have allowed themselves to find cures for cancer (by that I mean, I hope they don’t deliberately avoid finding cures just to pursue the almighty dollar). In my line of your family, we have very little cancer. My own father died of kidney cancer, but we attribute it to his heavy smoking of tobacco (cigarettes) and drinking alcohol. A cousin died of blood cancer, but we attribute it to his having served on a nuclear submarine for most of his career. Exposure to radiation causes many forms of cancer.

Speaking of radiation….Here is a picture of something from my childhood. These x-ray machines were in 10,000 shoe stores across the USA in the 1950s. I remember it was fun to climb up the steps and put my feet into the box, and my mother and the shoe salesperson would look in and make sure I had enough “room to grow.” Unfortunately, the “fluoroscope” was found to expose too much dangerous radiation and that experiment soon ended. I’ve seen a lot of changes in my lifetime, and I know you will in yours, too.

The Fluoroscope Machine

What is the military like in your day? One of my grandsons, who possibly is your grandfather, just joined the National Guard.

I still drive a gas-fueled car, but I get 30-40 miles per gallon, so I don’t feel too guilty. Electric vehicles are becoming more common, but are still too expensive for the average person. I wonder what you have. Also, I hope we have developed some mass transportation and made cities more walk-able. My era was the era of the unreachable suburbs, unless you had a car. Our mass transportation is pathetic, compared to the rest of the world.

What is your ethnicity? I feel like there will be some in-laws of different races in my future, and I welcome that. I’m sure you are beautiful, or handsome.

Well, I’m reaching across the ages to give you a big hug. I hope hugs haven’t changed.

Your loving great great grandmother,

Nancy Elizabeth Huey Runner