A Hundred Years Ago

A Hundred Years Ago was a poem written by Rodrick Heffley for an essay that Mr. Huff, the history teacher at Westmore Middle School, assigned. When the power went out at the Heffley residence, Rodrick sold this poem, which he wrote in middle school, for $20,000 in "Mom Bucks," or $200 in real money. Unfortunately, this trade had two consequences; the first was that Rodrick failed the essay due to it being a poem, not an essay, and the second was that Greg paid Rodrick in "fake" Mom Bucks- money he stole from a board game at Rowley's house rather than money he earned. Susan found out and immediately punished the two of them for cheating the system.

Poem

In the book

Sometimes I sit and wonder
About stuff I don't know
Like what the heck the earth was like
A hundred years ago.

Did cavemen ride on dinosaurs?
Did flowers even grow?
Well we could guess but that was back
A hundred years ago.

I wish they built a time machine
And picked me up to go
To check out what the scene was like
A hundred years ago.

Did giant spiders rule the earth?
Were deserts filled with snow?
I wonder what the story was
A hundred years ago.

In the movie

Sometimes I sit and wonder

About stuff I do not know

Like, what the earth was like a hundred years ago

Did cavemen ride on dinosaurs?

Did flowers even grow?

Did spiders rule the earth?

Were deserts filled with snow?

There were no books or humans

So how we're we to know

What the earth was like a hundred years ago.

Trivia

• This poem is logically impossible. Rodrick described either scenery that might have happened at the beginning of the Earth, rather than events that happened in the 1900s, or nonsensical things such as "giant spiders ruling the Earth." It would have made more logical sense if Rodrick had titled this poem "A Million Years Ago."
• The poem from the movie is slightly different than this one from the book.