Time capsule rediscovered at County
The plaque by the flagpole. The capsule is buried beneath, not to be opened until May of 2076. Photo by Emily Banner.
In early March, teacher Tamara Tucker was outside with her students on the LCHS lawn. While looking at the flowers around the flagpole, Tucker noticed a half-buried plaque.
“As I cleaned it, I was intrigued to find what was hiding underneath… it was a time capsule!”
The capsule was buried in May 1976 by the SCA, and is set to be opened in 2076.
Becky Ottinger, co-SCA sponsor in 1976, said that the capsule took over a year to bury. The issue was that they had to find a way to protect the capsule from the elements.
Eventually, however, they figured it out and there was a day of celebration involving the whole school. Ottinger describes it as a “carnival on the lawn”, beginning with a flag-raising ceremony with everyone “dressed in colonial attire as much as possible” in celebration of the bicentennial of 1776. “It was a fun day and a wonderful experience,” she said.
While no records exist to reveal what might be buried, Tucker speculated that the capsule likely contains a newspaper, a LCHS yearbook, recordings of popular music that year or a list of popular books or magazines. Even Ottinger doesn’t remember exactly what the capsule contains, but she has a similar idea, thinking that it probably contains a yearbook, a copy of the Raider newspaper, and a copy of the local paper.
There is no fail-safe plan for remembering to open the capsule, which is not scheduled to happen until 2076, but hopefully 52 years from now, the mystery of the time capsule will be revealed.
Sidebar: Time Capsule Contemplation
Many students responded with a mask, something to commemorate the outbreak of COVID-19. Several others suggested a roll of toilet paper. “In the beginning of quarantine everyone was scrambling to get toilet paper and the stores ran out; I’ll never forget it,” wrote freshman Charlotte Edmunds.If we made a time capsule to remember 2020, what would you put in it?
Some other interesting responses included Junior Gracie Hawkins, who suggested “an iphone with no passcode, so they could go through it, see the social medias, how we took pictures”.
“I would add a copy of the Crow’s Nest 2021 or a copy of the Yearbook so people living in 2120 could see the art and literacy that we were making today or see some of the people in the yearbook that buried the time capsule,” wrote junior Chris Mejia.
“I would include a Raiders shirt because in 100 years from now all remnants of Raiders gear will most likely be gone and I think it would be interesting for them,” wrote sophomore Matthew Jackmore.
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