Do you recognize this?
That is a photo of the Plymouth Belvedere that they buried in 1957 in Tulsa and dug up last year. From a Reuters article.
Officials said they feared the worst when the time capsule was opened earlier this week to reveal four feet of standing water.
The unveiling of the car was to be the centerpiece of a city celebration featuring a classic car show, a “sock-hop” and the showing of a film playing in 1957 at the time the car was buried. “When we saw the water in there we were completely devastated,” said event co-chair Sharon King Davis.
“We had such hopes.”
Uh…yeah. That’s the kind of thing that happens when you bury something. Now, if they would have put the car in a climate controlled garage, I bet it would look pretty spiffy right now. And, people could have been looking at it for 50 years.
You know how people always think their weather is the weather? “That had to be the worst storm ever.”
We also think our stuff is pretty important. But, if it’s that important, take it to a museum. Don’t bury it. Do people think that somebody is going to dig this crap up in 50 or 100 years and be impressed?
Probably not, if they can even find it. Now, we have this story from Elkhart, Indiana; they were getting ready to dig up their time capsule, buried in 1958, for the big Centennial Celebration. From Breitbart/AP.
Several committee members thought the capsule was buried in a park—but the capsule there was buried in the 1970s to commemorate the U.S. bicentennial celebration.
Committee member Paul Thomas doubts the 1958 capsule exists since it wasn’t mentioned in detailed committee meeting minutes from that year or an extensive centennial brochure.
Mary Jo Weyrick, the city council’s administrative assistant, tracked down one resident who remembers the celebration 50 years ago and said the capsule may be buried on the corner of Main and High streets.
If it’s there, it may not be dug up any time soon because that stretch of sidewalk was recently replaced as part of a streetscaping project.
That’s just sad, isn’t it? It seems like I’ve heard this same, “we don’t know where the time capsule is”, story before. So, I did some checking at the International Time Capsule Society site. Yeah no kidding, International Time Capsule Society or, ITCS for those in the know. Check this out.
The ITCS is currently setting up a registry of time capsules. The society estimates there are approximately 10,000 capsules worldwide, most of them lost (see Harper’s Index, November 1990). This ambitious project will be a continuing process and is one of the most important ITCS functions.
10,000 of them. 10,000! and, most of them are lost. Think that’s insane? No, this is insane; again from Elkhart.
Meanwhile, the city is still planning to create a 2008 time capsule. Weyrick said she will note the new capsule’s location in city council records, the public library and anywhere else people might look for that information in the future.
They are doing it again! But, this time they aren’t going to misplace it. What do you think will happen when a big developer comes along and says, “With this $Xmillion, I am going to build the fantastic, new Elkhart Convention Center/Mall/Condos/Tanning Salon/Karaoke Bar Complex”? Do you think someone is going to go back and check the city council records to see if the proposed project includes the dirt where the time capsule is buried?
Let’s recap.
Why you should not bury a time capsule:
1. Your stuff isn’t that cool. If it was, it would be worthy of putting in a museum.
2. The stuff is going to rot.
3. You are going to forget where you buried it.
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Tags: Centennial, elkhart indiana, plymouth belvedere, time capsule
J wrote,
Many of those 10,000 lost capsules were actually stolen by alien pirates. Time Capsule Pirates.
Link | September 11th, 2008 at 11:30 am
Sans Direction wrote,
An intact ‘57 Plymouth would be cool, if still a gas hog. Otherwise, yeah on all three bullet points.
Link | September 11th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
Axe wrote,
You’re so right. I wish I knew where it was in 1968 that I buried my letter to myself for the year 2000 along with a Corgi car, bubble gum cards, marbles and a magnifying glass. I’d be quids in on eBay by now!
Link | September 11th, 2008 at 4:06 pm
Pat Darnell and Friends wrote,
Hey, that reminds me. Last month I attended a time capsule burying event in College Station, home of Texas A and M Aggies, underwritten and hosted by the Polish Bier Garten Society of Texas, and Don Imus introduced the keynote speaker Howard Stern. Dubya helicoptered in later wearing a Kimono, and carrying a smooth stone.
There were about half as many as expected in attendance at the fruit punch and potato symposium. I thought it was a great thing because included with the left handed screwdriver, screen door from a submarine of the Texas Navy, a page from the working drawings of the last Aggie bonfire, the proverbial light bulb, bridge and sawhorse, a Ricky Nelson recording, Dubya’s smooth stone, and the cure for cancer. They buried it in its watertight container and covered it with thirteen inches of concrete, and put a bronze bust of Barbara Bush atop a marble block for that final fung shei. They set the timer for fifty years from now on the 100 year anniversary of the Warsaw Pact.
Howard Stern undressed and asked everyone if they like anal; Dubya said something in Chinese, rubbed his mother’s bust for good luck, flipped a coin and got into helicopter number three.
It’s free and good-nature family fun, and costs nothing, even if everyone forgets as soon as it is done. I think it is about the front end burial ceremony. It’s a time we are burying something that isn’t actually dead.
Link | September 11th, 2008 at 4:52 pm
Pribek wrote,
That’s precisely why we bury dead things; so they will decompose out of sight and out of mind.
Link | September 11th, 2008 at 8:07 pm