At some point in our life, we have all thought about doing something adventurous or saving the school from some misfortune, right? But that's all just daydreaming because in reality stuff like those doesn't happen. But what if we tell you that in Shenandoah University both students and teachers were able to find a time capsule that had some very interesting and unbelievable things inside it? You'll be surprised to see how it was found and what all did the college staff and students discover that changed their lives forever. The students couldn't control their surprise and this story soon went viral and people all over the world were talking about it. What was it, you ask? You'll find out soon...
See before us there were people who lived on the same land on which we are living today. The college which was built on past soils didn't realize that they would discover something astonishing in the near future. The time capsule which was found on the same soil filled both the university staff and students with excitement. But what was this time capsule that took everybody in the past? As soon as the lid was opened nobody could take their eyes off from this unbelievable thing that was surrounded by the staff and students of the Shenandoah University.
We have all grown up watching movies like Back to the Future that takes the protagonist in the future and it was a very brilliant movie concept that was loved by every age group. But in the movie, the guy was able to only go in the future and this story is somewhat like that but with a little twist. Rather than going in the future through GFX and technology people use in the movies, staff, and students of the Shenandoah University were able to re-live an amazing past.
Have you ever thought about why we call them time capsules? Because for a very obvious reason which is that these things contain several significant objects or personal items that are meant to be kept in a way that in future somebody would find it and discover the contents that could give them a little insight of the past. You might have also tried it or maybe even have found something like this. If not that then don't worry because after reading this story, all you could ask would be that one time capsule destined for you to open. This recent discovery also proved that burying a time capsule was also done in the past.
In the year 2017, archeologists found a very ancient time capsule which dated back to 1777. This time capsule was a hallowed wooden Jesus Christ statue, which was discovered in Burgos, Spain. So what did the archeologists find inside the statue? According to archeologists, there was a very ancient document which was written by Burgo de Osma Cathedral chaplain Joaquín Mínguez that has some very insightful historical knowledge that helped scholars to answer not all but some of the question about our past.
As they say, every coin has two sides, the same is with time capsules. Some experts believe that they are the most brilliant way to conserve some important or minute details about our past but some scholars are against that. According to them, these time capsules are just rubbish as they don't contain anything useful. William Jarvis, a historian specializing in time capsules describes these time capsules as "useless junk." His view on capsules is that they don't carry any useful information about the person who buried them. But if he would have seen what this university students and staff have found then this might have changed his views for good.
That's not just William who has this opinion about the time capsules, his peers also agree with him. According to them, the time capsules that are discovered should have historical value. There are other views too around these time capsules says that they have a common feature. Many of the time capsules that are found have a very specific date written over them which signifies that this capsule should be opened only then. But for what purpose? You'll find out soon.
According to the scholars, people who bury these time capsules provide a specific date on which it should be opened, but by then we could lose the potential historical information. There are also several doubts regarding their preservation because the majority of the time capsules are buried underground, and with time they go through a lot of natural processes. Due to that many of them get lost in time and the date actually does not help it. But what was found inside the time capsule which was found in the college?
It doesn't matter what scholars say because we love time capsules. They are the most amazing thing even if they don't have anything valuable hidden inside. Just the excitement of finding something is more than enough, right? In the year 2018, the historians found one mysterious time capsule which was buried under Thompson Middle School in Nova Scotia. The school was being demolished and in the ruins, the North Sydney Historical Society found the time capsule and soon there was a crowd of locals as they wanted to know what was inside it.
According to Joe Meaney who is the owner of the Historical Society told in the interview about the discovered time capsule, “We knew there was something there,” he said. “But we didn’t know exactly what it was, how big it was, or anything of that nature." Nonetheless, the society was now holding this black metal container that felt really heavy as if something big was there inside it. But then they found out what was there.
Everybody wanted to know what was inside the metal box? What surprised the society most was that it was really in good condition and when they opened it there was a bundle of a preserved newspaper that dated back to 1949. In addition to this, historians also discovered several documents that belonged to some important members of that time. Along with that, there were some low-value notes and coins that were inside a leather wallet.
According to Alex Gilchrist, former principal of Thompson High School, who was there when the inspection of the discovered time capsule was taking place and after the content was out of the box, he told in the interview with the CNN, “You never know what you’re going to find in it. And there was a lot of history in that time capsule, there’s no two ways about it.”
In 2018, there were two-time capsules that were found. One was found in Thompson High School and other was found in Michigan. This time it was the construction workers who found the time capsule at Kenowa Hills’ Central Elementary school. The workers found it inside a hollow brick that was comfortable lying inside it. And after the discovery was notified to the administration, Dr. Cherie Horner and pair of students opened the time capsule. What did they find?
Inside the capsule, there was a newspaper article in the memory of David Michael Raap, who sadly passed away at the aged of 10. The newspaper was from 1967 when this school was originally called Walker Junior High. There were some documents too, including a class program list and a student handbook. You might think that this wasn't any interesting find but for the school's students and staff members. It is not every day that we find time capsules. But the time capsule which was found in the Shenandoah University had several amazing stuff inside it and that's the reason we are talking about it.
For Dr. Horner, the discovered Michigan Association of School Boards paperwork were extremely fascinating. Because the paperwork included information about the school values in education which could help the school to improve further. After this discovery, there were rumors that Central Elementary might be hiding several other time capsules too and near future students might stumble upon one of them. But the Shenandoah University discovery proved one thing that there are some time capsules that hid something very interesting.
The school is still under construction which will finish in 2020. "Our entire building is going to be undergoing construction until basically 2020, So if there are additional time capsules, I’m sure we’re going to find them in the next few years," told Dr. Horner in the interview to Michigan Live. We hope that they do find other hidden time capsules and we get to know about them. But it was the Shenandoah University that took away all the glory.
What was found in the Central Elementary has a separate fan base, but in the Shenandoah University in Virginia there was that one time capsule that people wish to find one day. And in the year 2018, their wish came true when they opened the time capsule which specifically said that you should open it in the year 2018. The school staff waited for 25 long years to see what was hidden inside the capsule. 25 years was a long wait but it was totally worth it.
There couldn't have been a better opportunity to open the time capsule as it was the homecoming weekend in the Shenandoah University. On October 17, 2018, the school staff and students decided to open the capsule to see what was actually there inside it. It was like an event, the time capsule was placed on a table and students and staff gathered around the table to finally discover the content inside it.
As we said that it was kind of an event, before they opened the time capsule, a spokesperson for the Shenandoah University addressed the audience to tell them about the discovery and to make the homecoming weekend more special for the students and staff. “Welcome, thank you for joining us for our 1993 flashback,” she says. “I also want to say thank you to the class of ’93 for thinking of us 25 years ago.”
“We have not opened this,” a second official told the audience. “This is not a joke, we have not opened it so we don’t know what’s in it.” Everybody was waiting for the lid to go off. Don't forget that the capsule was buried inside for 25 years and because of that the lid didn't open the way they thought it would. After a long resistance, the lid was finally off. The crowd was cheering for the fact that the lid was now finally opened and soon they would see what was there inside the 25 years old time capsule.
As you can see in the image that one of the faculty members is holding a document kind of thing in her hands which has been affected by the moisture that it has caught in 25 years. Fortunately, the items inside the capsule were still safe and were not completely destroyed. So the first thing they pulled out from the capsule was the music sheet called “Sketches & Reflections 1993.” This sheet belonged to Jena Marie Root, who wrote it by hand.
Although the item's exact origins are not known, Shenandoah University staff suspects that Root was the who composed it in the beginning. But there wasn't just music treasure inside the time capsule but the what they took out next from the inside was a vinyl record called Introducing… The Beatles. The record was a hit which included hit songs like “Twist and Shout,” “I Saw Her Standing There” and “Love Me Do.”
Aside from the music, the time capsule also contained several other things too. There was one item that appeared to be like an acting award. This little statue was labeled "Best Actor" and also had adorned with an earlier version of the medal which was used in the university back in 1993. There was also a message scratched over it saying, “DANE, single and in love in America, Dec. 1992.”
So some of the students also left some keepsakes inside the time capsule to tell the future kids about their time in the university. One anonymous student left a plastic dinosaur to tell how much he/she loved the movie Jurrasic Park which was released in the same year this capsule was hidden. There was no stop to the items that were there inside the box.
There was a stone hippo too with a carved name that we cannot take for obvious reasons. And there were few toys too including the pacifier toys that were designed in such a way to blow bubbles from it. Other items were also there which has names written on them which told that this stuff belonged to one such person, like the musical recital which belonged to Tobie Norwood Robinson from the batch of 1993.
Back in 1993, Robinson was the lyric baritone and the document which was found also had the names of the students who assisted him. The names included pianist Karen Keating and sopranos Vera Massarotto and Barbara Hartsell. But what was amazing that Robertson performance also had a functional cassette tape that recorded his performance.
The cassette made the crowd cheer and one of the spokesperson also thanked Robertson for such a wonderful time capsule gift that brought back so many memories for the staff and the students. The next discovery, a yearbook from 1993 wasn't in a very good condition. That was because the contents went through a long process and the moisture damaged the contents.
The shows listings that were found in the capsule included The Wonder Years finale, Saved by the Belland Baywatch. The Winchester Star’s headline, “Serbs Will Collapse If Belgrade Stops Arms” was also something special. But there were some other past important details that happened in 1993 that were really noteworthy.
Several students also submitted a collection of personal notes inside the time capsule that made the time capsule worth finding. These notes were the most interesting part of the discovery. Marvin Everette Grice Jr., who graduated from the Bachelor of Music in Performance left a very beautiful note for his fellow students of the Shenandoah University.
Grice Jr. wrote, “Request: Gloria Warner, To dance with Marvin Grice on 5-6-93. 8-?” Nobody knew if Warner accepted the invitation or not. We wish his request was accepted by her. So what was there inside for the students of 2018? For them, the students left their dreams and hopes in the capsule that made the students really emotional.
A photo was found inside the time capsule that showed three students from the university's 1991 choir tour to Zurzach, Switzerland. There were three Voice Performance student Vera Massarotto, Bachelor of Science in Arts Management graduates Barbara Ellen Hartsell, and Catherine Ann Via Burzio. Notes were written on the back side of the photograph from all three of them.
The messages that these three women wrote was about the hope they had in their mind for their future. For example, Hartsell wrote, “In 25 years, I see myself as an executive in a performing arts or visual arts organization. I hope to be happily married and have two or three healthy, well-adjusted children.” We hope she might have found the life she wished for 25 years ago and if not then this is not the end.
“I will have gone back to school and received a master’s degree,” Hartsell wrote further. “Perhaps in accounting, and either have received or be working towards a doctorate.” Burzio, wrote, “In 25 years, I see myself as Dr. Cathy, directing choral ensembles and theater productions at a small college.” She went on an said, “I hope to be happily married with three or four children, possibly one adopted. I see myself living in the mid-west, waiting for grandchildren to come along any time.” And Massarotto wished to see herself settled down with a family and a successful career in the future.
“In 25 years, I see myself either at the Met or traveling in Europe performing in opera houses,” the student said on the self-written note. “I definitely see myself singing my dream role Mimi and possibly some operatic music theatre roles. Hopefully, I will be married to a wonderful man and be blessed with at least two children who are not tone deaf!”
The university has changed a lot in 25 years. Back in 1993, there weren't lots of buildings but today there is everything including a theater, health professions building, and a sports stadium. The enrollment figures have increased from 1,563 in 1993 to 3,688 in 2018. The students must have felt the connection after the time capsule was opened.
Though the time capsules aren't ideal to preserve the historical artifacts, they can give us plenty of information about our past just like the time capsule which was discovered on the university campus. Let's hope we keep finding time capsules like these and get to see amazing content of the past. We think the college university should start it as a practice to hide the time capsule for the future student to explore.