North Carolina Town’s Time Capsule Didn’t Age Well-At All
I hadn’t thought about the term “time capsule” in years. Chances are at some point in your elementary school life, your class put one together as an assignment. My mother confirmed that in 1976, my elementary school assembled one in honor of the bicentennial and buried it with much fanfare by the school’s flagpole. I couldn’t tell you what was in it, nor if it’s ever been retrieved. Chances are if it has, its contents will be in the same sorry condition as those recently unearthed by the city of Mooresville, North Carolina.
If you never done or seen one, a time capsule is a collection of artifacts, news, etc. from an era. It is intended to paint a picture of that society’s state for future historians and archeologists who find it later. Carefully encased for posterity (see picture above), they are interred.
To celebrate Mooresville’s 100th birthday in 1973, the town put together a time capsule. It was buried with much fanfare, captured by this extraordinary 8 mm video you can see below.
The time capsule was dug up in 2005. Then, it was basically and immediately hidden away. Why? Apparently, those who buried it, didn’t do a good job of protecting its contents. The method of sealing vault lids back then utilized liquid tar. Oops. Not so good at keeping out rainwater and other elements.
According to Mooresville Public Library archivist Andy Poore in The Herald-Sun, “It was basically a soup of materials that had just decayed being exposed to the water, to the chemicals of the vault itself, chemicals being washed in by the mud.” We basically had a large mess.” “There were letters, there were books, there were flags, pieces of clothing. It was sad to me because I literally would pick up a photograph to see if it was salvageable and within seconds the image would be gone, or what was left of the image was gone. The centennial flag when I picked it up, it just crumbled. It was gone.”
In fact, less than 1% of the capsule’s contents could be salvaged. Those artifacts include newspaper ads for dresses at Belk for $8.95 and a new brick ranch-style home for $23,500. I’d be willing to be $23,500 probably wouldn’t be a good down payment for that home by today’s standards.
Well, if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Mooresville is now planning a second time capsule and celebration similar to the one in 1973. This time though, it will be sealed and placed above ground in a climate-controlled environment.
“Survivors” of Mooresville’s original, 1973 time capsule are on display at the Mooresville Public Library.
Visit A Strange Museum This Summer
In getting ready for today’s show, I came across a blurb about The Spam Museum. That’s right, you didn’t misread that. There is indeed a museum dedicated to spreadable pork shoulder and ham. I would have assumed it was in Hawaii (where Spam is like a crazy delicacy), but no, it’s in Minnesota? There’s a good reason for that, but more on that later. This got me to thinking though…what other “strange” museums do we have in this country? Hang on for this tour!
