Not sure if kids today still bury time capsules, but it was all the rage in the 70's. During my 5th grade year at Wakefield Elementary School, my entire school made a big deal about burying one with each student contributing an item. We looked to the future with anticipation, curiosity and excitement. After all, we had successfully landed on the moon in '69 so there seemed to be no limit on what could be achieved. I recall thinking how incredibly old I'd be by the time the capsule was unearthed, imagining myself a feeble old lady standing with my cane waiting for my treasures to be returned to me. Well, I don't feel like an old lady although my memory isn't sharp enough to recall what on earth I put inside the capsule. I've always been pragmatic so I can't imagine it was anything of great value. Fifty years is certainly a long time to wait for anything, if they were trying to teach us a lesson on patience then my hats off to the educators of the 70's. The upcoming bicentennial of '76 had everyone excited, eager to celebrate the history of our country and imagining all the possibilities for the future. I imagined we'd be flying around in our own mini space ships, like on the Jetsons. Of course we'd have robots to do all of our housework and meal prep so we could zoom around through the air visiting one another and going out to great parties. We never imagined we wouldn't need our record players and vinyl collections or that we'd all be strapped into seat belts when in cars. I'll be curious to see what's inside that fifty year old time capsule and young Rachel would have been pleased to see there's no need for a cane...yet. She'd be amazed to see phones with no cords, computers in peoples houses, televisions with more than three channels and happy to see vinyl records still being appreciated, even if a nostalgic novelty. I bet there's an old forty five record in that capsule from one of the top chart favorites like, Captain & Tenielle, we'll just have to wait and see. No matter how you slice it, fifty years is a long time to wait for anything.... patience...possibly the longest lesson I've even been taught.
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