Next stop... 2110

Time travel... the idea that a person has the ability to leave one time dimension and arrive in the same place at a different time... is so very fascinating. Imagine being in a place that you're very familiar with, at a time you're very familiar and comfortable in. Now imagine being able to travel in time.... either forwards or backwards to that same place in a time very foreign to you. I think it would be awesome... it'd be scary and exciting at the same time. I'd travel into the past to parts of the city I live in and to the other places that have been a part of my life. What fun that would be. The Back to the Future movies made in the 1980s have always been some of my favorite movies. I've always thought the concepts in those movies were very creative. It's hard to believe that the first of the Back to the Future movie was made over 25 years ago.

I've also always thought time capsules were interesting. It's a way to get a glimpse into the past through a few items that were consciously and deliberately grouped together by someone or a group of people so that they would be found at a later date. I don't think time capsules are left to provide significant historic information as they are to give a glimpse into the culture of the people who leave it. There are time capsules that were buried during the 1939 and 1965 New York World's Fairs in Flushing Meadows that are meant to be opened in the year 6939. Wouldn't it be amazing if it did manage to make it five thousand years and be opened. There were time capsules buried by the government before the breakup of the Russian state, and there are time caspsules that have been put in space. In fact, there is an organization called the International Time Capsule Society.

"The International Time Capsule Society (ITCS) is an organization established in 1990 to promote the careful study of time capsules. It strives to document all types of time capsules throughout the world. The group is headquartered at Oglethorpe University in Atlanta, Georgia."

Their website is very interesting. It can be checked out by clicking here. One time capsule that is definitely not on their records is the one that Debbie, the kids and I buried last April. As we were building walls in our basement in preparation to make it finished living space, we decided to build ourselves a time capsule and fill it with some items that are part of our everyday lives.
Some of the items we put in it are:

1. Savanna's old iPod (it was broken)
2. a newspaper from that day
3. some Canadian coins dated 2010
4. a US dollar bill
5. some of Seldons collector cards
6. a small photo album of our house and family
7. an Olympics year collectible metal coke bottle
8. an old cell phone
9. a personal cassette player
and a variety of other items.

The sides are engraved with some words including the date it was buried. We put all the items inside and screwed the top on. It fit between two studs in the wall and we sheet-rocked over it. It's now buried in a wall of our almost finished basement that hopefully will be found sometime in the future. I have ideas... make that fantasies... of a family finding it in a hundred years or so. I think it'd be so neat if they traced back to us and found a future family member to give it to.

It was lots of fun to do even though at times I felt like it was pulling teeth to get Debbie and the kids into it like I was. "Man crickett, this is lame!" In the end, they all pulled through and gave me lots of good items to put in and we all enjoyed sealing the box and putting it into the wall and covering it up together. It was a great family time for us that I think the kids will appreciate more someday when they're older and they remember what we did.

 

Now what in the world did I do with my wallet??