As our library gears up for a big run toward an expansion bond warrant at next year’s Town Meeting, we’ve begun to take account of the institution’s history, archives, museum and everything the library has meant to the community since its founding.
And one little quirky thing that we have that I thought was interesting was a Library Time Capsule from 2013. (The year before I started working there by the way.)
This came to my attention recently when I ran across another pretty strange time capsule story, this one out of Seward, Nebraska.
Sidenote: This is the second time this month that Nebraska has played a role in stories here at Day By Day, so not sure what’s up with that. You can read that story, which has to do with Horse Poop, here: McCook Nebraska and the Gazette
Now, time capsules. Over in Seward, a 50 year Time Capsule, from 1975, was recently unearthed that caused quite a world wide stir. Perhaps unearthed isn’t the right word. The Time Capsule was a concrete crypt and what was ‘unearthed’ was a brand new, bright yellow, four-passenger 1976 Vega coupe.
Top of the line at the time. The thought back then was that the Vega would be a neat representation of the auto industry at the time when it was recovered 50 years later and compared to all the robot and flying cars of the time! Ha, we showed them!
Anyway, the Vega was sealed into its time capsule crypt with the license plate 2025. Apparently, the Vega survived its entombment well, with only one tire being flat and a bit of rust round the hood. You can read a more detailed story about the Vega here: Vega Time Machine Unearthed
Our library’s Time Capsule does not, alas, contain a 1975 Vega. Nor does it contain a working automobile at all. The capsule is a large, heavy PVC pipe, capped at the end. The names of all the kids who built it and wrote letters to the future are written on the side of the pipe.
My original thought was to open it next year during the town and county’s 250th anniversary, but 13 years doesn’t feel long enough. So, we’ll likely wait for at least 25 years, 2038, or I have another idea…
If our expansion warrant passes next year, the new library won’t officially open until 2028 or even 2029. Maybe, during the grand opening, we invite those kids (now adults) to come back to the library, open the old time capsule and then have THEIR kids create a new one - literally pass down generational history as it were.
Yeah, I like that idea. Let’s do that Auburn. I’d say it’s time.
I love the time capsule idea! Finding those kids and seeing what their lives look like now would be interesting. My grandfather was president of the first bank in my town, and he, along with some of the bank's founders, put a time capsule in the bank's cornerstone. Sadly, a few years ago, the building was demolished to make way for new businesses. I sometimes wonder what happened to the time capsule.
If the Vega was representative of the auto industry at the time, that doesn't say much for the auto industry.