When I was a kid, I remember talking with friends about burying a time capsule. How cool it would be to bury something and dig it up a few years later. I don't remember if we actually followed through, but I'm sure there are remnants of our childhood underground somewhere.
This came back to me recently when the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma, reclaimed a cache of items that had been buried 50 years earlier. Among the items buried was a 1957 Plymouth Belvedere. As you can tell from the picture, the Tulsa capsule, which was designed to withstand an atomic blast, apparently couldn't deal with Mother Nature and her "gift" of several feet of standing water.
Now comes the current rage of geocaching, where people hide items to be found through various clues, a modern-day version of a treasure hunt. One offshoot of this is geocapsuling, stashing a family's memories in a fake rock to be discovered later.
Since I have doubts that my descendants will take the time and trouble to hike through rugged terrain to uncover bits of my family history, I prefer a more direct method. But, maybe you come from more adventurous stock. If so, you can check out Time in a Capsule.
Whatever method you choose, make certain your efforts don't come to the same sad end of the 1957 Plymouth.
Flickr photo of Tulsa car courtesy of Telstar Logistics.
The program "If Walls Could Talk" has inspired our family to intentionally write in inconspicuous places on the walls of our home, and consider leaving objects of our time in areas of our home for future occupants to find accidentally someday.
I even allow my grandkids to leave their mark, whatever it may be, on certain pieces of furniture for them to enjoy someday when they receive it.
Posted by: Angela | June 25, 2007 at 04:42 PM
What a good idea, Angela. I wonder how much family history has been painted or wallpapered over in older homes where every layer represents change. If walls could talk, indeed.
Posted by: Larry Lehmer | June 26, 2007 at 09:57 AM