If you remember bell-bottoms, tie-dyed tees, and “Silly Love Songs” at the top of the charts, you remember 1976. Rocky was the highest-grossing movie in America. And the whole country was busy celebrating its 200th birthday.
Plenty of communities marked the Bicentennial by sealing up time capsules for the future. That future is now. On Friday, October 23, it was Clinton County’s turn, in Plattsburgh, up in New York’s North Country.
Their capsule came with a surprise.
One Box? Make That Ten
A 200-pound plaque on the wall at the west entrance of the Clinton County Government Center marked the spot. Staff members pried it loose with crowbars. Behind it was the alcove holding everything the county had tucked away in 1976.
Organizers expected a single box. Instead, they found ten gray boxes sealed up inside.
“We had no idea that that was going to happen,” said Mark Henry, who chairs the Clinton County Legislature.
Who Remembers What Went In?
Janet Duprey was there at the beginning. She served on the county legislature in 1976. She recalls that the group first talked about a time capsule in 1975, then followed through during the Bicentennial events the next year.
Fifty years is a long time, though, and Duprey did not pretend otherwise.
“That was 50 years ago and I haven’t a clue what I have in there!” she said.
Sound familiar? Most of us could not swear to what is in the hall closet.
Duprey opened the first box. Inside she found a book on the history of the town of Chazy, along with photographs and documents. Residents will get their turn, too. The boxes and everything in them will be on display at the Government Center over the coming months.
Henry told the gathered crowd that the day was about more than opening a time capsule. “There’s something deeply human about what we are doing here today,” he said.
Fifty years ago, he pointed out, people in the community took the time to leave a message for whoever came next. Then he explained why people do it at all.
“We build monuments. We write books. We preserve photographs and we tell our stories because we want the future to know that we were here, what we valued and what we hoped for.”
You Are in Good Company
If that sounds like something your own town would do, you are right. Communities across the country have been opening their 1976 capsules this year.
In June, the City of Orlando scheduled an unveiling for one that the Kiwanis Club of Orlando had buried at Lake Eola Park. This summer, Georgetown County, South Carolina, opened its own. Stephen Candal told WPDE that back in 1976, a regional committee of 15 worked for a year to get ready. The capsule alone cost $600, which he called a lot of money in those days.
Clinton County did not stop at looking back. On the same day, a brand-new capsule was filled and sealed, set to be opened in 2076. A new plaque will cover the alcove.
Some of the letters inside came from sixth graders at Beekmantown Middle School. They described their lives today and made predictions about what life will look like 50 years from now.
Picture those students half a century from now, standing where Janet Duprey stood on Friday, wondering what on earth they wrote.
You do not need a 200-pound plaque to do what those sixth graders did. A letter to a grandchild, a few photographs, and a date to open them is plenty. Tell the future what you valued and what you hoped for.
