Piece of school's history lost in time

Officials at Madeira Beach Middle School have had no luck locating a time capsule buried in the 1970s by students.

By AMY WIMMER

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 17, 2000

MADEIRA BEACH -- Lurking somewhere beneath the grounds of Madeira Beach Middle School could be a disco ball, a pair of platform shoes or a collection of Bee Gees eight-tracks.

No one knows for sure what's inside the time capsule that middle schoolers buried sometime in the mid-1970s. That's because no one remembers where it was buried.

"Everyone has taken this on with a lot of zeal and interest," said Ellen Miller, an assistant principal at the school who has directed some of the effort to find the capsule. "But we're not going to dig up the property to find it."

Madeira Beach Middle School had intended in the year 2000 to open a time capsule that its former students left behind. But with no indication of its whereabouts, the school is stumped.

The school isn't alone. Up the street at Madeira Beach City Hall, the city couldn't find a time capsule it was scheduled to open in 1997 at its 50th anniversary celebration. Around the world, the International Time Capsule Society estimates, nine of every 10 time capsules are never uncovered.

The arrival of the year 2000 brought new notoriety to the lost time capsule epidemic, as communities worldwide set out to seek time capsules scheduled to be opened this year. Madeira Beach Middle School's search began with a phone call two years ago from a former student, who recalled a capsule being created in the early to mid-1970s.

"I began to search at that point because I was interested, and I contacted as many of the previous principals that I could, and I never could find anything," Miller said.

Many capsules are buried and lost, some are stolen, and some are entombed under something so unreasonably heavy that future generations lose interest in digging them out of their super-secure tombs.

That could be the case at the middle school. Several buildings have been added or expanded at the school complex since the 1970s, leaving the capsule-seekers to question whether it might be buried under a modern-day parking lot or classroom.

Miller said a teacher who was at the school during the era, Bobbie Bernstein, is researching the capsule, seeking students, faculty or employees who might recall the time capsule's burial.

"She's like a detective," Miller said, "but she hasn't been able to uncover anything, either."

Meanwhile, teacher Kim Fernandez, the student council sponsor at the school, is helping to organize a new time capsule for the year 2000. She said her students plan to seal it and display it in a trophy case or somewhere inside the school.

They definitely won't be burying it, she said.

That's one of the cardinal rules of time capsule-making outlined by the international society. The organization, which is trying to make a registry of all the time capsules in the world, advises that families or organizations store their capsule somewhere indoors and designate one person to pass on the plans for the capsule.

The guidelines are designed to help groups like Madeira Beach Middle School to keep better track of the legacy left by a previous generation.

"It's unfortunate that no one seems to know much about it," Fernandez said.

-- Anyone with information about the whereabouts of the Madeira Beach Middle School time capsule should call Madeira Beach Middle School at 547-7691.

Other elusive capsules

In 1990, the International Time Capsule Society created a list of the "10 Most Wanted Time Capsules." So far, only one has been found. The remaining nine are:

1. Bicentennial Wagon Train Time Capsule. This capsule was supposed to hold the signatures of 22-million Americans. But on July 4, 1976, when President Gerald Ford arrived for the sealing ceremony in Valley Forge, Pa., someone stole the capsule from an unattended van in the bicentennial wagon train.

2. MIT Cyclotron Time Capsule. In 1939, MIT engineers placed a brass capsule beneath an 18-ton magnet used in a brand new, state-of-the-art cyclotron. The capsule was to be opened in 50 years but was not. No one remembered that the time capsule was there (the cyclotron had long since been deactivated). But when reminded of its existence, MIT was faced with another problem: How do you get a time capsule out from under a 36,000-pound lid?

3. Corona, Calif., Time Capsules. The City of Corona seems to have misplaced a series of 17 time capsules dating to the 1930s. Efforts to recover them in 1986 were in vain.

4. The M*A*S*H Time Capsule. Buried by cast members of the hit TV show in a secret ceremony, the capsule contained props and costumes of the show. It was buried in January 1983 somewhere (no one will say) in the 20th Century Fox parking lot in Hollywood.

5. George Washington's Cornerstone. Today's custom of burying time capsules is, in part, an outgrowth of Masonic cornerstone-laying ceremonies. Through the centuries, Masons have officiated at rituals that often include placing memorabilia inside building cornerstones for later recovery. In 1793, George Washington, a Mason, performed the Masonic ritual upon the laying of the original cornerstone of the U.S. Capitol. Over the years, the Capitol has undergone extensive expansion, remodeling and reconstruction, but the original George Washington cornerstone has never been found.

6. The Gramophone Co. Time Capsule. In 1907, in Hayes, Middlesex, England, sound recordings on disc were deposited behind the foundation stone of the new Gramophone Co. factory (later HMV, later EMI) by the opera singer Nellie Melba. During reconstruction work in the 1960s, the container was officially removed, but before it could be reburied, someone ran off with it.

7. Washington Territorial Centennial Time Capsule. In 1953, Washington state celebrated its territorial centennial by burying a 2-ton time capsule on the state Capitol campus in Olympia. The legislature failed to approve money to mark the site, and the capsule was lost until 1959. However, records indicate that a supplementary time capsule was prepared in 1953 for burial alongside the main capsule. The location and contents of the second capsule are unknown.

8. Blackpool Tower. In Blackpool, Lancashire, England, a foundation deposit was interred in the late 19th century with the customary ceremony. When a search was organized recently in preparation for new building work, not even remote sensing equipment or a clairvoyant could find the time capsule.

9. The Lyndon, Vt., Time Capsule. First mentioned in a Vermont newspaper in 1891, the capsule is an iron box containing proceedings of the town's centennial celebration. It was scheduled to be opened on July 4, 1991.

-- SOURCE: International Time Capsule Society

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