Wet capsule: Soggy city memorabilia retrieved at opening
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First thing to emerge was a soaked copy of a special Bicentennial Edition of the Daily Progress.hawes spencer -
The only thing undamaged was the Bicentennial dinner plate.hawes spencer - click to view more photos
If any water-proofing sealants had been applied to the Charlottesville time capsule dug up Sunday afternoon, they weren't evident during the public ceremony at which an array of water-soaked items were plucked from the 50-year-old metal box.
One after another, soggy papers and moist memorabilia were extracted from the container, which was unearthed from under nearly a foot of concrete, since one sidewalk had been built atop another.
"We should not be critical," said Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society board member Preston Coiner.
"The science of time capsules has changed a lot," agreed the Society's president, Steven Meeks.
The question of exactly where the capsule was located had vexed City officials for much of the past two years, but Crozet resident Tom Hartsell seemed to definitively answer the question after rummaging through his father's old 8mm films. In the silent segment he uploaded to YouTube last August, a beauty queen and an array of officials, all white of course, bury the capsule just outside the back door of the Charlottesville Circuit Courthouse.
Charlottesville City Councilor Kristin Szakos took subtle note of her womanhood and seemed also to hint that the mayor, Satyendra Huja, a Sikh who was absent due to travel, appears somewhat different from the city fathers of the Kennedy Era.
If the looks are more diverse, the dreams might be the same, as the May 27 event's final speaker, Charlottesville's first African American city manager, Maurice Jones, spoke of his childhood expectation that we'd all be flying around with jet-packs by now.
The unearthing was part of an array of events celebrating Charlottesville's 250th anniversary, and Historical Society's Coiner noted that the next Charlottesville time capsule will be planted December 23 and marked with granite.
"Take care of yourself," Coiner implored the crowd, "so you can say you were involved in two or three different time capsules."
Afterwards, Meeks said that the box appeared to have been sealed with tar which "just failed."
"What really was a tremendous loss," said Meeks, "were the letters and the personal documents. We'll never know what people were trying to say to us."
Asked whether storing artifacts outdoors is the best policy, Meeks concedes that the city of Lynchburg has achieved good results with a time capsule simply stored in the attic of a local museum.
–additional photos (all visible at link near top) shown 10:37am, Monday, May 28
–final three paragraphs and photo added Tuesday, June 5 at 9:48am
20 comments
So why the the story have to read "all white of course" Does everything have to be about race??
Hawes, what the hell is your problem? What does race have to do with it? Just when I start to like some of the reporting your paper is doing, you've got to stir the pot.
Never mind, I figured it out - its election year...
The location of the capsule was never a big lost secret. Had I known there was any question about it, I could have taken them right to it. As the late Sheriff Raymond Pace and I walked out the courthouse door one day, the sheriff told me we were walking over top of it as he explained what it was. This was back in 1974 when he told me about it.
What does race and gender of past and present city officials have to do with what's inside the time capsule? Please explain. Thanks.
They need to distract from the very obvious statistics then vs. now regarding rapes, child neglect, drugs, preterm births, gangs, and abortions. 1969 wasn't the Summer of Love. It was the Summer of the Manson Family.
and what exactly was the memorabilia?
Funny, as I read this I thought the same thing... "all white of course.." interrupted the report and jumped out at me as much as something as silly as "accompanied by seven leprechauns and two bowls of soup" might have. I don't get it. I have to agree with ongoing sentiment, that it seems liberals are more likely to see people as being in distinct groups and try to put a label everyone.
Yes Sean, and 1969 also wasn't the summer of 1962, when this time capsule was buried.
What's wrong with acknowledging the truth of our history in an article about history?
Good for you, Mr. Spencer. Keep up the good work. I don't always agree with your opinions, but I appreciate that you never shy from expressing them.
These same people that decry those that point out the white supremacist nature of much of America's history are the first ones that claim that The President of the United States isn't really an American, that lament that most American babies being born aren't white, and that soon white people will be in the minority in the United States of America.
I love this country and ALL the people within it, not just the smaller and smaller segment of the population that some people want to celebrate.
People, I don't think the problem is so much what Hawes said, but how he said it. Saying "all white, of course" is a pot-stirring comment designed to provoke knee jerk reactions from people. Which is exactly what he likes to do. (HEY! YOU CAN HANDLE THE TRUTH!!!!!) Versus simply noting the demographic differences between when the time capsule was buried and how things are now, 50 years later. 50 years ago it would have been unheard of in Charlottesville to have a black city manager, a Sikh mayor, and strong women in ruling positions. Times have indeed changed. That could have been noted in the story in any number of non-pot stirring ways, but, Hawes chose the simple route. "All white, of course." And, he got the exact reaction he was after. ;)
That aside, more emphasis probably could have been placed in the story on describing what exactly the soggy contents of the time capsule contained. A mysterious two page number cypher, aka, along the lines of "Knowing" would have been cool. :D
Increasingly desperate and unable to run on their record, the far left must return to it's core values of dividing people along racial, economic, and religious lines. They have no philosophy really, other than "you should hate these _________ folks for ruining your life." Class war, race baiting, envy, and discord are fundamentals for them, so it should come as no surprise that you'll find it in an innocuous article about a harmless time capsule. They are keenly aware of how well the Virginia economy has been run as compared to the national one, so they really have to put the diversions into overdrive now.
Well since we are talking about time and change from 1962 we need to look at all the facts...the blacks in america who strive to succeed have more opportunities than ever before and are making it in america because racism has diminished in tremendous ways....
Of course the blacks in america that wish to hold onto the past and sieze on irresponsible infallatory rhetoric like the line in this article will just keep the fires burning like it WAS 1962.
ponce de leon, I think the article points out exactly what you're saying, that there is less racism now than in 1962.
Quesion: Would the city manager be one of the "blacks" who are seizing (not "sieze", btw) on irresponsible infallatory (?) rhetoric? Or is he one of the "blacks" who has taken advantage of his opportunities?
Can't have it both ways. According to your logic, if he's pointing out that there used to be racism, then he isn't taking advantage of his opportunities. Thanks for showing all of us how capable you are of complex thought.
It also sounds like you are saying that "blacks" who point out that there used to be racism in 1962 are responsible for racism today?
"the blacks in america that wish to hold onto the past ... will just keep the fires burning like it WAS 1962."
Wow, dude. You can't spell, you can't reason, and it sounds like you really don't like black people.
Ah yes, and the extreme concentration on one and only one issue must also be imperative. Yes, race relations (i.e., the treatment of Blacks as equal citizens with equal rights) has improved greatly since 1962. But we need to be very careful not to remind ourselves that most people had no need to lock their doors around here in 1962 either - or that child neglect/abuse/abandonment, STD's, violent crime, abortions, preterm births, breast cancer, and drug deaths have all increased by exponential factors in the last 50 years also. By all means, we must always concentrate only on the one or two things that have improved, not the dozen or so that have victimized more people now than people back in 1962 could have ever imagined in a nightmare..
"What's wrong with acknowledging the truth of our history in an article about history?"
Oh, it's you again.
What? Maybe less than could be indirectly being inferred? Barring Meanwhile, you forgot to express how you might be too inclined, to bumrush whatever public forum... to broadcast also what inequity your brand profiling keeps finding unceasingly to turning up and out at passing sentence on Religionism. Well God bless America! We still have a US Constitution that spelled in writing (despite HOW IMPERFECTLY interpreted) rights, that today's shaken judeo-christian nation founding core-remanent (who no matter how diverse challenged they started as at the founding) continue acnowledging as from a higher infinite entity (Providence) and NOT BY MAN OR DEVOLED FROM BEING MANMADE.
Meanwhile, does your pursuit of happiness entirely consist of the above common chased and achieved comment responses, to provide agitation and vexation for the public good and general welfare? Shame somebody must resort to such exclusive reckless immersion to make themself feel superior, at whatever affront to others (whether expansive or minimal) moral grounding. Must be some kinda "more equal than others" sort of thing, to those sharing such similar disposition as yours.
Oh yes and why did I use the term "higher infinite entity" instead of GOD. Due to the tempest in teapots like Meanwhile, we have to constantly rake and mire in the prevalent "political correctness" de jour! If that is an unfair assessment, it is because we have such individuals who insist:..... their prime-directive and civil duty is incessantly and persistently with FEELING THEY MUST POINT OUT WHAT SHOULD ALREADY BE OBVIOUS but isn't to themselves! Perish thought, not that there's one thing wrong with doing that. Come now and return when anything as an actual ephinany dawns and perhaps delves beyond that socialista evoking veneer.
"These same people that decry those that point out the white supremacist nature of much of America's history are the first ones that claim that The President of the United States isn't really an American, that lament that most American babies being born aren't white, and that soon white people will be in the minority in the United States of America."
I suppose that in the last census you checked any box other than caucasian (not which, wait none of that's my business) and that you are one without reserve, who proudly and first proclaims him/her self as being a citizen of the world before (even much less else than) a hyphenated american US civilian? Really! Just listen to yourself there. Oh and newsflash, depending on what pollster or news you indulge, white is already a minority to brown latino (an ethnic nationality, NOT A RACE - SOMETHING TODAYS SCHOOLS DEEM REPROACH AT - TO PROPERLY AND CORRECTLY EDUCATE.) Also while you are the FIRST ONE TO HAVE BROUGHT IT UP, what about our "everything is relative" president? I am not one of those "birth certificate-ers" your are probing around for and rattling off on. However, since you're attempt with this is to inject racial dialogue, I contend our Commander in Chief is not (technically) the first (all and precisely) black president. Ah but what would someone as myself (no matter what race I am) know about what denotes a pure DNA marker?
Now let's take everything said in this thread and place it in the 2062 Time Capsule. I look forward to making it to 101 years old.
Happened to pick up a random paper out in the boonies today and flipped by an article by Walter E. Williams, Ph.D - an economics professor at UMD:
"Each year, roughly 7,000 blacks are murdered. Ninety-four percent of the time, the murderer is another black person. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, between 1976 and 2011, there were 279,384 black murder victims. Using the 94 percent figure means that 262,621 were murdered by other blacks. Though blacks are 13 percent of the nation’s population, they account for more than 50 percent of homicide victims."
"The magnitude of this tragic mayhem can be viewed in another light. According to a Tuskegee Institute study, between the years 1882 and 1968, 3,446 blacks were lynched at the hands of whites."
Although I knew the numbers would look something like this, this is actually at least ten times worse than I thought. Indeed, now I know why many of the older Blacks I have talked to up and down the eastern seaboard yearn for the old days.. But your last penny that papers like this in towns like this will continue to ignore this altogether. It will be saturation of the Trayvon Martin case as we got closer to election day instead.
http://www.wnd.com/2012/05/should-black-people-tolerate-this/
hmm.... so the fact that Charlottesville used to be segregated and now it's not leads directly and logically to the murder of over 200,000 people?
You guys sound absolutely unhinged in your zeal to find something, ANYTHING, wrong with social and racial progress in this country.
I have no idea what exactly is the axe you're grinding, but it clearly has little to do with the article posted on this page.
"By all means, we must always concentrate only on the one or two things that have improved, not the dozen or so that have victimized more people now than people back in 1962 could have ever imagined in a nightmare.."
Is that some sort of veiled reference to the Catholic Church Sean? I don't think anyone in 1962 knew just how widespread its abuses were.
Denial, diversion, blindness. As always, it is imperative to concentrate on ancient history and 5% of the overall story/record. It is fundamental for them to keep current events buried.
"You guys sound absolutely unhinged in your zeal to find something, ANYTHING, wrong
with social and racial progress in this country."
And Meanwhile, I'd contend you're doing a pretty good job of that all upon your own. You can't paint someone else what you think of as trying to want them to be, when such individual within his/her ownself senses that isn't so to start!
Also, what has the axe you grind, got to do with what articles were pulled from the time capsule?