Time capsules are funny things.
When they are remembered, and opened with fanfare, even relatively interesting contents can be disappointing.
But when they are buried, forgotten, and discovered unexpectedly more than 45 years later, even a simple note – the names of 18 students attending the former Woodway Elementary School in 1963, say – they can be fascinating.
Ask Don Krebs, 56, whose name was among those listed on a crinkled, yellowing note buried under the former elementary school in southwest Edmonds.
Work crews turning the former school into a future park pulled the note from a one-gallon glass jug in September. They discovered the time capsule accidentally, under dirt that will become a basketball court.
City employees tracked down Krebs, who was in fifth grade in 1963, but now is an organizational psychologist living in Bellevue.
“It was a shocker,” said Krebs, after he got an e-mail copy of the simple letter. “It was a total shocker.”
The time capsule included two paragraphs, which in their entirety read:
“This tree was planted on Arbor Day, April 10, 1963. The names enclosed in the jar are names of students selected by their classmates to represent their class in the planting of this flowering crab tree.
“It will be extremely interesting if this tree is ever removed and the contents of this jar examiner notify the school district who will try to inform some of the students on this list.”
The letter is signed in still-blue ink by the school’s principal, Jerry Pinkerton.
The tree, incidentally, has not survived.
Still, as Krebs walked the grounds of his former elementary school Oct. 6, he could hardly stop shaking his head.
He had no trust-worthy recollection of the time capsule — not of the tree it was purportedly buried under, not of being chosen as a listed student, nothing.
But he could remember school, and his librarian and almost all of the names of his elementary school teachers. They were good memories.
As Krebs walked the grounds of the soon-to-be park, he carried a photo of the school as it once had been. He remembered carnivals and small classes and a tight-knit community.
He remembered his nearby home, and his five older siblings, four of whom also attended Woodway Elementary.
Perhaps his most vivid memory of 1963 was the assassination of John F. Kennedy, which took place a few months after the time capsule was buried.
The former Woodway Elementary was opened in 1955 and housed the school until 1973, after which it housed a variety of institutions and organizations. The park will open in June 2009.
Krebs hopes to find some of the other 17 students from the note. He knows two of them, so that should be easy. Maybe, he wonders, the group can get together at the new park?
“It would be fun,” he said. “I would like to hear what everybody could remember.”
Reporter Chris Fyall: 425-673-6525 or cfyall@heraldnet.com
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