Time capsule unearthed after 25 years

Photos: Roosevelt time capsule opened

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Bruce Peters, left, former Roosevelt Elementary School principal, and Ann Veith, Roosevelt teacher, examine letters and artifacts unearthed from a time capsule on Tuesday, July 30, during the burial of the time capsule in 1984, go through the continents of the 25 year-old canister as Greg Tyus, president Middletown school board and Steve Price, superintendent, look on Tuesday, July 28, 2009 on the front steps of the old Roosevelt school.

Staff photo by Gary Stelzer Bruce Peters, left, former Roosevelt Elementary School principal, and Ann Veith, Roosevelt teacher, examine letters and artifacts unearthed from a time capsule on Tuesday, July 30, during the burial of the time capsule in 1984, go through the continents of the 25 year-old canister as Greg Tyus, president Middletown school board and Steve Price, superintendent, look on Tuesday, July 28, 2009 on the front steps of the old Roosevelt school.

By Ed Richter, Staff Writer Updated 6:36 PM Wednesday, July 29, 2009

MIDDLETOWN — In 1984, Michael Jackson was the king of the entertainment world and apparently quite popular with many students who attended the former Roosevelt Elementary School.

That popularity was recounted when those students returned Tuesday, July 28, to open a time capsule they buried 25 years ago.

“I was surprised how much we got in there and how they captured the feeling of the times,” said Ann Veith, who was a teacher at the school.

About 50 people attended the event, with many of the former students bringing their own children to watch.

Among the things the students in 1984 wrote about were Atari computer games, “The Amityville Horror” book, the movie “Annie,” Mickey Mouse, the Cincinnati Reds, Care Bears, Quiet Riot, Triumph, Billy Joel, AC/DC, football, Commodore 64 computers and MTV.

One student wrote about his album collection that included Culture Club and Jackson’s “Thriller.”

“I thought it was pretty cool,” said Andrea Schrock Gekeler, now of Germantown. “I was a sixth-grader at the time and I remember everyone wrote letters and put in pictures.”

The time capsule likely would have stayed underground if not for former Roosevelt student Amy Peyton-Schnauber, now of Illinois. She remembered the project from her sixth-grade year and came across it again while making a scrapbook for her mother after finding the newspaper clipping.

The students had left instructions for the time capsule to be dug up in 25 years.

Peyton-Schnauber said she called the Middletown City School District office to find out whether the time capsule was retrieved, but that no one in the district office seemed to know about the project.

“I thought they would have dug it up in March,” she said.

Word got out about the time capsule through Internet social networks, which built interest in seeing it uneathed.

However, no one seemed to remember precisely where the capsule was buried.

Peyton-Schnauber said there were two digs before hitting pay dirt.

Peyton-Schnauber, Julie Buchert-Steel who was a student photographed in 1984 helping to bury the time capsule, Veith and former principal Bruce Peters dug up the orange-colored tube a little more than 10 feet west of Door A of the school.

There was one snag to the event — opening the capsule. It took nearly 15 minutes for Veith, Peters, Middletown school board President Greg Tyus and Superintendent Steve Price to crack open the capsule using various hammers and an electric saw.

Once it was opened, it was apparent the time capsule — created by reasearch and technology staff at Armco Steel, the forerunner of AK Steel Corp. — did the job to keep the materials dry and secure. A letter tucked inside from the Armco technicians said: “Thanks for getting me out — It’s been rather stuffy here these last few years.”

The letter was signed by Abe Brongersma of the Polymeric Products Group of Armco Research and Technology.

In his letter, Brongersma said he enjoyed constructing the time capsule that was made of Acrylonitrile-Butadiene-Styrene covered in glassified reinforced polyester resin. He also hoped the United States made it to the metric system by the time the students read his letter.

Buchert-Steel was a first-grader who helped to bury the time capsule. She said, “it was a lot of fun.”

A Cleveland-area resident, she said she came down for the event and added that she liked to play with her Care Bear and going to school to see her teacher.

Veith also learned something else on Tuesday. Another former student told her that there was another time capsule buried in another part of the schoolyard.

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