As we start 2016, a new exhibit is up at Davidson Town Hall. It’s a time capsule put together by students in the fourth grade literacy class of Pam Brunschwyler and Colleen Thrailkill in 2007.
It was unearthed in April as students prepared to graduate from high school. Now most of those students are in college.
When the capsule was opened in May at Davidson Town Day, a few students and teachers found student letters to the future, newspaper clippings (there’s Steph Curry as a Wildcat) and random items: white glue, a Jake Delhomme trading card, a 2006 nickel, a golf ball.
Thrailkill recalls: “Students were eager to bury a capsule containing small personal mementos. They discussed the best time to dig it up and concluded their senior year in high school would be a satisfying anniversary and that doing it around Town Day was a good date because many of the students might be in Davidson for that celebration.”
Other time capsules were buried in the following years, with the same plan in mind, she said.
Were you or your child in that 2007 class? Here’s a Partial list of students:
- Michaela Ball
- Lindsay Berkhout
- Lauren Blaney
- Abby Cardwell
- Jack Carmichael
- Jacob Cheeks
- Emmily Cowie
- Madison Domico
- Beach Galloway
- Rebecca Goheen
- Gaines Langford
- Blake Latham
- Juliana Lopp
- Kirk Miller
- Erin Norton
- Hannah Olguin
- Caroline Piephoff
- Claire Rutledge
- Jessica Seligmann
- Emily Vice
Two other students also had letters in the time capsule, including one named Scott. The teachers don’t have a record of their names.
At the opening in May, people stopped by to see what the time capsule held. Some remembered their time at the school. The letters were soaked and crumbling, but as the day wore on, some dried enough so the students could take them home.
Students wrote about many things, according to Thrailkill, who is now retired.
One letter reads: “Dear Future Guy: A big world event that happened in my life was the Indian Ocean tsunami.”
Another mentions that “for the first time, an African American man is running for president.”
There were facts about the Town of Davidson, including one student’s description of Town Day as a “favorite event.” Others spoke of the Soda Shop and Ben & Jerry’s as favorite places. (They’re both still here.)
One writer talked about Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans in August 2006, mentioning that “to survive, some people had to climb on top of their houses.”
Alas, many of the letters were difficult to reconstruct because of water damage, Thrailkill said.
“Our 2007 time capsule provided us with a welcome chance to remember our year with our fourth graders of the past, and to appreciate the almost-adults they have become, thanks in part to the small role we played in their lives,” Thrailkill says in a note prepared for the exhibit.
WANT TO GO?
The time capsule is on display weekdays during business hours, 8am to 5pm, and during after-hours town events, in the lobby of Davidson Town Hall, 128 S. Main St.
(WANT TO SHOW YOUR WORK? I manage the gallery at Davidson Town Hall and I’m always looking for art or exhibit ideas. Contact me: boraksd @gmail.com )
David Boraks 