There comes a time

Improvements to school force opening of ’ 98 capsule

Cathy Dunn, former Julia Lee Moore Elementary School principal, and Kenny Clark, current principal, stand in the driveway of her home in Conway and look at items salvaged from a time capsule buried in September 1998 at the school on Country Club Lane. Dunn was the principal then, and she retrieved the time capsule after it was unearthed because of construction at the school. The original plan was to open the time capsule in 2025.
Cathy Dunn, former Julia Lee Moore Elementary School principal, and Kenny Clark, current principal, stand in the driveway of her home in Conway and look at items salvaged from a time capsule buried in September 1998 at the school on Country Club Lane. Dunn was the principal then, and she retrieved the time capsule after it was unearthed because of construction at the school. The original plan was to open the time capsule in 2025.

A Beanie Babies horse, Nike tennis shoes, newspapers and a videotape were a few of the “treasures” found in a time capsule buried at Julia Lee Moore Elementary School in Conway.

The capsule, buried Sept. 22, 1998, was scheduled to be opened in 2025, but a $1.4 million renovation project moved it up 10 years, Principal Kenny Clark said.

“No one really mentioned it until they started talking about putting in the parking spaces, and several of the teachers said, ‘We buried something like 17 years ago,’” Clark said.

Cathy Dunn of Conway, who retired a year ago as principal of the school, hadn’t forgotten.

“We dug one up, so we buried another one,” she said. In 1998, Dunn didn’t think she would be involved with the time capsule’s opening. “I thought, ‘Let’s just open it up in 2025. I’ll be retired and long gone,’” she said, with a laugh.

The renovation project at the school included a parking lot in front of the school, which Dunn knew meant the time

capsule was in danger. She contacted the maintenance supervisor to try to find the time capsule, which was buried in the grassy area being turned into a parking lot.

Dunn said she went to the school praying, “Lord, let us find it — it’s 100 degrees.” The men were about to stop work for the day, and one of the bulldozers had raked the soil away from a blue barrel. A worker pointed it out. “That might just be it,” she said she told them. “Sure enough, they had just gone over the top of it,” Dunn said.

Inside the barrel were two Styrofoam coolers, falling apart, with items sealed in plastic bags or laminated. Water had seeped in the barrel, and Dunn put the containers in her car and took them to her garage. She unpacked the items to let them dry.

Some items survived; others items were disintegrating.

A VHS tape probably will go to its grave without anyone being able to view whatever the students filmed for the future.

“It’s funny — it has ‘Technology, 1998’ [written] down the side of it,” she said.

“I had everybody do something,” she said, pointing out the jump rope the PE teacher contributed. “Nike shoes were popular then,” so a pair each of girls and boys shoes were buried. The Beanie Babies horse was a tribute to the school’s Mustang mascot.

Kindergartners drew pictures, which were laminated. Students’ names and pictures disappeared on some soggy pages; others were still clear. None of the kindergarten teachers from that year still work at the school.

First-graders signed a bandana and put it in.

“We were big on Cowboy Day then,” Dunn said.

Second-graders in Gina Carter’s class answered questions on sheets titled My Personal Time Capsule, listing their favorite movies, books, etc. For example, Travis Alexander said his favorite movie was Star Wars.

Third-graders signed a Walk-Run T-shirt. The shirt was put between paper and laminated. On the outside is written: “Open Carefully. We would like to enter this for 20 years — or more! Into the time capsule our JLM T-shirt goes — who will be here to see it dug up? Who knows?”

“I just hope it survived,” Dunn said.

A first-place ribbon for the Conway Elementary Track Meet was entered for posterity, too.

Words and sheet music to “One Moment in Time” were entered as a favorite song, and it was performed by fifth-graders at the opening of the previous time capsule, Dunn said. A favorite book placed in the time capsule by the older classes, the cover almost unreadable, was The Ballad of Lucy Whipple, by Karen Cushman. Moore’s Good Recipes Anniversary Edition cookbook didn’t fare any better. The younger students picked Arthur’s Family Vacation as their favorite book, and it was sealed and laminated.

A photo of a former custodian putting items in the barrel is clear, as is the faculty photo. An additional photo in good condition is of Dunn riding on a Julia Lee Moore Elementary School float in the Faulkner County Fair Parade and standing next to a papier mache pig.

An aerial view of the school and two maps of the city of Conway were among the items, too. Dunn wore latex gloves to sift through the items. She and Clark said the smell wasn’t too pleasant on some of the pieces.

“I retired one year ago today,” Dunn said Wednesday, as she stood with the memorabilia. “One year later, I’m still at it.”

Clark said he wants former students and teachers to have an opportunity to view the items.

“My media specialist is going to help me. Once we get moved back in the building, she’s going to help me take pictures of everything, and she’s going to help me inventory it.”

His plan is to post pictures of the items on the school’s Facebook page or website.

“It’s my first time capsule,” Clark said. He added that he “might — at a later point” bury another one.

He knows timing is everything.

Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.

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