Meadow Hall Elementary School

Time Capsule is Buried By Elementary Students
On the last day of school, [June 14, 1966] students at Meadow Hall Elementary School buried a time capsule filled with articles that will probably amuse or educate or horrify Montgomery Countians in the Year 2000.

The capsule, a redwood box actually, with a one-cubic foot capacity -- was the project of the fifth grade classes of teachers Maria Diaz. Miss Diaz wanted to get her students thinking about the future -- three decades in the future, that is, and not just the next weekend at the beach.

The box, with it's artifacts wrapped in protective plastic, was lowered into a 7-foot-deep hole on land adjacent to the school's playground on Twinbrook Parkway.

It was covered with concrete in case somebody with a shovel gets impatient after 10 or 20 years.

"It's good for kids to think of what things will be like in the future," said science teacher Fred Brown, who joined Principal Henry Weisen for the ceremony.

It may be good for kids to think of the future, but what will people of the future think when they unearth the time capsule?

-For one thing, the graying alums of Meadow Hall School may be delighted or filled with chagrin to see how they looked in long-ago 1966. Pictures of the school's 620 students were enclosed in the box.

But what will the reaction be to other items, such as the top record, "When a man Loves a Woman" by Percy sledge? Will rock 'n' roll have died a merciful death by then or will it have been replaced by even more cacophonous sounds?

And what will be thought of our fashions 34 years from now? A 1966 Sears and Roebuck catalogue, with above-the-knees dresses, was included among the artifacts. Will the folks of 2000 A. D. think we dressed quaintly and modestly?

The June 2 edition of The Sentinel went into the box, with it's front page picture of a man serenely fishing along the C&O Canal. Will some of us look upon this with longing in a world where nature has been paved and polluted into ugliness?

As Dr. Brown said, it's good for children to think about the future, but for some of us older ones, it's best not to think about it too much.

 Click the box to see inside!

On June 14, 1966, in the photo on the left, Mr. Brown's class buried the time capsule.

On Monday, May 1st, 2000, we dug it up. On the right, Maria Diaz Montgomery breaks open the concrete casing of the time capsule and examines it's contents along with some of Meadow Hall's former and current students. Ms. Diaz, now the principal at Takoma Park MS, was the teacher who's fifth grade class assembled and buried the capsule.