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Time Capsule - In Touch Magazine

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Feature story by Scott Summerhayes in the spring 2013 issue of Mohawk College's alumni magazine.
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touch Spring ‘13 For Alumni & Friends of Mohawk College alumni.mohawkcollege.ca Publication Mail Agreement 40065780 Predictions for the Future?
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Page 1: Time Capsule - In Touch Magazine

touchFall

‘12

For Alumni & Friends of Mohawk College

touchSpring ‘13 For Alumni & Friends of Mohawk College

alumni.mohawkcollege.ca

Publication Mail Agreement 40065780

Predictions forthe Future?

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spring 2013| 18touch

feature story

time capsulePredictions for the future.By Scott Summerhayes – Journalism Student

In Karen Simpson’s letter to the future, the former president of the Students’ Representative Council (now the Mohawk Students’ Association (MSA) predicted flying cars and vitamin supplements in place of food. While neither have come to be (yet), Simpson was right in believing we would still appreciate a good Scotch whisky. A mini bottle of Chivas Regal was her grand contribution to the time capsule, enclosed in the wall of Mohawk College’s Student Centre on April 5, 1986. Not to be opened for 50 years.

However, due to the construction of the Athletics and Recreation Centre (ARC), the wall the box was placed in had to be torn down to make room for a catwalk, liberating the box from its brick enclosure.

Andy Hall is the current president of the MSA and says the choice to open the time capsule now, 23 years early, was an executive decision made by the current board,

brought on by “simple, complete, and utter curiosity”.

When Simpson got the call saying they wanted to open the box, she was initially quite surprised and immediately went to her photo albums, pretty sure that 50 years had not yet passed. Sure enough, she found an invitation with flashy gold letters for the intended capsule-opening ceremony in 2036.

“I would have preferred that it stay closed and another box got added to it, in all honesty,” said Simpson. “But I wasn’t going to miss watching it be opened.”

Hall said, “The whole purpose of the time capsule was ... in celebration of the building of the Student Centre,” and that opening the box now was “not to be spiteful of the original creators of the time capsule, but to add to the celebration. We’re doing the same thing, just 27 years later.”

On January 17th, 2013, the box was cut out from the brick wall, and on the 21st, Simpson and Hall opened it together in the MSA offices. Wearing yellow work gloves, Hall mimed

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feature story

spring 2013| 19touch

time capsulePredictions for the future.By Scott Summerhayes – Journalism Student

a drum roll before folding over the sharp copper flap, exposing the old paper inside to the light.

“Time capsules are a wonderful thing,” said Hall. “They’re obviously always jam-packed with history.” But what surprised him most was the amount of paper that was found inside. The container was filled to the top with newspapers, posters, pamphlets, yearbooks, and catalogues.

Also surprising was the brief feeling that not a lot had changed in 27 years. In Simpson’s letter to the future she writes, “As for the year 1986, we drive around in cars, eat Big Macs, Whoppers, Coke Classic, Smarties and drink B-52 shooters... Concerns of the 1986 student include: overcrowding, computer space and access hours, large student loan debts upon graduation, and credit transfers into universities.”

Hall read this aloud to the room and broke out in a laugh. “Nothing has changed!”

However, more compelling were the things that have changed in the last quarter-century. Karen Simpson held up a Canadian $1 bill that was found inside and said they probably had no idea the bill wouldn’t exist anymore [Note: Loonies went into circulation just a year after the box was sealed in the wall, and dollar bills were withdrawn from circulation in 1989].

“Heck, even the old time capsule is made from copper,” said Hall. “Which, if you broke that down now, might be worth a few pennies (pun not intended).” With the recent withdrawal of Canadian pennies from circulation, Hall says the MSA is looking for a 2012 penny to go into the new capsule, “which is apparently very difficult [to find]”.

The technology of course is light-years ahead of where it was in 1986. Cell phones, computers, and music all came to mind. Buried inside the capsule was a cassette tape with some of the year’s top hits recorded on it. Hall says

they had a hard time even finding a tape deck in the school. When they did find one and dusted it off, it didn’t even work properly.

And, of course, computers: “I mean, when you think about today, everything is on a computer,” said Hall. “Everything’s email, everything’s text, everything’s messaged through your various devices, yet there was just so much paper in the time capsule from back then.”

Simpson was pleasantly surprised to see how well preserved it all had been. Of course, now that the materials have been exposed to air and light, it’s unlikely they will maintain the same integrity for another 23 or more years.

Hall also thinks it will be a challenge to fill the new capsule; first, seeing as it is eight times the size of the old one; and second, because most of the things found in the old capsule have been replaced with digital versions. Course catalogues, websites, and a lot of their official documents are shared today via computers or hand-held devices as part of the school’s sustainability initiative.

What the current student council chooses to contribute will likely be similar to what was found inside, but much of it will be screenshots, PDFs and JPEGs of the material that is now found online; all saved on a hard drive that—fingers crossed—will still be accessible in 23 years.

As there always is when a time capsule is opened, a strong current of nostalgia repeatedly swept through the room. The look, feel, and even smell of these physical items affectively threw our minds back a quarter-century. There is a kind of warmth in aged material. But in the absence of physicality, it’s important to ask: will the nostalgia we feel in 2036 be nearly as strong?

When our digital documents are beamed up on a screen, untouched by time, will we long for the past like we did the day this capsule was opened?

Hall thinks so.

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feature story

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“Think of a photo-album,” said Hall. “When you were a kid, you used to look through everyone’s photo albums, yet now, how many people have photo albums anymore? We still get the enjoyment of flipping through a photo album but it’s different. You don’t have those big plastic pages that you’re flipping from page to page. It’s something that’s on a piece of plastic that sits in your hand. So, again, it will be nostalgic in its own way.”

The MSA is still unsure of all the things it will contribute to the new capsule, but say they have a few ideas. When walking through the construction site of the ARC, Hall and some others came across a bolt lying on the ground and decided to pick it up as a contribution. They also were hoping to include a piece of the old gymnasium floor, but at the rate it has been gutted, they think it may be too late.

Hall also intends to write a letter to his future self and future council representatives, “reiterating and re-hoping that in 25 years postsecondary education in North America is something that is a little bit more fixed, if you will”.

In case you’re wondering, the Chivas Regal Scotch was not opened. It had been coated in wax and wrapped in paper

to prevent it from getting damaged, and, despite a few tentative efforts, could not be opened by hand. The whisky, and all the original contents, will be resealed inside the original box, and then placed inside the new capsule, which they expect to open again in 2036.

As for Simpson’s predictions for the future, well, we still have 23 years to see if she had it right. In fact, her youngest son is working to become an aeronautical engineer, and her task for him is to design a Jetsons-like bubble car.

Simpson said she would like to see current predictions for the future put in the new capsule. She suggested predictions for technology, health, lifestyle, etc. “Maybe when they open it, cancer will be cured. I pray that would happen.”

A fascinating question came from executive director of the MSA, Richard Anderson, who asked, “Will [educational] buildings exist? Colleges and universities are increasingly online now, so... I don’t think students will need to physically come to a building to get educated. So, it’s going to be interesting in 25 years, how many students we’ll actually have here.”


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