Group discovers necktie, earring and letters in 1982 time capsule

Times change, but sometimes not so rapidly as people think. Hair styles were “bigger” and shorts were shorter in the early 1980s than they are today, but videos haven’t changed that much.

A group of University students, faculty, staff and alumni learned that in late March 2005 when about 200 of them gathered for the unveiling the contents of a time capsule buried nearly a quarter of a century earlier.

A lead box full of papers, keepsakes and photographs reflecting how life was lived on the Northwest campus during the early ‘80s was sealed during a ceremony at the Memorial Bell Tower on April 29, 1982. Later that year, it was buried under the plaza at then-new B.D. Owens Library, and instructions were issued by the Student Senate that it not be unearthed until Northwest’s 100th anniversary of the day the state’s governor signed the bill to create the Fifth District Normal School.

That was on March 25, 1905, but because the exact anniversary date in 2005 was during spring break, the time capsule event was delayed a few days.

As Linda Borgedalen Baer, who served as Student Senate President in 1982 and 1983, pulled the items from the box, Chase Cornett, the 2005 President, placed them on an overhead enlarger for all to see. Baer was one of the students who took part in the time capsule project in 1982. Becky Claytor Simons, the senate vice president in 1982, assisted with the celebration held March 30 in The Station.

Baer and Tom Carneal, faculty emeritus of history who helped the 1982 students with the project, had additional stories to tell for virtually every item in the box.

Dr. Roger Corley’s brown and pink tie was still there and in good condition and he was there to see it again amid the chuckles of some who earlier conspired to “put it away” in the capsule. The letter from former president B.D. Owens was on top the items and, underneath, a video turned up, wrapped in plastic wrap and with a note advising the 2005 discoverers that they might have to send it to the Smithsonian for viewing.

From old stories published in the “Northwest Missourian”, Northwest’s student newspaper, many documents had been left in envelopes including an earring worn by a male student and composite photographs of several Greek organizations.

The items will be on public display on the second floor of the J.W. Jones Union during the centennial period and, meanwhile, items from 2005-06 will be selected to go into the box for reburying during Advantage in fall 2006. Its next reopening, according to the 1982 students, should not occur until Northwest celebrates its bicentennial — March 25, 2105.