Graduation Time Capsule

17 years ago, when my oldest child was starting kindergarten, I had a flash of brilliance.  I decided to put together a time capsule for him. The idea was to capture the world as it was at that time - 1998.  I had the thought that he might enjoy looking back on things when he graduated from college.  The intent of this time capsule was to capture a little bit of pop culture in the late '90's.  

I carefully put things together that year, and then I added other little odds and ends that came my way as he progressed through the grades.  His star of the week book from 2nd grade made it in, as did his "Projects of Excellence" from Middle School.  But by and large, after the effort of putting it together, I forgot about it.  I moved it when we moved 9 years ago, and have seen it sitting on the shelf since then, but that's it.  

I pulled it out of the closet this week to wrap it up.  I couldn't resist the allure of the box, though, so I opened it up to take a look at the contents.  Honestly, I couldn't remember what all I had stashed in there, but I really had fun looking back at what is in there!

The time capsule!  All ready to go!

For the capsule itself, I chose a sturdy tote, with a hinged lid.  It's not that much bigger than a a magazine or a standard binder.

Do you remember when Beanie Babies were all the rage?

Probably the most sobering piece of information in the entire box.

Look at those home prices!  $259,000! Just for the heck of it, I checked on the web to see the most recent value of homes in that neighborhood.  Well over $500,000.  I wish we'd been able to pull together $259,000 back in 1998 to buy that house!  Unfortunately, that kind of money would have made us house poor.

Oh yeah, the impeachment of Bill Clinton and White Water.   In light of the current presidential race, this was a timely read.  I had forgotten some of this. Hillary is married to Bill, and the controversy surrounded her, too.

 

The box itself.  There's a year end People Magazine, and an Ikea catalog in there.

 

 

  I have some toys from Mulan - they were the Happy Meal give-aways that summer.  The 3 ring binder contains some papers from Kindergarten.  Under the binder are the second grade star of the week booklet, as well as the folder containing the "Projects of Excellence" from middle school, and other various odds and ends.

I don't know if he's going to enjoy this, but I certainly have enjoyed looking back on life as it was in 1998! 

And I'm still kicking myself for not finding a way to scrape together $250,000 for a 4 BR house backing to the woods....