Whelp, after February's unboxing post, I decided now was the perfect time to dive in with another adventure into an unknown treasure. It's the great unboxing post part two, y'all!
This magical journey in the time machine involves the opening of a time capsule, once securely sealed in the sixth grade (I'll let you guess the year).
Out of respect to you, the reader, I will admit this capsule has not remained sealed all these years. At some point, likely in my late teens, I added a few items from my high school years. And it was opened three years ago when it was discovered by my nieces and nephew as they explored the lost toys of my youth.
So, in opening this blast from the past, I had a vague recollection of what glorious items I deemed necessary for future generations to discover. In the end, however, moments of casting quizzical looks to the sky took over in asking "Jason, what were you thinking?"
Collection of nostalgia
Lid off, my first grab is a handful of ribbons from Track & Field Day. This day was always a favorite of mine in those elementary years, and I suppose I have the ribbons to prove. Can I tell you what events I won, placed, or showed in? Nope. Egg tossing? Maybe. Potato sack race? Your guess is as good as mine. 100-yard dash? Doubtful but possible, in any given year.
Other items are fairly standard. A school photo from that year. A $2.50 general admission ticket to a San Francisco Giants game against the St. Louis Cardinals at Candlestick Park. (Where I recall my first real taste of a heckler, in which a Giants fan yelled out, singing to Vince Coleman, "What's a matter with Coleman? He's a bum!"
Throw in a bookmark that reads "Save the Earth" and we're all set.
Into the next round, things get interesting.
We start off normal, with ten carefully selected baseball cards. I say "carefully" but I couldn't tell you one way or another how I selected these players. In the grand scheme of things, I probably held secret wishes they'd worth be millions of dollars. Ken Griffey Jr., Nolan Ryan, Orel Hershiser, and Kevin Mitchell are among these cards. A couple of spectacular careers and a couple of decent careers represented in that sample but I doubt they will net me enough money to send me into retirement.
A golf ball, tee, and single dice represent a nice mix of my love of golf and shooting dice. Okay. I don't love either of those things but I did enjoy playing golf back then. And board games were a passion.
The coolest thing is a pair of Kool-Aid™ sunglasses, which I scrimped and saved Kool-Aid™ points to send away for those bad boys. Just waiting for them to come back in style...
For an inexplicable reason known only to 12-year-old me, this time capsule included Starburst wrappers. Those, too, are likely worth a million dollars.
With the next batch, I find two pieces of folded notebook paper. My first thought is that these are notes saved from classmates (which, somewhere, I believe I still have a box of notes and letter saved from those years. That will be an interesting unboxing post). Nope, these pages I filled out myself.
The first is a one-page bio, with a baby photo taped in the bottom right corner. The second fills up approximately lines, in which I proclaim I want to be an archeologist or a basketball player when I grow up. Prophecy not fulfilled, so I moved onto the final items.
Newspaper clipping and the random high school items
One of the final items from that sixth-grade year I'll speak about is a newspaper clipping, in which I was captured in a photo by the Elko Daily Free Press at a Elko High School basketball game.
Many of us in this photo, plus I am guessing a few outside the frame, ended up playing on this very court in high school. Though, for myself and at least two others, we arrived as the visiting team, thanks to a splitting up of the school population after my eighth-grade year. (*Note, I am unsure if Elko High still uses this specific mascot costume. Their mascot remains the Indians, with the county voting in 2022 to keep the name, with the backing of a resolution from the Te-Moak Tribe of Western Shoshone. A resolution stipulation does read, in part, "The Te-Moak Tribal Council hereby approves the Elko County School District request to retain the name ‘Indians’ as their Elko High School mascot as long as all terms agreed to are kept and that all and any future stereotypes, derogatory, and offensive symbols and materials shall be removed and an the Educational Curriculum of the Native Americans History shall be incorporated within the School American History Curriculum.")
In finishing out this great unboxing, there were few items saved throughout high school. Impatience at keeping the capsule closed for 20 years got the best of me as I grew. I added a small stuffed animal (won at Circus Circus in Reno, on a trip for FBLA), 3D glasses used on a motion ride from that same trip, a necklace, and my senior picture to the collection. Specific events and memories are tied to each item in this last batch, except for the necklace. Perhaps that answer will arrive in my dreams.
Did I find what I expected in this time capsule? Sure. Not all of it made sense and not all of it was perfect but that's who I was at 12 years old. There was no grand secret to be unearthed or spectacular revelation to behold. However, the items found provided a direct line to the past and, if anything, a reminder that a little quirkiness is good for the soul.
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