Turlock time capsules
Celebrating the city’s past and future
BY ANGELINA MARTIN Turlock Journal
Turlock residents have been able to keep up with the city’s history over the years thanks to various time capsules that have shared stories of decades past. Defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as “a container used to store for posterity a selection of objects thought to be representative of life at a particular time,” time capsules capture the curiosity of citizens both young and old by serving as valuable reminders of one generation for another. While there are between 10,000 and 15,000 time capsules worldwide that have been registered with the International Time Capsule Society, there are likely thousands of others that were created and hidden by groups, schools and other entities on a whim in an effort to preserve a moment in time — many of which have been found in Turlock. Most recently, memories and relics from 1990 were unearthed at Dutcher Middle School in September 2019. The time capsule was put together and buried by Dona Snell’s 7th grade 4th period science class on Jan. 19, 1990, when the campus was still Turlock Junior High School. The find came while crews worked to replace the campus parking lot and unearthed a treasure trove of letters, predictions, cassette tapes, Turlock Journal clippings and more. A majority of the items were somehow preserved over the years despite their only protection coming from the two coffee cans they were buried in. Dutcher principal Scott Lucas said the two cans were discovered behind the student services office, which was the school’s main office in 1990. “I brought the items to my office and started opening up stuff that wasn’t destroyed,” Lucas said, noting that the use of Ziploc bags helped save many of the contents from water damage. The cassette found in the time capsule was still functional and played songs by the group Milli Vanilli, while a list of popular shopping stores at the time showed students loved to shop at Miller’s Outpost, Macy’s, Winstock’s and JCPenney, among others. New Kids on the Block was the hottest pop act that year and “hip words” at the time included “that’s tight” and “groovy.” “In the future I think I’ll be married and have 4 kids. I want to be a doctor. It doesn’t matter what kind just as long as I help others,” wrote student Jennifer Acha. The contents of the time capsule are still at Dutcher, and former students connected and reminisced with each other when photos of the items were posted to Facebook by Turlock Unified School District. According to Lucas, anyone who was part of the project is invited to stop by the school and view the time capsule. During the City of Turlock’s centennial celebration in 2008, a time capsule buried in 1958 was opened to reveal a bonnet, items from churches and fraternal organizations, fliers from the Turlock Golden Jubilee (the event where the capsule was originally buried), a politi-
Journal file photo
Items recovered from a time capsule at Dutcher Middle School last summer included a cassette tape, predictions for the future and newspaper clippings.
Journal file photo
Journal file photo
A showtime list from Valley Cinemas, now In-Shape Health Club, shows the films that were playing at the theater in 1990.
A list written by Michelle Harrison names some of Turlock’s most popular restaurants in 1990.
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2020 8
YESTERYEARS
Journal file photo
Dutcher Middle School principal Scott Lucas holds the time capsule buried by Donna Snell’s 7th grade science class on Jan. 19, 1990.