In mid-July 2000, then U.S. President Bill Clinton welcomed the president of Israel and the head of the Palestinian Authority to Camp David for a peace summit in an effort to end strife in the Middle East.
At the same time, a group of people in the former town of Parrsboro were coming together to place a time capsule in town hall in celebration of the new millennium. A quarter century later, a few of those people came together once again to reopen the capsule at its new home in the Parrsboro Service Centre.
“It’s a real walk down memory lane,” Gleneida Canning said while watching the box containing numerous items from July 2000 be opened by Municipality of Cumberland Mayor Rod Gilroy. “The millennium committee wanted to do something special to mark the occasion and the idea of a time capsule was something that was quite popular. A lot of people participated. It was a great community project and a way to help mark the new millennium.”
Canning was a member of town council at the time and served on the millennium committee with the late mayor Doug Robinson, teachers Norma Collison and David Skidmore, Alice Patterson and April Strong.
A centrepiece of the time capsule was a small chest of letters students from Parrsboro’s schools wrote to themselves in 2000. The goal of the millennium committee was for those letters to be returned to students in July 2025 after the capsule was opened.
Collison, a teaching vice-principal at Parrsboro Elementary at the time, remembers the project as if it were yesterday.
“We were all excited about it. We got all the students to write letters to have them involved in it,” she said. “I didn’t know if we’d see it again with everything that’s gone on. I am so happy to see it again. I haven’t seen it since it was sealed.”
Collison is hoping those who wrote the letters are able to get their copies so they can learn what they wrote to themselves at the turn of the millennium.
“I remember everyone of those names. Quite a few of them are still here in the area, but sadly, some have passed away,” she said.
Along with the letters, the time capsule includes copies of the former Springhill-Parrsboro Record as well as The Citizen newspapers. There is a Class of 2000 yearbook from Parrsboro Regional High School, brochures from Parrsboro businesses – many of which are no longer around – menus from the old Stowaway restaurant as well as items from Ship’s Company Theatre and class lists from Parrsboro’s schools.
Despite some minor water damage, the box and its contents are in great shape.
“It really takes me back. It’s a once in a lifetime thing,” District 8 Coun. Marchel Strong said. “Who would’ve thought 25 years ago there’d be no newspapers here anymore. Also, feeling those envelopes that were put in the box 25 years ago is pretty special. I’d love to see some of the writers opening their letters. I imagine there’s a lot of interesting things in those letters.”
The time capsule was located in the old town hall just up the street from the service centre. Several years after the town merged with the county, the building was demolished, but the time capsule made the move to the service centre, where Betty-Anne Parris has watched over it.
“We were sure to take it with us when the old town hall office was closed,” said Parris, who went to work for the town in 1981. “We’ve been keeping an eye on it since then, knowing the time would come to open it.”
She said there is another time capsule at the service centre, but it’s not to be opened until 2089 – a century after being put together in 1989, the town’s centennial year.
The contents of the time capsule are available for viewing at the service centre and the students’ letters can also be seen there and retrieved.