De La Warr High classmates can't recall what they buried 40 years ago -- or where they buried it

By NATE DELESLINE III / The News Journal
06/16/2005

NEW CASTLE -- Bill Coleman started by poking around in the ground with a length of rebar. Striking a hard object somewhere beneath the surface, he reached for the shovel.

"Jimmy Hoffa," he exclaimed. "We found him."

Jimmy Hoffa turned out to be nothing more than an especially large tree root and another disappointment for a small group of De La Warr High School classmates.

The group, which graduated from the New Castle school in 1965, was searching for a time capsule they had buried 40 years ago.

They poked and prodded, shoveled and chopped before finally bringing in a backhoe. Somewhere beneath the grass on the front lawn of what is now McCullough Elementary was buried a piece of history. But where was it?

"There were only six of us here when we buried it," said Coleman of Bear, president of De La Warr's class of 1965.

Coleman said a small concrete bench that marked the exact location of the capsule had been removed.

After limited success in breaking up the roots with a pickaxe, Coleman decided to use a backhoe he had towed to the school behind his pickup truck.

"I'm surprised I even remembered it," said Coleman of the capsule. "I don't even remember how deep it was."

Unwilling to further tear up the landscaping or disturb a nearby time capsule -- for which the class of 1962 had installed a marker -- Coleman and those helping him took a different tact.

Pete Leida, principal at McCullough, gave the group some old yearbooks. They dug through the books looking for a photograph that might show the bench.

A photo of the area was found in a 1972 yearbook, but no one could tell whether a bench was present. A 1976 yearbook showed what appeared to be a bench, but in the wrong location.

Coleman insisted he remembered burying it near a tree and a side door, not near the main entrance doors where the bench appears in the 1976 photo.

After two hours of work, including the use of a backhoe, the group reluctantly called off the hunt.

"Now it's become a challenge," said Pat Brannon, another class member involved in Wednesday's search.

This is not an uncommon occurrence. Thousands of time capsules are lost each year. The International Time Capsule Society, based at Oglethorpe University in Atlanta, suggests placing time capsules inside buildings whenever possible.

The society, which was formed in 1990 to promote the study of time capsules around the world, is setting up a registry of time capsules so groups can register where the capsule is and when they want it opened. The society estimates there are 10,000 capsules worldwide -- and most of those are lost.

Remembering what's in the capsule is also a problem. Secure items for time storage. Many things your committee selects will have meaning into the future. Try to have a mix of items from the sublime to the trivial. Items usually are donated. The archivist should keep an inventory of all items sealed in the time capsule.

Wilmington's Shirl Viehman, a member of De La Warr's reunion planning committee, asked the other members of the group if they remembered the contents of the capsule.

"We were trying to remember what was in there at one of our reunion meetings," she said.

All of the items in the capsule, which the group remembered as being a section of PVC pipe about 18 inches long, relate to the graduating class -- photographs, school memorabilia and miscellaneous artifacts.

The class members wanted to dig up the capsule so it could be opened during a class reunion set for Nov. 5, Viehman said.

The class of 1965 was the first class to spend all four years at the then-new high school.

Viehman said the group will meet again June 23 to decide what to do next.

Whether or not the time capsule is located, the class will meet at the Nov. 7 gathering at Cavalier Country Club at 7 p.m.

"With or without the capsule, it's a go," Brannon declared.