Terry Crabb has waited 50 years for this moment. She was an 8-year-old student at Vernon’s Northeast School when the district buried a massive cement sarcophagus containing letters, drawings and a range of paraphernalia to capture life in their present day — the year 1976. The occasion was t he bicentennial, and the vault was a time capsule, destined to be opened for the nation’s 250th birthday. Crabb recalls her grandfather, with whom she lived at the time, telling her how exciting it would be to unearth the vault in distant 2026. “My grandfather put it all in my head and heart that this would be great in the future,” Crabb recalled. But institutional memory didn’t last as long as hers, and by the time 2026 rolled around, the time capsule’s existence — not to mention its precise location — was not well known within the district itself. Crabb was one of a handful of former students who pushed for the district to track it down and dig it up. The new principal of Northeast School, Melissa Ross, was fully on board. “It all started with one photograph … students sitting with American flags out on the school grounds,” Ross said. It wasn’t much to go on. The photo had a clear landmark — a flagpole — but it had been moved several yards away in the intervening years. And the dimensions of the vault, which was big enough to hold a coffin and weighed around 800 lbs., meant removing it from its resting place would be far from trivial. The ensuing treasure hunt took Ross and her team deep into the school’s records. “We said, there are so many things archived … there’s gotta be something,” Ross recalled. The sarcophagus sits outside the Northeast School, only feet away from where it was unearthed. Credit: Julia Levine / CT Mirror A metal plate on the sarcophagus shattered as it was dug up at the Northeast School. Only a small piece remains. Credit: Julia Levine / CT Mirror Current principal Melissa Ross points to a photo of Northeast School principal in 1976, Joseph Bellis. The school’s custodian used photos showing the burial to locate the sarcophagus. Credit: Julia Levine / CT Mirror It was the night custodian who finally found the clue that cracked the case. It came in the form of more faded old photographs: of the burial on June 14, 1976; the groundbreaking; speeches; students posing in front of the vault; and the equipment lowering it into the ground. With these images, Ross said, they were able to triangulate where they thought the vault must be buried. With a pretty good idea of the coordinates, the school brought in the local cemetery team to help dig it up. Ross said they missed it by a few feet on the first attempt but found it on the second. To the dismay of some former students, the school opted to break open the silicon seal and remove the objects before the public unveiling. Ross explained that there were some safety concerns, and everything needed to be archived and dried out. Christina and Melissa Dombek, sisters and previous students at Northeast School, recognize their first grade teacher, Maggie Clayton. Both Dombek sisters now work as teachers in Connecticut. Credit: Julia Levine / CT Mirror Nevertheless, the open house — which the school organized for June 15, exactly 50 years and one day after the 1976 burial — was well-attended. As local residents of all ages poured into the Northeast School gym, the school employees ran out of sign-in paper and had to track down more. Even Vernon’s Congressional representative, Joe Courtney, made an appearance. On display were piles of handwritten essays from students and teachers, each a page long and some with light water damage, many addressed to a “child of the future” or simply “digger.” There were also drawings, many of them self-portraits, and a number of other historical odds and ends, including a magazine featuring a young Henry Winkler at the height of The Fonz’s popularity. The local historical society also brought out other artifacts from the town’s history, including a wooden school desk from 1890 that would have been bolted to the floor when it was in use. Items in the time capsule include toys, maps, and musical programs from Vernon elementary schools. Credit: Julia Levine / CT Mirror Much has left its mark on America in the decades since the artifacts were interred: Reaganomics, the end of the Cold War, welfare reform, the dawn of the personal computer, the internet, the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, the global financial crisis and a pandemic. But for many of the former students gathered Monday night, reflections turned not toward these heady historical shifts, but to the day 50 years ago in June when the town of Vernon celebrated the nation’s 200th birthday. “I remember this was the year we painted everything in town red, white and blue,” recalled former Northeast student Cheryl King as she stood by the unearthed vault, itself bearing the faded colors of the flag. Former Northeast student Steve Spillane said there was a lot of preparation for the bicentennial that spring. Current fourth grader at Northeast School Zeo Brennan, right, explores time capsule items with Lisa Brennan, left, and Laurie Orzechowski, middle. Credit: Julia Levine / CT Mirror “We did all sorts of arts and crafts and projects. I remember we made pillows, like, stitched pillows that were on display,” Spillane said. “And mostly what I can picture in second grade is being out front of exactly the spot where [the vault] was going in.” Crabb, now a grandmother, said childhood itself has changed a great deal since that time. “It was a simple life. … Our games were simple. [Today,] everything’s phones, electronic,” Crabb said. “We had to go outside in the morning and play all day. Ride our bikes.” Her view was shared by current Northeast fourth grader Amaan Ghotra. In 1976, kids could “actually go on their bikes … Now, we gotta ask our mom to do that,” Ghotra said. The cause, the fourth grader declared, was the presence today of “HOA Karens patrolling the neighborhood.” Fourth graders Zachery Anderson (left) and Amaan Ghotra (right) speak with principal of Northeast School, Melissa Ross. Credit: Julia Levine / CT Mirror Ross, finding her students in the midst of an interview, asked Ghotra if he thought kids 50 years from now would still know what an “HOA Karen” was. “No, but they will know what an HOA was,” Ghotra said. Ghotra’s best friend, fellow fourth grader Zachery Anderson, was struck by the fact that many of the essays were written in cursive, and by how much rust was on some of the paper — an apparent consequence of water damaging the staples. The two said they hoped to participate in a new time capsule in the fall after they start fifth grade. ...read more read less