EVELYN.THORN@cluthaleader.co.nz
A BLAST from the present will be buried underneath a piece of local history.
The idea of burying a time capsule was pitched by Waitahuna Railway Station owner Ailsa Rose to the pupils of Waitahuna School last year.
The capsule was completed last Thursday and is set to be buried underneath flooring during the renovation of the historic station’s goods shed, which will become a cafe once completed.
The station buildings, although on privately owned land, were historically community buildings, Ms Rose said.
Her wish was to share the completed projects with the community.
The thrust behind the idea was to keep local history preserved.
She hoped it would give the pupils the opportunity to ‘‘put their mark [on] the area’’.
‘‘The reason we wanted to involve the Waitahuna School pupils in a time capsule was that we want them to feel part of the Waitahuna Railway Station Restoration Project, and to know they are welcome and feel a sense of belonging to this place.’’
The wooden capsule contained different aspects of the children’s lives — from personal wish lists, bucket lists, life aspirations and goals, photos of themselves and their family, to recent issues of the Otago Daily Times and Clutha Leader newspapers.
Eleven-year-old Mason McLaren said he was ‘‘very excited’’ to have the chance to put his own items in the capsule.
‘‘It’ll be cool when it comes out in like 50 years or so and when they dig it up again I’ll basically be famous.
‘‘I don’t know if I’ll even remember what I put in there after that long.’’
Ms Rose said some of the pupils had long family connections with Waitahuna and future generations would benefit from seeing the history of children living in the town at the time.
‘‘We felt it might be interesting to future generations to get a glimpse into the lives of children living in Waitahuna in 2022, so we asked their teacher Mr Redington to put together a time capsule.
‘‘Some of the children have written letters to their future selves which may be very interesting for them to read when they are older.’’
It was yet to be decided when the capsule would be dug up.
