AMESBURY — In 1986, Cashman School teacher Ginny Hatch gave her social studies class of about 25 students an assignment. They were going to make and bury a time capsule.
The plan was to gather again in 2010 to dig up the box and open it.
They are two years shy of that goal, but members of that fifth-grade class will meet next Thursday, Aug. 7, at 9 a.m. at the Cashman School to open the capsule.
The ceremony coincides with the 15-year high school reunion of those students — Amesbury High's Class of 1993 — who are now in their mid-30s.
"I can't wait to see it," Kristen Dore said yesterday.
Dore and several classmates, including Josh Huston, have been organizing and planning the ceremony. About a dozen members of the class have confirmed that they will attend — including one classmate who now lives in California and another who lives in Sweden. Both had already planned vacations back to Massachusetts for next week.
Current Cashman Principal Peter Hoyt, along with a former Cashman teacher, Mike Carroll, and the principal in 1986, Dr. Victor Atkins, will also attend. Hatch died in 1999.
Huston said the class was separated into groups to choose artifacts to put in the capsule. One of the groups was assigned to determine where the capsule should be buried — something that remained a secret from the rest of the class so no one could go and dig it up before the set time.
Unfortunately, during the Cashman School renovation a few years ago, the capsule was unearthed. It has since been kept in Hoyt's office.
Some students put personal belongings in the capsule — fluorescent hair ribbons, Garbage Pail Kids cards, a videotape of the Super Bowl. Other items were meant to reflect that era — a Boston Celtics team picture, a "Berry the Bears" T-shirt (a reference to that year's Super Bowl, when the Chicago Bears buried the Patriots, 46-10) and laminated newspaper articles from that year — including a report on the Challenger disaster.
"I don't even remember what I put in it myself," Huston said.
Once the capsule is opened, the belongings will be put on display at the Cashman School.
Members of the class keep in touch. Several still live in town and others live in Massachusetts or New Hampshire.
Huston started a Web page for the class via Google, where they can reconnect and chat online. A big topic of discussion in recent days has been the capsule and when it will be opened.
"I had actually thought about it quite a bit," Huston said.
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