Lincoln-Jackson time capsule opened Saturday

Bestella Gardner remembered the PVC-pipe time capsule near the flagpole at Lincoln-Jackson School in Clovis and remembered it was supposed to be exhumed in 2020, 25 years after its burial.

It didn't happen then, as a lot of things didn't happen, because of the COVID 19 pandemic. But on Saturday, two days after the 28th anniversary of its burial, the past was revisited.

Gardner, who had been a secretary at Lincoln-Jackson for 30 years before she retired in 2010, was among an estimated 100 people who came to watch.

The capsule produced Pogs, collectible cardboard chips decorated with cartoons or other images that were all the rage in 1995, a Super Nintendo Super NBA Basketball game cartridge, pencil and crayon boxes, and many letters and drawings inserted by mostly third and fourth graders at Lincoln-Jackson school.

The contents also included fourth-grade teacher Cliff Martin's spiral-bound teacher's planner and a copy of the Clovis News Journal of the day of the capsule's burial, April 20, 1995. The top story was about the domestic terror bombing that occurred the previous day at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, in which 168 persons lost their lives and 680 were injured.

Original owners of the items were urged to reclaim them.

There was also a letter from Kathleen Mazur, the student teacher who developed the time capsule idea in 1995, in which she expressed hope for "Joy and learning" when the objects were removed, as well as dismay about the Oklahoma City bombing.

Mazur, according to Jozlin Molette, who served as the mistress of ceremonies for the unsealing, could not be tracked down. Mazur was a New York resident who was studying at Eastern New Mexico University when she student-taught at Lincoln-Jackson, Molette said, and her last known address was somewhere in Florida.

A few items were claimed, but others were left on tables, especially stacks of artwork and writing assignments.

As he paged through his old lesson planner, Martin said he had taught from 1990 to 2001, when he retired.

He noted the planner has largely been replaced by computer documents and online procedures.

Asked what the most significant changes were since 1995, he said he didn't know, but teaching and students had changed so much over the past 25 years that he said, "I wouldn't want to be a teacher now."

Another teacher from that time, Melissa Romero, was paging through samples of student work when she was asked about changes over 25 years.

"There have been changes in family ties and support for education," she said, and the changes were "not good."

"We need to go back to that time when we had better values," she said.

Earlier, Romero had presented a history of Lincoln-Jackson school to the assembly, noting that in 1995 it was an elementary school whose enrollment was 75% Hispanic and 25% Black, according to Mazur's letter. Today it has become the "I Academy," serving students who need an alternative setting for learning from second grade through grade 12.

Lucio Marin, who was a Lincoln-Jackson student in 1995, remembered the day the time capsule was buried, and just observed, "We've all gotten older and there's a new generation coming, but it's the same school and our memories are still the same."

Danny Sample, another student from 1995 at Lincoln Jackson, said "teaching has changed, and Clovis is different. Clovis used to be the place to be, and it's so different now. The Clovis community used to be tighter," he said.

Sample said his contributions to the time capsule included some Pogs, and he showed a picture he drew for the capsule of what he said was his grave.

"I was saving that in case I was alive in 25 years," he said.

He carries fond memories of his teachers and others from that time, he added.

Roberta Jauregui was already advanced out of Lincoln Jackson in 1995, but she said the school has changed for the better.

"In every way, it's better," she said. "There are smaller classes and it caters to kids who are outside the box."

Marin brought two children to the event.

His son, Noah Marin, 12, said if he were to choose items for a time capsule today, he would choose a single piano key or a harmonica, reflecting his interest in music, plus a tune or two from today. He said he's partial to Snoop Dogg, a rap artist.

Noah's sister Zoey Marin, 10, said she'd put in some of her drawings, because she is interested in drawing, and maybe a stuffed animal.

As the Time Capsule Reveal event was drawing to a close, Cliff Martin looked at Bestella Gardner and said. "Good morning."

He explained that when he would report in for work in 1995 and say nothing, he'd hear Gardner's voice saying, "Come back here."

She would not let him go further, he said, until he told Gardner, "Good morning."