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Digging up the past
By LORRI HELFAND, Times Staff Writer
CLEARWATER -- Ronald Reagan was president, Dallas was the No. 1 TV show, and Michael Jackson won a Grammy for Beat It. It was 1983, and Glenda Berman's gifted class at Kennedy Middle School decided to bury a time capsule stuffed with items that represented teenage America. They had plans of digging it up 20 years later, but some folks working at Clearwater's Water Treatment Plant beat them to it. A few months ago, workers came across a rusty 30-gallon garbage pail. A label on the lid identified it as a time capsule from the class of 1983. They called the school, and a few days later they brought it across the street to school secretary Frances Wallace, who had it moved to a campus storage room. Wallace contacted Berman, who is now a teacher in the gifted program at Fuguitt Elementary School, to tell her the news. Berman and Kennedy Middle teacher Sharon Frunzi planned a ceremony to open the capsule. On Friday, the wait was over. The educators turned the ceremony into a teaching opportunity. Linda Renz came on board and asked her gifted class of sixth-graders to research the events and culture of 1983 and make predictions about what might be inside the capsule. Jacob Crabtree, 12, thought they might find a picture of Reagan or a novel product called the Post-it Note. And James DaFonte, 11, guessed there would be a University of Miami football jersey because its football team won the national championship that year, or a map of Dallas because the show Dallas was so popular. Berman wanted to invite her former students, but she had a hard time tracking them down. Most were in their 30s by now, and many had moved away. Berman was able to wrangle up some former teachers and Erin Burnosky, a student in her gifted class of 1993, which also buried a time capsule. For Friday's ceremony, the children at Kennedy Middle crowded onto the front steps to watch. A couple of band students tapped out a drum roll, as Berman struggled to crack the the lid of the can, which was bonded with wire tape. She pulled out a small plastic garbage bag and ripped it apart to find another plastic bag. Inside that bag were about 25 soggy, muddy bags. The students were surprised by what they saw. Berman first pulled out a plastic baggie with a postcard featuring modern art inside. Next, she discovered a crusty can of Mello Yello and a handwritten biography of Andy Warhol on green-stained notebook paper. Burnosky, 23, pitched in to help her. And Wallace came to their aid with latex gloves to shield them from the slime. "It's interesting to see what they put in there," said Dimitra Mantzaris, 11. Even though it's "wet and gross." she added. Berman also found a sweet-and-sour chicken TV dinner and a couple of textbooks that were on the mushy side. Plus other goodies, like a Rubik's Cube, Jiffy Pop popcorn, lime gelatin, a pocket dictionary, a TV guide, a microchip, a credit card, an Atari instructions manual and a Tampa Bay Buccaneers T-shirt. Some folks were intrigued by one or two items in particular. "It's intersting to see what kids put in 20 years ago," said Dave Byers, a former American history teacher at Kennedy Middle, who attended the ceremony. "The most interesting thing of all is the old Bucs T-shirt with the old logo." Berman was tickled by an article with a cutline "Education? Fun? What in the World Will Our Children Do With a Computer?" Berman and her students had buried several time capsules over the years. But this one is the first one she buried and the first one she has opened. "We need the past to see how we're going to understand the present and see how to proceed in the future," Berman said of the exercise. Burnosky, who now lives in Holiday, sees the event as an early class reunion. "I can't wait until ours," she said. Her class will open its capsule on its 10-year anniversary on May 24. For details, call Burnosky at (727) 410-2260.
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