Watkins Glen kindergartners crowd around the time capsule after it was placed inside a new district sign being erected near the school district offices on 12th Street.

Time capsule installed in sign

Meanwhile, 1929 items discovered

WATKINS GLEN, Sept. 27, 2014 -- With the Watkins Glen Middle School a thing of the past, the school district Friday filled a time capsule with items of the present and installed it in a place where it will presumably never be seen until deep into the future: in a new district sign being constructed in front of the district offices off of 12th Street.

The capsule ceremony took place on the lawn behind the new sign, fronting the district offices, with dozens of kindergartners present, along with teachers, Senior Class President Mikayla Elliott and school district Superintendent Tom Phillips -- who held aloft and described a number items to be placed in the screw-top capsule.

Among the items were an old cell phone; a list of "texting lingo"; a pair of soccer cleats; various newspaper pages; a new school calendar; last year's school Yearbook; a swim cap with "WG" on one side and "Glen Gators" on the other; headphones; a varsity letter ("W"); a medal from a state tournament won by wrestler Ian Chedzoy; a book written by Brian J. O'Donnell on the history of the school district from 1853-2008; a cup from Dunkin' Donuts; a couple of pennies affixed to a card with the written question "Will we still have pennies?"; a debit card; an iPod; tickets from the Glen Theater; a current issue of Time magazine; and a Watkins Glen International pamphlet.

After the items had all been displayed, Elliott and kindergartner Juliet Asperschlager placed them in the capsule, closed it, carried it over to the sign and set it into a recessed space there that was later to be covered -- securing it until sometime in the future ... a time when, Elliott surmised, people might wonder what exactly some of the items are, such as the list of texting terms and maybe even the newspaper.

She said being part of the ceremony was exciting, inasmuch as creating time capsules "is only done every so often." And she thought the inclusion of kindergartners was important, inasmuch as they mark "the beginning of a new era" -- of the single Watkins Glen campus -- while she and her class mark the end of the Middle School era.

Adding to the day was the discovery -- announced by Phillips -- of another time capsule, from 1929, created when a new high school (later the Middle School) was dedicated. The cornerstone from that school (located on Decatur Street) had been removed months ago for relocation -- to the new district sign, where it has been set in the base alongside cornerstones from 1967 (the current high school) and 2014.

When the Middle School cornerstore was removed from its original perch, there was no evidence of any time capsule. Only when workers were drilling through the stone Friday -- part of the process to secure it within the base of the new sign -- was the time capsule found: a copper container encased within the concrete.

Workers cut into it, and found various items: part of a Watkins Express newspaper; a school district letterhead with the name of School Board members on it; a couple of issues of The Pepper Pot, a quarterly student publication; and photos, including one of the construction of the then-new high school, which in time became the Middle School.

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Photos in text:

Top: Senior Mikayla Elliott and kindergartner Juliet Asperschlager fill the time capsule with various items.

Middle: A handwritten note found within the 1929 time capsule, explaining the origin of the copper receptacle in which the note was found.

Bottom: Names of the members of the 1929 Board of Education, listed on a letterhead in the old time capsule.

Left: Superintendent Tom Phillips carries the new time capsule from the district office to the ceremony. Right: Phillips holds up pages printed from The Odessa File, among the many items placed into the time capsule.

A worker secures the 1929 cornerstone into the base of the new sign.

A picture found in the 1929 time capsule, showing construction of the high school on Decatur Street following a fire that had destroyed its predecessor there. The building became the Middle School years later.

The front page of a 1929 issue of the Watkins Express, found in the 1929 time capsule. The slice on the right was inflicted when workers cut into the copper capsule that held the newspaper.