Time capsule reveals Worcester students’ forgotten treasures from the year 2000 (video)

The pungent smell of murky water drifted throughout Burncoat High School’s cafeteria Wednesday morning.

The odor emanated from a concrete box that retired history teacher Jack Chiras had just opened.

The box, a time capsule, had been unearthed from the ground outside the cafeteria after being buried for 25 years. As Chiras — who taught at Burncoat from 1983 to 2003 — lifted the lid, the smell entered the room, coming from water trapped at the bottom of the box.

The smell, however, didn’t catch the audience’s attention, many of whom were teachers and students back in 2000 when their cherished items were sealed in the box for their future selves to re-discover.

What caught their attention was the capsule’s contents. Absent slips, an old public address microphone, a green Burncoat banner and pages of class attendance sheets were just some of the artifacts unveiled.

Works of art created by students 25 years ago were displayed on the tables at the front of the room. One picture featured a woman drawn in the style of Manga with a floating cat-like creature next to her. “It’s the future Scout!” the woman in the picture declares.

Another student left a prediction on what teaching would be like in 25 years.

“25 years from now the students learn from the computer with a teacher on screen, while the teacher watches students through web-interaction from their own home,” the seemingly prescient prediction reads.

1/7

The capsule contained some clothes, including a white Dunkin’ Donuts T-shirt and a Pepsi Generation Next T-shirt.

The box also contained pieces of Worcester history, including a Telegram & Gazette newspaper dated Aug. 30, 2000, and pictures remembering the Worcester 6. Six firefighters were killed in the Worcester Cold Storage and Warehouse and Co. building fire in 1999.

Back when they put treasures in the time capsules, the movies “Gladiator,” “Scary Movie,” “X-Men” and “Cast Away” were just coming out. Students were listening to Eminem, NSync, Britney Spears, Janet Jackson, Nelly and Baha Men on their Walkman. “Hanging chads” entered the lexicon when Florida ballots became the focus of the George Bush/Al Gore presidential election.

Then, of course, there was Y2K.

Chiras said the capsule was buried to commemorate the turn of the millennium. The world was worried then that a computer flaw was going to wreak havoc when computer systems flipped from 1999 to 2000.

“There was a question as to whether the Earth was going to come to an end,” Chiras said. “Computers were going to be in trouble, and it was a significant time period. So we thought it would be nice to commemorate the event with the capsule with some of the things that were at Burncoat in the year 2000.”

The world, as we know, did not end in the year 2000 and life kept moving. Now, students — some of whom were at the opening ceremony Wednesday — are 25 years older, grown-ups with jobs and families and worries beyond passing that day’s pop quiz.

The box was opened this summer thanks, in part, to retired foreign language teacher Diane Cummings, who taught at Burncoat from 1983 to 2002. Earlier this summer, she suddenly remembered the time capsule buried underneath the school.

“I remember the big hype about Y2K and all of that. That’s what triggered it (remembering),” Cummings said.

She contacted faculty members and two weeks later, they unearthed the box.

Attending the unboxing were both former faculty and alums from the Class of 2000.

Those who were there remembered their fierce rivalry with Doherty High School and how they would try to best them in several sports.

“I loved high school,” said alumna Chasity Coleman, who still lives in Worcester. “To kind of like experience it together is pretty awesome.”

While the event mostly consisted of former students and faculty, an incoming Burncoat freshman, Astrid Roman and her brother, William, an incoming senior, both saw the unboxing of the time capsule.

Astrid Roman said if she had the chance to put something in a time capsule now, it would be clothes. Her brother, however, would want to place a meme into the capsule.

“Like right now, ‘6-7’ [a popular meme] is funny,” Roman said. “In 10 years, 6-7 won’t be funny.”