Nostalgia and excitement: Time capsule from 1976 reveals Mt. Pleasant’s past
Time capsule from 1976 reveals Mt. Pleasant’s past
Anticipation swelled as Mt. Pleasant Township employees Brian Shuman and James Hritz gently raised a granite slab to reveal a metal box buried beneath the lobby floor in the township’s municipal building in Hickory nearly 50 years ago.
“We’re going to find out what’s in there just like everyone,” said Shane Maga, who is chairman of the township’s board of supervisors.
Maga had just turned 1-year-old when Mt. Pleasant officials and residents collected various items and documents from the township to be buried in a time capsule that was sealed following a picnic celebration on Oct. 10, 1976 with the explicit instructions that it not be re-opened until America’s 250th celebration this year.
Maga had heard rumors of what was inside, such as family heirlooms, locks of hair and maybe even an old bottle of whiskey.
Sally Brown-Pawlosky was a 26-year-old school teacher back then and on the committee deciding what to place into the capsule and, more consequential, when to open it. She said some members wanted to wait a century to unearth it, but she suggested 50 years so some who witnessed its burial might still be alive, along with recent descendents of those who had passed.
“Relatives and family members could look in and relate to the (items) in there,” Brown-Pawlosky said. “And it would bring the community together.”
And bring the community together it did as more than a hundred people gathered outside the township building Saturday morning to watch the heavy metal box the size of a 1970s portable black and white television get pulled up from its resting place for the last 50 years. As Shuman, Hritz and Maga carefully unscrewed the metal lid and removed a rubber protective gasket, a whiff of cold air from the box greeted them for the big reveal.
“Oh wow!” Maga exclaimed. “Lot’s of stuff in there.”
The first item to see sunshine since 1976 was a book from then state senator. Austin Murphy, who won election to Congress a month after the capsule was buried and served nine terms. Murphy died in 2024 at age 96.
Soon came a flow of letters from students, newspaper front pages celebrating the bicentennial and a pin from state transportation officials promising “Better Roads,” which brought a hearty laugh from the crowd. Maga and others carefully pulled out each item from the capsule and showcased it for the crowd while reading the text for those seated under canopies outside the township building.
Most of the contents were obvious throwbacks from the past, such as a bicentennial flag, Polaroid photos of the time capsule’s planning committee, a 1976 primary election return sheet and a phone book. And then Maga grabbed a manilla envelope with the written warning of “parental discretion advised,” prompting him to gently pull the top of a magazine out so the crowd could take a peek at the title of “Playboy” before he wisely slipped it back into its protective covering.
Other relics included a property tax bill for a ranch-style house and one-car garage that would’ve run the homeowner a whopping $38.83. Maga said the average township property tax bill today runs about $578. The township supervisors back then also included their 1975 spending plan that racked up a $42,000 operating budget, compared to today’s $2 million general fund.
Brown-Pawlosky and her then boyfriend and now husband, Anthony, snipped locks of hair from each other and placed them inside a letter they wrote to their future selves where they acknowledged the aging process in which “we’ll see them again when brown has spun to silver.”
Then came out a sealed bottle of Old Grandpappy’s whiskey with a price tag of $9.06.
“And it’s still good!” someone in the crowd shouted.
Maga said they might auction it off during the Hickory Apple Festival to raise money for the event or a charity.
A prepared speech that state representative John Brunner of the 46th House District delivered to the crowd gathered for the picnic celebration 50 years ago seemed to predict the future. He wrote about how the advancements of technology would make the world smaller and likely bring societal changes, and he predicted it would make neighbors out of people living a continent away.
“Boy, was he right,” Maga said. “What well spoken words 50 years ago. I think he predicted a lot of the future in that letter.”
Township Parks and Chair Committee Vice Chair Maria Cuccaro, who helped dig through the items with Maga, said it was an amazing experience to “see the nostalgia and excitement of the people who were here 50 years ago.” Melina Robinson, who is secretary for parks and rec, agreed, pointing to how the community “came together” to view the past and bring “donations for the next one.”
All of yesterday’s relics were carefully displayed on a table for the community to enjoy, next to a similar table of today’s items that will be placed in a new time capsule. In it will be letters from township officials, patches from emergency responders, a sealed jar of apple butter paying homage to the Hickory Apple Festival and a red hat with the words MAGA emblazoned above the bill in honor of President Trump, although future generations might wonder whether it was embroidered for the township’s board chairman in 2026. At the end, a group photo of many people in attendance so it can be placed in the time capsule for people to see who attended Saturday’s event.
Maga said the community will have another two weeks to submit items for the new time capsule, and he asked students in the Fort Cherry School District to write letters for their future selves to read, just as children from 1976 had done before.
“Hopefully we get the young people back here in 50 years, because most of us won’t be here,” Maga said of when the next time capsule is opened for America’s tricentennial in 2076.
After more than an hour of revealing the box’s contents, township workers placed a plywood board over the gaping hole where it was stored for 50 years and threw a couple of runners over it to obscure it from view while it waits for a new time capsule of today’s trinkets to be placed inside for the next generation to unveil.