Time Capsule Unearthed. New One Buried For Opening In 2046

By Emily Weaver
Daily Record of Dunn

NEWTON GROVE, N.C. – Former Midway Middle School Raiders carefully sifted through a 2006 time capsule, examining messages their younger selves buried 20 years ago, before this year’s Raiders buried a new capsule, sending “a piece of Midway into the future” on April 28.

“Today is more than opening a time capsule, it’s reconnecting with a piece of your past and the legacy you left behind here at Midway Middle School,” Principal Nicole Peterson told a crowd of new and returning guests inside the school’s media center.

Among the audience were past and present educators, community members, students and the 2006 Raiders who set the day’s events in motion 20 years earlier. They were 13 or 14 years old, then, when they stuffed their capsule with the latest news, photos, receipts, magazines, a realty flier advertising 2006 home prices, Rainbow flip flops, a John Deere hat and a wired computer mouse. They threw in a Hillary Duff CD, a VHS tape, letters, interviews, a Midway Middle School Bible Club T-shirt and a price sticker from a 2006 Chevy Silverado truck. There was a Digital Walkman, an empty Coca-Cola bottle, a pair of men’s dress shoes, a cassette, an empty perfume bottle and a tribute to a former teacher who died a few years before the capsule was buried.

“Our mission was to get as much information as possible and get it in there. And I’ll be honest with you, I forgot what all was in there,” Monty Strickland told the crowd. The capsule was his idea 20 years ago when he was teaching social studies at Midway Middle. He is the principal of the Sampson Early College High School now, but served as club founder, then.

“Ultimately, we wanted the students to take it from A to Z. They took it from A to Y. Today is Z. We’re going to finish it today,” he said.

The capsule was an infant’s coffin donated to the school by the former Cromartie-Miller Funeral Home. They put items in plastic bags, laminated most of the photos and sealed the coffin capsule, but Strickland still wasn’t confident the items weren’t damaged.

“There was water standing out there for days during Hurricane Matthew,” he said. “So in the back of my mind, you know, I’m thinking, what if all that stuff got wet, and then we get here today and we open it up and there’s nothing in there but water? That would have been a bummer.”

Strickland couldn’t wait. He had to know. So he came out to the school before the ceremony and dug up the capsule. It was still there — along with the treasures its walls were tasked to keep.

20-year Raiders

Strickland picked a team of 17 students to make up the Time Capsule Club in 2006. Tracking them down 20 years later was a task, but he did it and most of them were in the crowd on Tuesday.

“I remember it was a memorable time,” said Brandon Williams, who was on the 2006 club and was easier than most to track down because Strickland is his uncle. “To the new students that are on the new committee here, I didn’t see myself 20 years ago coming back and being as interested or as involved as what Mr. Strickland has got me into with this. … So soak it all in. Make sure that you take some pictures.”

Williams didn’t have a cellphone when he was their age, he said, and the cellphones of 2006 couldn’t take the kind of photos they can capture in 2026. Williams remembers adding an empty cigarette pack to their time capsule.

“I was born and raised in the tobacco industry. That was something that was important to me, instilled in me from a young age, farming, the work ethic, the way of life,” he said. “That’s what that meant to me at the time. What I did not know is that cigarette pack and the North Carolina Tobacco Trust Fund, 20 years later, would take me to Brazil on an international leadership program, exploring and learning more about the tobacco industry. So you talk about a full circle moment, that was only a year ago, starting with those roots, and it taking me all the way around the world. I still work in the Ag industry, and I enjoy it every day, and it started right here.”

20-year ‘full circle’

April 28 marked a “full circle moment” for 2006 Time Capsule Club member Zack Ingram, too.

“… Twenty years ago … we didn’t expect to come back and have … the ‘feels’ like we have today, but it’s definitely a full circle moment,” he said. Ingram is now an educator and a behavior specialist with Wayne County Schools. He encouraged the 2026 student club members to “not just look at this moment as a time for presently, but look at it as a moment for the past because sometimes we do things just for the moment, just to say we were a part of it, just to say that we got it. We put it on our checklist, but when you look back at it, it’s also something that is going to be beneficial lifelong.

“… I want you to go in your life and be great and remember that you’re not just doing what you’re doing for today, but it’s going to benefit and impact the world tomorrow.”

Tuesday got Ingram thinking maybe he should do a time capsule with his students.

Brittany Bellis was another original Time Capsule Club member. She couldn’t attend the ceremony Tuesday, but asked Strickland to read a special message she crafted for students of the newest Time Capsule Club:

“20 years ago, I stood where you are now, helping create a time capsule without realizing how meaningful it could become. Looking back, I’ve learned that the moments that matter most aren’t just the ones we plan to save, but also the ordinary ones that happen every day. As you bury this new time capsule, I hope you remember to value not just what you choose to include, but also the people and experiences that are part of your everyday life. … When your capsule is opened in 20 years from now, I hope it brings those memories back in ways you don’t expect, just as remembering this past capsule has done for me.”

Another note from Strickland — this one in the capsule — shared what happened the day club members dug the first hole.

The 2006 hole diggers were Jake Best, Brandon Williams, Seth McLamb, John Smith, Zack Ingram and Robert Naylor.

“Just before completing the dig, Robert accidentally stuck the shovel into his big toe. Robert did not exactly have on steel toe shoes. He had been digging through the earth with Rainbow flip flops on. Needless to say, Robert was in pain and we all had a big scare. We didn’t know whether or not the time capsule was going to include a human toe or not. Fortunately, it was not as bad as it looked.”

Naylor was at the ceremony with all of his toes intact.

20 years to go

After completing their trip back through time, the 2006 Raiders handed the proverbial torch of time travel to their 2026 peers. Angela Turlington, an English teacher at Midway Middle, led the charge with a group of her own special students.

One of them, Gigi Jacobs, explained the process they took to freeze the present for the future.

“… What we did is we talked to each classroom, their homeroom teachers, and we had them pick a student that they thought would be a good representative and an artifact or two that they thought really represented their classroom as a whole, and something that represented the ’25-’26 school year. And we used those artifacts and put together a time capsule that would really capture what the ’25-’26 school year looks like,” she said.

Their time capsule includes class-made memes, slang terms defined, a Little Jesus, little resin duck figurines, a pair of geese (not live), a penny, a receipt of current gas prices, a Fuggler (a funny-ugly plush monster), photos and more — to be unveiled again in 20 years.

“Now, we send a piece of Midway into the future,” the principal said at an afternoon assembly. And off they walked into the future as the Raiders, past and present, stepped out to bury a new capsule paid for by the Midway Middle School cheerleaders to be unearthed in 2046.