Sunday, February 27, 2000

Curious city cracks open time capsule

John Kennedy/Caller-Times

Tom Niskala displays some of the items, which include reports and predictions, from a 25-year old time capsule that was recently opened.

Men no longer wear $35 polyester suits, and Woolco long ago closed its doors to local customers.
   "(But) the more things have changed, the more things have stayed the same," says Tom Niskala, chief executive officer of the Corpus Christi Chamber of Commerce.
   Niskala made the observation after receiving the contents of a time capsule the chamber stored 25 years ago at Corpus Christi Savings and Loan.
   The time capsule had remained undisturbed in a bank vault since 1975 until this month when Corpus Christi Bank and Trust assumed the building and began remodeling work. Among the items found in the time capsule were an April 12, 1975, edition of the Corpus Christi Caller as well as letters written by community leaders, who offered their predictions about the city's state of affairs at the eve of a new millennium.
   Timeless concerns
   Not surprisingly, some of the public concerns a quarter century ago remain topics of discussion.
   "(Then City Manager) Marvin Townsend worried that the city didn't have enough money," Niskala said of the headlines that dominated the day in 1975. "Now it's (City Manager) David Garcia in the same boat.
   "The city worried that it didn't have the airline service it needed and the topic of airline service is as crucial today. Teachers in 1975 were receiving a modest pay raise and here we are still trying to catch up and get teachers the money they deserve."
   Lettered predictions
   The time capsule included letters from Ruben Bonilla Jr., then League of United Latin American Citizens Council No. 1 president, who envisioned "the complete turnabout of our presently segregated school system" and the growth of Texas A&I University at Corpus Christi, now Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi.
   C. Ivan Wilson, then president of the Corpus Christi Chamber of Commerce, wrote that the "issue of the races will be a thing of the past, for our two major ethnic groups, Anglo and Mexican-American, will have long been merged" and that "our downtown area will be completely reoriented."
   And then-Chief of Naval Air Training W.L. McDonald predicted a growing dependence on computers and that the Navy would play a more vital role in the nation's defense.
   Curious finds
   Also in the time capsule: a Corpus Christi-Robstown transit study and reports from the Coastal Bend Council of Governments on a variety of topics, including regional wastewater management. The items were found sealed inside a stainless steel enclosure placed inside a concrete box, said Jim Winton, executive vice president of Corpus Christi Bank and Trust. The outer box bore a plaque designating that it be opened in the year 2000. Bank and Trust officials, Winton said, decided to crack it open and not until they opened it did they realize what they had come across.
   Other items in the time capsule, however, remain a mystery, like the 16-millimeter projector reels that are so outdated that Niskala has been unable to find the necessary equipment to play them.
   "We haven't a clue as to what they contain," Niskala said. "There was no notation along with them, and my curiosity has definitely been piqued."
   To view the time capsule items
   Time capsule items will remain on public display at the Chamber of Commerce until its membership decides whether to reseal the capsule for another 25 years with items pertaining to 2000. Members will vote next week. To contribute ideas for the time capsule, call 881-1800.
  
 

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