Crack. Twist. Hard pull.
To whomever finds this, Mom made us use the word whomever. It’s January 1, 1962. John F. Kennedy is president. Mom made us put that part in, too. We are Sam and Erin Jakes. This is our time capsule. We hope you find it 100 years from now. We aren’t famous or anything. So here’s just some stuff in our life right now…
Today’s newspaper. Sorry it’s kind of wrinkled. Dad wouldn’t let it go until he read the whole thing.
Erin’s Barbie, the one that’s missing some hair and a leg.
Erin’s other Barbie, the one with both legs so the other one won’t be alone.
Brownie’s old collar cause she just got a new one.
A couple leaves from the climbing tree in the backyard so if it’s gone maybe you can plant a new one.
My old shoelaces… still pretty good.
A little gutter water from in front of our house. It has a lot of weird stuff in it you can see in a microscope.
A cigarette I snuck from Dad’s pack
Some matches in case you wanna try a cigarette from 1962.
A dried out squashed frog I found in the street the other day.
A picture of me and Erin at the beach last year.
I don’t know where I will be in 100 years, but you can visit Erin at Foreat Lawn in the garden area. She’ll be there. There’s a pond and lots of ducks. Maybe they will still be there in 100 years. If you go, take some old bread for them, and flowers for Erin. That’s what we do.
Wow. I was reading along, thinking how genuine this seemed, and funny in realistic way, when the next-to-last line brought me up short. Very moving.
This is so moving. I agree with sheilas above, the last stanza really brought it home–I had to go back and read the things that were left in the capsule again. What a different feeling it was to read the second time about the companion Barbie, imagining afterward how treasured both of those would have been.