A member of The Milton Historical Society approached me shortly before Christmas and asked me to video-tape long-time local residents for showing at the upcoming “Opening of the 1957 Time Capsule.” Being a lover of all things nostalgia and amateur film making, I agreed without bothering to check my schedule and wife.

Knowing my involvement with the event, Maria Evans (Editor, TalkOfDelmarva.com, the Blog) asked me to “cover” the event for you, the BLOG readers. Again, I agreed without checking my available time.

In this time, much has happened in Milton… so here it is:

The Time Capsule Opening

When I arrived at the Milton Theatre it was already standing room only! Every seat in the place was taken and folks were milling about in the common area. There was a certain energy and excitement about the crowd. There were folks who had lived their entire lives in the area and people who had recently moved in.

Mayor Don Post did a surprisingly great job as Master of Ceremonies for the event. I saw him to be entertaining and well-spoken on the stage working without a script and dealing with some technical issues.

The announcement was made that they were about to remove the concrete top to the capsule and the standing crowd proceeded out the door to watch. Those with seats tended to stay where they were, eying the size of the crowd who had already gone out to surround the small box.

Not long after, the wooden crate which was inside the outer capsule was carried into the Milton Theater. As it passed people craned their necks to get a glimpse of the contents.

I raised my camera as high as I could getting two shots off as it passed, this one shows what would come to disappoint many in the audience..

Water Damage! Sadly, water had found its way into the capsule during its 50 year slumber, damaging much of the contents.

The good and bad news was that most of the documentation placed in the capsule was redundant! Items such as the High School Yearbook and Sesquicentennial Brochures, posters and even the banner had already been preserved by members of the community and were in better shape than the contents of the capsule!

Local business woman and member of the Milton Historical Society Ellen Passman took the stage and began a lengthy dissertation in “50’s speak” which garnered many laughs.

During the event they showed my 15 minute film of interviews about life in Milton in the 50’s by many local residents which was also a crowd pleaser.

After the show we celebrated with a reception. In all it was a great time to reflect on Milton’s past with an eye to the future as young and old shook hands and got to know each other better to the sounds of 50’s music.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 29th, 2008 at 2:45 pm and is filed under Delaware, History, Lifestyle, Milton, Pictures, Sussex County. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.