Buried 25 years ago

BRIDGEPORT – A familiar quotation states: “There is no time like the present,” but in the case of Bridgeport Elementary School, one might say “There is no present like the time.”

That “time,” 25 years ago, was revisited when a time capsule was unearthed last Friday, Sept. 14, in the presence of Bridgeport Elementary students gathered at the site of the Mega-Mansion playground. Mega-Mansion, an extensive and elaborate wooden playground funded and built 25 years ago by parents and community volunteers, is being dismantled at the conclusion of its useful life.

When the playground was first built, Bridgeport Elementary students gathered class photos, newspaper clippings, art work, letters, mementos, and other memorabilia that was then sealed in a section of large PVC pipe and buried in the playground.

As the students watched, Mario Martinez Sr., along with Mario, Jr., who was a Bridgeport kindergarten student the year the capsule was buried, set to work with shovels. To shouts and applause from the crowd, the two soon uncovered the large section of white pipe with sealed caps on both ends. With the aid of a rip saw, the end cap was removed, and the capsule’s contents revealed for the first time in a quarter century.

Bridgeport school superintendent Scott Sattler explained the history of the Mega-Mansion to the assembled students and displayed many of the capsule’s contents, occasionally acknowledging a teacher in the crowd, like Mrs. Buckingham who was on the staff when the capsule was buried 25 years ago.

Sattler said the contents of the capsule will be mounted on a display and should be ready for its public debut within a week.

New construction will increase the capacity of the elementary school on the site of the old playground, and Sattler told the students he is working hard to replace the aging wooden icon with a new playground at an adjacent site when the school addition is completed.

Sattler said a contractor will begin work in October and that, despite cost increases caused by the delayed approval of the state’s capital budget, the project is still on track to build the same square footage.

Near the conclusion of the capsule-opening ceremony, a student approached Sattler to suggest that a second time capsule be assembled and buried when the new playground is complete.