Many people awaiting letters and messages from The World’s Largest Time Capsule will receive items and words they have not seen before and perhaps messages sent before they were even born.
But Milford High School’s Class of 1980 contributed a unique item to the time capsule and know in general what they will be getting back.
It is a scrapbook they created in seventh grade, and they have a list of items included from a 1975 Milford Times article. At some point they will get together and be able to review the contents together because there are bound to be some surprising comments and observations in there.
But for now, they have been remembering the circumstances that led them to create the scrapbook.
Alum Donna (Kunert) Winston, who has worked as a para-educator for many years near Nashville, Tennessee, remembers their seventh grade teacher Julia Jantzi in 1975.
Jantzi, who died in 2008, taught junior and senior high school at Milford for seven years and was Nebraska’s Teacher of the Year in 1976 and recognized as a Nebraska Young Woman of the Year in a national program organized by an association of women’s organizations.
After teaching at Milford, she became a professor at Concordia College in Seward.
Before her death, she served as director of faculty for the Center for Adult and Professional Studies at Azusa Pacific University near Los Angeles.
Winston remembers Jantzi had a knack for finding teachable moments with her students, like when she took them on a bus trip on county roads to learn about soil conservation methods.
She also remembers them going to visit Harold “Budd” Davisson to learn all about the time capsule he was building.
As documented in a 1975 Milford Times article, Jantzi’s class put some thought and discussion into how they would contribute to this effort to tell people in 2025 about life 50 years before.
Among the items packed away were:
• A copy of MAD Magazine and a photo of a Midget football from Chuck Stabenow
• A picture depicting 1975 fashion trends and popular items created by Winston.
• A list of current prices on common items and a piece of Double Bubble Bubble Gum from Wesley Roth.
• A poem by Marilyn Woebbecke.
• License plates from Joel Ficke.
• An article about the Omaha tornado from Cheryl Matous
• A Milford Times article about Doyle Hostetler having the best-looking eyes in the class.
• A list of KLMS Radio’s top songs
• Someone’s first-grade report card
• Pennies
• Photos of parents, pets and themselves from other class members.
The class, Winston said, remains unusually close knit and gathers for a reunion every five years.
Winston’s parents managed the Riverside Church Camp near Milford after they moved to the Seward County in 1974, so she joined the Class of 1980 in junior high and she has made the trip back to Nebraska.
Others came a distance for the reunion also. Stabenow came from Arizona, Rick Salzman came from Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Mark Floyd came from Columbus, Indiana.
But their well-remembered trip to visit Harold “Budd” Davisson’s time capsule project – and the scrapbook they made for it back in 1975 – brought them back to Seward County 50 years later, 45 years after graduation.
“This was something I really wanted to do,” Winston said. “I knew the class had a connection.”
About 30 class members gathered in Lincoln to reminisce on July 3, and about a dozen gathered at the Seward home of Donna’s cousin, Cheryl Wambold, for lunch and a walk to the now-opened World’s Largest Time Capsule to see if their scrapbook survived its 50-year hibernation.
To no one’s surprise, it seems to have come through the years of underground storage in relatively good shape because Jantzi wrapped it in butcher paper, then plastic, then taped and tied it snugly. The package – as of July 4 still unopened – is intact albeit a little dusty with faded handwriting identifying it.
Davisson’s daughter, Trish Johnson, and a crew of staff and friends will be sorting through all the World’s Largest Time Capsule items, as well as the claims people have filed for things they submitted or they believe may have been submitted for them.
As of July 5, nearly 200 claim cards had been filed at the time capsule and more have been filed online.
Winston was not yet sure how the class would go through it when it is received, but they have approached Milford’s Webermeier Memorial Library to see if it could be displayed there.
