A recent discovery by members of the First Presbyterian Church of Santa Barbara has brought back a flood of 1990s nostalgia – a time capsule hidden behind a bathroom wall.
“Last Friday, our church business administrator, she's been cleaning out some files, and she found a folder about the time capsule, and it gave instructions to lead her to the time capsule and how to open it,” explained Pastor Ann Conklin. “It was very exciting to discover this time capsule that was put there in 1999 when our Christian Fellowship Center was built. It was intended to be opened 25 years later, but we didn't discover the documentation until 26 years later, just last week.”
“I had the honor of opening it and showing the contents to the members after church last Sunday,” said Jeffrey Long, longtime church member. “It was just a really wonderful vibe. We've all seen openings of artifacts and stuff like that, but to be part of, to be witness to something like that was hard to describe until you see it.”
The time capsule included cassettes, VHS tapes, pictures, letters, sheet music, and other mementos.
"It was wonderful to just see the reactions on their faces of the church directories and some of the pictures and some of the music that the choir has sung or they have sung as a congregation, so it was just wonderful to see their treasured memories of that particular time in the church's history,” Pastor Conklin said. “I think it's just a reminder to treasure our history, even as we look towards the future.”
