By Wendy Sweeter,
Reporter
Deb Abbas works on opening the time capsule surrounded by former Good Samaritan employees. Photo: Wendy Sweeter
With the closure of the Good Samaritan center this summer, employees came across some old photographs in the scrapbooks.
In those photographs, they found evidence of a time capsule being buried on the north side of the building in 1990.
Administrator at the time, J. Thomas, said they buried a time capsule as part of the facility’s 30th anniversary celebration.
“It was supposed to be opened in 2010. I wasn’t here and probably nobody else knew about it so it never got found or opened. Now they started emptying the place and I thought about that time capsule. I don’t know who to call. Who do you call to tell them to look for it? Then Deb called,” Thomas said.
Thirty-nine year employee Deb Abbas found the pictures of the capsule being buried and showed it to Soukup Construction who will be taking down the building this week.
“I was here when they buried it. I don’t really remember them burying it, but I did find out about it again. It was my goal to find it,” Abbas said.
So instead of opening the time capsule at the facility’s 50th anniversary in 2010, it was opened at the center’s closure after 62 years in the community.
A PVC pipe served as the time capsule. Several past employees were on hand Sept. 24 to find out what was inside.
The first item out of the capsule was a red tote bag with Good Samaritan logo. They then found a letter written by Thomas to the people who would open the capsule. The rates for staying at the center in 1990 were also included.
It also included a list of residents and staff, along with the menu list. The capsule also contained a list of school employees and their salaries and the list of Lennox Commercial Club businesses at the time. They also found a couple of buttons, the Lennox Independent from July of 1990 and an Argus Leader. Unfortunately, much of the paper items were soaking wet.
The previous staff that were there that day reflected on their time at the facility and enjoyed looking through the items in the capsule. Before they left for the day, they walked through the building together.
“It’s sad; sad for the town and the people that worked there, the residents,” Abbas said.
Thomas, who spent 12 years there, enjoyed visiting with the employees that had come out, but acknowledged that it was sad.
“It’s kind of sad, but I guess it served its purpose,” he said.