BILLINGS — A little sleet didn’t stop students, staff, and alumni from traveling back in time Wednesday by digging out a time capsule at Billings Senior High School from 1973.
“Senior High looks, the building is bigger, but the other things look a little smaller, I don’t know,” said Senior High 1974 graduate John Fitzgerald on Wednesday.
Fitzgerald was a junior at Senior when the time capsule was buried. He’s the one who reminded the staff at Senior of the capsule’s existence.
He was able to open the capsule with a fellow Senior High graduate. They sifted through magazines, memorabilia, and even an old phone book.
“In case you wanted to look up relatives, this, for those of you that don’t know, this is a phone book,” Fitzgerald said.
It’s the first time capsule opened at Senior High, but it won’t be the last.
“We are exchanging their time capsule for ours that will be opened in 2073 where there’s was put in at 1973,” said North Sanderson, Senior’s student council president.
And as president of the student council, it’s up to Sanderson and his team to put in memorabilia for their time capsule.
“We got one of our Senior High Bronc Nation license plates. We got a mask, kind of a sign of the times,” Sanderson said.
They’re even putting in an old iPhone to show future students what cell phones were like in 2023.
“I set a reminder on my phone for 50 years in the future to let them know that we put another time capsule in,” said Sanderson.
“What’s going to be important in 50 years for this group? That’ll be an interesting one to see what they remember of it,” Fitzgerald said.
Only time will tell how future students will react to a peek into the past 50 years from now.
