The Fourth of July back in 1975 felt like any other Independence Day for the new couple Kathy and Steve Hartman. Having been dating for roughly a year by that point, the couple spent the day together, hanging out with friends, lighting fireworks and doing whatever else the teenagers could get their hands on.
But, unlike other days in the Fourth of July City, Kathy and Steve had the opportunity to put their letters in Seward’s time capsule - the largest in the world.
Leading up to that day, Kathy said she remembers people in Seward High School and around the community talking about the impact it might have, but never considered it to be a staple outside of the community.
“People were excited to put things in and discuss where would they all be in 50 years and would they be alive to see it opened, and it was just cool,” she said. “I don't think anybody knew at that time it was going to be the world's largest. That never even crossed my mind."
The original time capsule, built 50 years ago by Harold Davisson, contains items from a different era – a Chevy Vega, a motorcycle and even a baby blue suit with embroidered flowers. However, it also holds more personal items: letters from hundreds of Seward residents.
Trish Johnson, the daughter of Harold Davisson, now manages the capsule and prepared it months in advance for its reopening.
“I am now older than my dad was when he did the capsule, and that's a shock to me,” Johnson said. “I understand now what he was trying to do."
The time capsule’s reopening also had Johnson looking inward, remembering her father much like how other Seward residents are remembering their loved ones who left items in the capsule.
“He was raised by his widowed mother and two older sisters, and I know he was doted on. I don't think he believed that, but he was the apple of their eye. It was really amazing to see them, the two sisters, in their older age, still doting on their brother,” she said.
Johnson said she wants people to know her father’s intentions with the time capsule and his dedication to Seward.
“He had a chance to move the store outside of Seward, to another town, and they were making it very, very lucrative for him to do that. And in the end, he came down as being a hometown boy with a hometown store, was much more important, and he stayed here,” Johnson said.
Tobin Beck, a Seward resident and professor at Concordia University, said Harold, whom he referred to as Bud, was a figure for the Seward community, remembering the days of delivering newspapers to the family.
“(He was a) very positive person, very much a person who was a salesman for the virtues of Seward and very effective at what he did, and just a person who was very community-minded,” Beck said.
With inheriting her father’s title of “keeper of the crypt,” Johnson said she knows she must be the one to handle the capsule and the effects it will have within the community.
“In one of his last books, he said, ‘how I would like to be the one to go into that dark chamber after 50 years.’ Which means I have to be the one even though I have no desire to climb that ladder into the darkness,” Johnson said. “I have to be the one.”
But with over 5,000 items in the time capsule, according to Johnson, nearly all of Seward’s residents will have a connection to a piece inside, regardless of if they were there 50 years ago.
Not only does the time capsule bring fond memories to Kathy and Steve’s early relationship, but it also holds letters Kathy wrote for her children.
“My main thing for them was just to be what they wanted to be, you know, no pressures on the outside world, to be happy. That's all I ever wanted for them was to be happy,” Kathy said.
Most notably, Kathy is looking forward to seeing a letter written by her mother who died eight years ago.
“My mom probably poured out her entire heart in her letter,” Kathy said. “I hope I can read it because she had her handwriting was beautiful, but it's hard to read. It’s going to take me a while to decipher it.”
Kathy and Steve’s 17-year-old granddaughter, Holly Venetis, said the reopening is going to give her a view into her grandmother’s life, letting her see similarities she may never have experienced.
“I’m really excited to see how our lives paralleled, like what she was doing at that time in her life and then what I'm going to be doing at this time, and it's just really exciting to see like how our family history has been preserved in a time capsule along with a bunch of other people's family history,” Venetis said.
Venetis said she is looking forward to having a deeper understanding of her grandmother through the letters she left.
“Kathy was always very, very excited for her future family to get to experience it. And now that she is a grandma, I think she's going to be really excited to have her grandchildren see like what she was up to in ‘75.”
Beck also placed a letter for his future children in the capsule at 21 years old, way before the thought of even having them crossed his mind.
“I distinctly remember writing out my letter to my future children, child or children, and writing what I would want them to consider to be Important things, that were important to me,” Beck said.
Beck said he remembers sitting down for a few hours and writing his letter, trying to write beliefs of his that would stand true even after 50 years.
“My letter was two pages front and back, you know, on a piece of notebook paper as I remember it. But, It wasn't real long, but it was, you know, long enough to get the ideas down,” Beck said.
Using it as a tool to pass down values to his children and grandchildren, Beck said he is able to have a written record of what was and still is important to him for his family to see.
“It's one of those profound things of family where one generation shares profound thoughts and insights with the next generation and things that, as a family, things that you want to carry on to preserve,” Beck said.
The time capsule’s opening could not come at a more surreal moment, according to Beck, who said his son’s wedding happened just a week before the capsule’s opening.
With anticipation building up for the community, the Fourth of July quickly approached and provided the town of several thousand people with millions of memories.
As promised 50 years ago by Harold Davisson, onlookers could finally look into the crypt.
With pea-green carpeting and dozens of murals and signatures, the capsule was on full display. For a lucky bunch, letters were handed out that day, including letters written by and for Kathy.
“I recognized her handwriting on the envelope right away,” Kathy said. “She used my favorite stationery with Betsey Clark up in the corner.”
Kathy said the envelope alone made her start crying, but what was inside left her speechless.
“‘I hope whatever happens in the next 50 years, that when you read this, I hope that life has been good for you,” Kathy said, reading her mother’s letter out loud. “Then she says, ‘all my love, your mother, Della’”
Kathy also got back the letter she wrote Steve, which she said she misspelled his name since their relationship was so early on.
The letter from Kathy’s mother also pointed to Steve as someone who’d be important for the rest of Kathy’s life.
“She had a premonition,” Kathy said. “She talked about Steve, which we were just dating at the time, and she said they (her family) all liked him very much and she was pretty sure I was gonna end up marrying him. And I thought, how did she know that? We just started dating.”
Outside of getting in touch with the past, the time capsule has been a piece of reflection for many who made their way to Seward this Fourth of July, reminding everyone just how quickly time can move, according to Kathy.
“In some ways, it seems like it was just yesterday,” Kathy said. “And then in other ways, I sit here, and I look back and I’m going ‘God, that’s been 50 years,’ and I think of all the things we’ve done in that 50 years.”