Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 30, 1990 TAG: 9003300029
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV9 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MADELYN ROSENBERG NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: PULASKI LENGTH: Medium
And there will be no tears when they cover a long, white vault with earth and top it with a marble marker.
Because what local citizens will be burying 3 feet underground is time.
Today marks the end of Pulaski County's 150th birthday and the sesquicentennial committee is ending the yearlong celebration by burying souvenirs, letters and other items from 1989 in a time capsule.
The capsule will be opened in 2039.
"The reason we picked 50 years is because we used the fourth-grade students to do certain things like design the birthday card," said Billy Smith, head of the sesquicentennial committee.
"Most of them will still be here when the capsule is opened."
The capsule originally was to be buried around the first of the year, but the ceremony was postponed after a fire gutted the courthouse, a century-old landmark and a symbol of the sesquicentennial. The ceremony was reset for March 30, the county's official birthday.
Souvenirs that carried pictures of the old courthouse sold so well that there are few left, Smith said.
The sesquicentennial bow ties are almost gone. So are coffee mugs and tapes of "My Pulaski County Home."
"All we have left are a few Christmas ornaments," Smith said.
Leftover souvenirs, including licenses allowing county officials to shave, will be on hand at noon when the capsule is buried. Growing a beard is a sesquicentennial tradition, and officials were asked either to grow beards or to purchase "in lieu" licenses if they wanted to remain clean-shaven.
Folks were allowed to shave the first of the year, Smith said.
That's when County Administrator Joe Morgan got rid of his sesquicentennial beard. Smith shaved his beard then, too.
"I just left a small moustache, and that's coming off [today]," he said.
by CNB