Community memories unsealed as Lindsay’s Millennium Time Capsule is opened

DARRYL KNIGHT Local Journalism Initiative Reporter for The Standard

KAWARTHA LAKES: On a crisp winter afternoon, this past Tuesday, December 16th, in downtown Lindsay, time folded in on itself. Beneath the Eternal Flame in Queen’s Square, a small metal capsule, sealed 25 years ago, waited quietly for its moment. Children, who had placed it there: Reenie Brydon, Mathew Kent, and Caelin Nesbit, all of them now adults, approached it with a mixture of wonder and nostalgia, their own pasts reaching out from the metal box.

“I remember how big everything felt that day,” Ms. Brydon said softly, lifting the capsule. “Being here now, opening it as an adult, really brings home how quickly those years passed.”

Mayor Doug Elmslie spoke first, noting the care taken, by the Town of Lindsay Millennium Committee, in assembling the capsule. “What is enclosed represents thoughts and items of significance for the time,” he said. “Today, we see what mattered then, what has changed, and what has stayed the same.”

The capsule was carried to the atrium of Kent Place Mall. The crowd leaned closer as the lid was pried open, revealing a tiny world, frozen in 2000. The scent of old paper and plastic seemed to spill into the room. Out came the cassette tapes of Y92 FM radio broadcasts, worn yet familiar. A grocery receipt, ink faded, listed items for a family of four, and a gas bill reminded everyone gasoline had once been measured in cents per litre.

“This was kind of a full-circle moment, and was really cool to be a part of,” Ms. Brydon told The Standard. “It was amazing to see so many people out to take part in this event today.”

The treasures which truly drew gasps and laughter were the personal mementos. A River festival t-shirt, small and soft with age, still held the imprints of tiny hand prints. A school music CD bore recordings of children singing “O Canada” and other songs, from music class, their voices frozen in time. Then, there was the letter from seven-year-old Caelin Nesbit, folded carefully, every letter large and deliberate: “I hope people in the future like our town. I like school. I like music. I hope you are happy.”

“Seeing those letters and that CD, it’s like the kids are talking to us again,” said longtime resident Paul Harrison. “It’s the little things, the everyday life, which hit the hardest.”

The capsule also held reminders the community’s story stretches beyond a single generation: a 1900 edition of The Weekly Post, memorabilia from Old Home Week in 1924, and a business card from then–Parks and Open Space Manager Gary Durnan, with a handwritten note predicting his retirement. “It was such a human thing to leave behind, a quiet message to the future,” said Sandra Ferguson.

The Millennium Committee, co-chaired by Barb Truax, reflected on the project’s purpose. “We didn’t want grand statements,” Ms. Truax said. “We wanted to show what everyday life looked like, what we read, what we listened to, what we valued.”

As the ceremony drew to a close, residents lingered, laughing, remembering, and imagining. Amanda Clarke looked at the collection of cassette tapes and smiled. “It makes you wonder what we’d put in a time capsule now, and what people 25 years from now would think of us.”

For those unable to attend, a live-streamed video of the capsule’s removal and opening remains available on Instagram, allowing the moment, and the voices of the children-now-grown, to be shared with the community once more. Artifacts are also on display at the Lindsay branch of the Library.