Wendi and I were in Lodi on March 4, 2016, when I received back-to-back calls from the Wayne County commissioners’ office informing me construction workers at the courthouse had found an elusive time capsule and at 2 p.m. it would be removed from the vault where it has been secured since 1878. For a newsman, this is serious business, but March 4 is not your ordinary day in my household: It’s our anniversary date.
The journalist in me wanted to head back to Wooster and be there to shoot video of the removal of the time capsule. Paul Locher, the dean of The Daily Record’s reporting crew and a historian, would be providing the news coverage. Wendi knew I really wanted to be there and she was willing to delay our anniversary get-away to Berlin and afford me the opportunity be there for the historic occasion. Despite her willingness, I declined. Shooting video involves more than just capturing images, it involves converting video files, editing video files, rendering video files and uploading video files. It is not uncommon for a video of only a few minutes to take hours to complete. So, I declined and continued with our plans for the day.
Our photographer Mike Schenk, who also wanted to be there, couldn’t. He, too, was leaving town. So, it would be Locher writing the story and getting photographs. And, fortunately, reporter Jonathan Scholles would capture video. Even though Schenk and I could not be there when the time capsule was removed, we were there when the box opened. It had been soldered shut, and it took a while to arrange a time to have it opened. Schenk and I made it to that event five days, and Locher was there as well.
So, take a trip down memory lane. Here are all the videos produced by The Daily Record staff for the time capsule. The first one is by Scholles (edited by Thomas Doohan); the second is from photographer Dan Starcher, who was in the courtroom when they removed the lid on the time capsule; the third is my video of the box opening and the contents revealing; and the final is a slideshow of Schenk’s photos. Enjoy. I certainly did.
