The time capsule

On our very first day of high school we were assigned a locker based on our last name. I had been next to Leigh from grade 9-12 as I was a Smith and she was a Stevenson. Beside me was Brent (my note forging heavy – see Forging Notes are, uh... bad story) and on the other side of Leigh was Bex. Our row was on the first floor next to Mrs. Skoll’s grade 9 math room. It was the perfect locker placement. Right in the middle between the front doors, and the cheeky escape hatch we used on the side of the school to get to the bus at the end of the day. We were here together until grade 13, when the administration scattered us all over the school and our little Breakfast Club of misfit friends were no longer together.

Leigh used to complain that my locker had a pungent smell of used Tupperware, a likely rotten apple and sport uniforms – so during one of our organized “locker clean out” days, I completely tore my locker apart to organize my adolescent chaos, when I noticed something was missing from my locker. The roof.

Seriously. The roof to my locker was gone. I have no idea how I missed this architectural blunder, but nonetheless, I felt curious and decided to have a feel around. I reached my hand through the locker ceiling vortex into the dark abyss of possible life-sized spiders and asbestos – but I was fearless.

I felt around on top of Brent’s locker, and got nothing but a sneezing attack from the 3” of dust accumulated since the ‘70s. Then I ventured over to the top of Leigh’s locker and stopped in my tracks. There was something there. Not something threatening, or fuzzy or moving – but actual stuff.

Thank goodness Leigh was with me and we were exploring the unknown together. I pulled out an old grocery list, and little trinkets that really didn’t mean anything to us – although I’m sure were a sign of the times. We thought “well isn’t that cool”, then backed that thought with “let’s add to it!” And so, the Duke of York time capsule was born. The funny thing here is that Leigh and I had an opportunity to make something monumental by involving others but no, we stayed in our own selfish little world, like most teenagers do.

We looked through all the goodies we were parting with and decided to add to our findings with a little ‘90s flare. The first thing I put up there was a blank sign-out form from the office, to commemorate my years building my forging ring. Then Leigh added a Troll doll, because they always joined us during exams and was definitely a sign of the times. I put a magnet from my locker, most likely something around baseball or NKOTB. We both put a few more trinkets up there hoping to add to the story that was started over 25 years ago from that day. 

We then finished our clean up and continued on. Never again did we ever add anything else, or even speak of the hidden treasures living above us. Maybe we wanted to just enjoy a little whimsy still left from our youth, or maybe we just wanted to leave a mark to be discovered in another 25 years.

It’s tempting to go back and see if any future students to us had added to the cryptic story of "life at Duke|. But we won’t. We’re going to leave that chapter as a Choose your Own Adventure book would – open-ended and enigmatic. In this adventure we chose the chapter that left us believing in a little mystery, having faith that something good had come from our discovery, and a feeling fulfillment that we left a tiny footprint in Duke history to end this story.

Try not to let your curiosity for whimsy leave you. No matter your age – these moments of happenstance are where memories are made.

Love,

Patricia