A nice day for a time capsule

Hi everyone,

I hope you had a day yesterday as beautiful as we had in Springfield. I spent part of it in Phelps Grove Park, a lovely park where our family often went to relax and picnic when I was a child.
Items that were going into the 100-year time capsule were displayed on half a dozen tables. They included pictures, magazines, scrapbooks, ball caps, a horseshoe, and other items relevant to the various parks in the system. My book was relevant because Riverbluff Cave is part of the system.
I saw lots of old friends yesterday, including Virginia Gleason, former director for children’s books for Springfield-Greene County Library District. Many others too. It was a pleasant time.

After several presentations about the history of our park system during the past 100 years, the time capsule was duly buried. I took a few shots to share.

David

Time capsule news

Hi everyone,

Saturday, in a ceremony at Phelps Grove Park in Springfield, Missouri, a time capsule will be buried as part of the Springfield-Greene County Park Board’s observation of the system’s Centennial Celebration.

Why am I telling you this? Because this is not only a momentous occasion but a book of mine, CAVE DETECTIVES, is going into the capsule, slated to be reopened in one hundred years. It’s the book I wrote about Riverbluff Cave, which was discovered on 9/11 and has gone on to fame as the oldest known depository of ice age fossils found in any cave on the North American continent.

This is my second time capsule. The speech I gave at the grand opening of David Harrison Elementary School also went into one. As an editor pointed out to me, one hundred years from now a book made of paper might be a rarity. I’ll sob in my pillow tonight over that thought!

Here’s something you might not know. I have a fossil named for me. Years ago when Matt Forir, chief paleontologist for Riverbluff Cave, discovered a new crinoid fossil embedded in the limestone outcropping on the hillock overlooking the entrance to Riverbluff, he named it Physetocrinus harrisoni.

Hear this, I will harbor no rude comments connecting my age with fossils. Old crinoids can be crusty.

David