10 years have passed

Karen and I on her 20th birthday

I noticed that this year marked the 10 year anniversary of my friends and I burying our time capsule. It's hard to believe we've reached the half-way mark. We were supposed to dig it up together in twenty years from the day we buried it. I even put a countdown on my web page to keep track.
When I think about where I was in my life 10 years ago it is like night and day to now. I had just completed my first year in Concurrent Education and I was working at the Community Auditorium box office. Working is a bit of a loose term as I got maybe one or two shifts a month. I was pretty broke as a result.

Craig and his beloved Corvair

I was single and pretty miserable about it. I still hadn't gotten over the end of my last relationship and it was something that weighed on me every day. I remember what that felt like even now. It's strange because I can recall the feeling as if it was yesterday but it doesn't affect me anymore. In fact I wish I knew then what I know now because it never would have gotten that bad. I suppose that I wouldn't have learned any of it if I had skipped that experience. I was actually seeing a counsellor for a time at the beginning of 1997. She helped me a lot. I have much better coping skills now.

Craig watching the video at his 19th birthday

I have changed a lot but so have my friends. At the time of burying the time capsule Craig was set to start aircraft manufacturing at the college; Jason was going into Broadcasting at the college; Karen was starting her second year in Accounting; Sharon was starting electrical engineering at the college; Jeff was starting his OAC year in highschool; Elaine was in her second year of architecture at the college; Barb had opted to wait for school and attend in Vancouver and Scott was moving to BC to go to SFU.
I remember all the things we did that year. There were many highlights. This was also the year that Craig bought the 1960 Chevy Corvair. It soon became known as the money pit with all the repairs and new parts it needed. Craig got a good few years use out of it before it died on the way to his camp in 2001. He left it at a storage facility there but never paid the fees and the guy who owns the facility now owns the car. Anyone who rode in it isn't horribly saddened by this as we had spent many nights pushing it up nasty hills when it stopped running.
That year I created a video for Craig's 19th birthday, with the help of Karen and the rest of the gang. His mother gave me an album of his baby pictures and old family videos. I interviewed everyone and had them give me their thoughts on Craig turning 19 and their favourite memories of him. I spliced all that stuff along with the photos together and created a 'Craig Bagshaw here is your life' type video. We played it at his surprise birthday party.

Craig, Sharon, Jason, Barb, Scott and Jeff's highschool grad.

Scott, Jason, Sharon, Barb and Jeff graduated highschool in 1997. We had a big grad party at Scott's camp. Craig's Dad even let us take the big blue van to get to his camp. Up until that point he hadn't been allowed to do that very often. We drove out there and pulled out our ample amount of alcohol and so began the party. It rained all night and the next day but that didn't stop anyone from having a good time.

The professional photo of the group before Scott left

Before Scott left we had a group photo taken by Hill Photographers. I look at the photo now and we all look so young. It's funny because back then I didn't feel young. I felt so old and now I really know that I wasn't old at all. I also know I didn't know as much as I thought I did.
The time capsule itself was buried at Scott's birthday/going away party with Backstreet Boys' song Everybody playing. The only thing I remember putting in it was my University ID card. I think we put photos in there and maybe a summary of each of us. I can't really remember.
This was the year in which Savage Garden's I want You, Sarah McLachlan's Building a Mystery, Spice Girls Wannabe, Merryl Bainbridge's Mouth, Shawn Colvin's Sunny Came Home, Tonic's If you Could Only See, OMC's How Bizarre, Chumbawumba's Tubthumping, Matchbox 20's Push and Backstreet Boys Everybody were popular. To this day any of those songs bring back a ton of memories for me.

I put this together using Microsoft Picture It! way back in the days before I took Multimedia. 1997 was the year of Titanic

The other album that reminds me of this year is Zappacosta's 60 minutes with. It's actually all old eighties music but it was a CD Karen bought for Craig for his birthday that year. He played it in the big blue van on the way to Scott's camp.
Since 1997 things have changed for this entire group. At the time Karen and Craig were dating and Karen is now married to Justin and works full-time in HR. Scott graduated SFU and has spent the last three years travelling Asia and Europe. Barb is still out in BC but she's working full-time as a box office manager. Sharon graduated college and moved out to Alberta. Jason graduated from the college twice and is DJing. Craig moved to Toronto for a time, started a business and then moved back to run the business at home in TBay. Elaine moved to Hamilton and went to college there. She graduated from that and now is in Alberta. Jeff graduated from University and is working full-time at the bank.

Craig, Karen and Scott atop Mount McKay at sunset. Still a favourite photo of mine. It is one of the photos that sums up 1997 for me

10 years ago feels like a lifetime. I am grateful for the changes that came since then. I'm a better person because of them. I'm also relieved that I don't have to live some of those events again. But I am also grateful for the memories. We had it pretty good back then. I don't think we even fully comprehended how good we had it.
I can only wonder what the next ten years will bring us.