Calgary woman reunited with childhood time capsule
A time capsule hidden in an Airdrie home 21 years ago has been reunited with its original owner.
"I remember my mom didn't think it was a good idea, but I did it anyway without her knowing," said Christa Harris.
Harris was nine at the time and her family was about to move out of the house.
But before that happened, Harris collected all her treasures — a stamp, a penny, a drawing and a novel she had been reading — put them in a cardboard box, and hid it away.
"There's a little cubby hole beside the fireplace where you keep the wood and when you're little enough, you find out that if you stand up in there, there's kind of these secret holes in the brick."
The time-capsule remained undiscovered for more than two decades until another tiny person discovered it.
Brad Campbell's daughter, Jasmine, actually pulled the box out of the fireplace four years ago.
But when the new homeowners opened it, there were very few clues as to who it belonged to — only a first name and a childhood photograph of Harris.
"Judging by the picture, it looked like it was from the 80s because I remember my school picture looking about the same," said Campbell.
The time capsule collected dust until last week, when Campbell's wife posted Harris' childhood photo on Facebook — just days before they were set to move out of the house themselves, for good.
Nine minutes later, someone recognized Harris, tracked her down and tagged her.
The Campbells invited the now 30-year-old to their house to retrieve her old time capsule, but they didn't tell their daughter she was coming.
Harris says the little girl's reaction when she showed up was "so cute."
"I said, 'Well, 21 years ago, I left a time capsule here and I've just come to find it.' And her jaw dropped."
But Harris, who now lives in Calgary, didn't take back her time capsule.
Instead, she looked through it with Jasmine — who is the same age as she was when she stowed away her childhood memories — and asked her to contribute soemthing to it.
"After adding her contents too, they both put it back into the crawl space and that's where it sits now for the next person to find it," said Campbell.
