Former Lincoln Elementary students in Dixon open 25-year-old time capsule

DIXON – A group of former Lincoln Elementary students returned to their old school on Monday to open a time capsule they created in 1999.

Open Sesame Child Care Center, which marked its 50th anniversary Dec. 18, used to have an after-school program in each of Dixon’s public schools. Before Lincoln was permanently closed in 2014, the program was held in the basement of the school for students in kindergarten to sixth grade.

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Billie Jo Laidig pulls the first item out of a time capsule Monday, Dec. 23, 2024, opened for the first time in 25 years. Staff and students at Lincoln School in Dixon filled the capsule with the important items. The building now houses the Lincoln Open Sesame Child Care Center. (Alex T. Paschal)

Billie Jo Laidig, a teacher for the program in 1999, created the time capsule with her assistant, Laura Knapp, and their 21 students. They buried the capsule in the wall of Lincoln Elementary on Dec. 22, 1999.

“I think that the fact that it was 1999 had something to do with it,” Jo Laidig said in an interview with Shaw Local News Network. “It was a pretty uncertain time and even the kids could feel it.”

In a letter found inside the time capsule, Knapp wrote “we are making this time capsule for our millennium party. This is our last Christmas break before the new millennium.”

The time capsule was full of items marking the end of the century such as a book titled “2000 and Beyond” and a new millennia Christmas ornament. It contained many popular items of the 1990s like Beanie Babies, a cassette tape, a Young and Modern magazine, an MTV VHS tape, a tattoo choker necklace, PEZ dispenser candy and cardboard cut out boxtops.

Also included were some more sentimental items such as Polaroid pictures of the class, “All About Me” worksheets, the 1999 Lincoln Elementary holiday program and a letter dedicating the capsule to Jo Laidig’s father, who at the time was superintendent of Dixon Public Schools.

Personally significant items like a purple plastic visor contributed by former student Montana Munteen and a rock climbing photo contributed by former student Courtney Short also were in the mix.

A lot of the students who created the time capsule now have children who go to the Open Sesame Child Care Center, which now operates on the first floor of the former Lincoln Elementary building. One former student, Kyler Newton, Jo Laidig’s son, now works alongside Jo Laidig for the Open Sesame program.