A Look Back In Time

As she flipped through the rolled up pages, Bonnie Shaw remembered each student.

The two sets of identical twins she had during the 1991-92 school year, her first as the Moorestown Township School District’s Pre-First teacher.

The pages were from a time capsule, buried at the Frank Fullerton Memorial Park Playground during the first community build in 1992. The time capsule was opened Friday during the playground’s weeklong rebuild.

“I remember all these kids so well,” Shaw said. “Steven (Kittrell) wore a red shirt and David wore a blue one so I could tell them apart.”

She still has the gift the class gave her that year.

“They made a beautiful quilt for me, which I still have,” she said.

As she looked through the pages, the memories of that year spill out. The parents she still sees, the student who came back as a high schooler to help in class.

Shaw has been teaching Pre-First for 20 years, first at South Valley, then Baker and finally at Roberts. That these papers from her first class were uncovered this year is bittersweet to Shaw as this is the last year for the Pre-First program.

“This time has come to an end,” Shaw said. “It’s been challenging, rewarding and an honor to teach Pre-First.”

Shaw’s memories weren’t the only ones rekindled when the time capsule was opened.

Friday evening Lois Leonberg and Marlise Bickel reminisced about the first build while looking through Leonberg’s photo album of the event. The album chronicles the May 13-17, 1992, build through pictures and newspaper articles. There’s even a list of all the items that were put into the time capsule.

In 1992, the P.L.A.Y. Committee went to the district’s three elementary schools, Our Lady of Good Counsel and Moorestown Friends School asking classes to submit items for the capsule.

“There was no directive as to what to do,” Leonberg said. “They sent stories, pictures …”

Curt Leonberg, Lois’ husband, buried the time capsule in a secret location to keep kids from digging it up. It was found last year when the old playground was taken down. It was buried under one of the slides, maybe. Nobody could really remember. The Leonbergs and the Bickels, Marlise and her husband Bob, have volunteered for this build as well.

As for that time capsule, there were letters from students including Lindsay Walker who added Polaroids of township buildings.

There were newspapers from the day and stories about the park build. There were unopened packages of baseball and football cards. A toy car. And artwork from students throughout the district.

A booklet from Sue Kuhn’s second-grade class let students tell the future a little about themselves. One student, Spencer Tait, is a captain for the rebuild. He was on site Friday.

“Soon as I saw the boat, I knew it was me,” Tait said of being shown the booklet. “I drew boats on everything.”

Tait’s dad, Larry, was part of the first build.

“I wanted to give back to the community,” Spencer Tait said. “I’m third generation Moorestown and I have a kid on the way. One day I want to say, ‘Let’s play on what daddy built.’ ”