Reverse Time Capsule (RTC)

It's a simple enough concept.

Assemble a list of representative sample items from a given time.
Span it across 3 generations (in this case 5 people).
Source, acquire and catalogue the items.

Enjoy the collections and use them as reference for future generations.

I figure the process will cement my sense of self, as well as pique the interest of my family (which it now has) in the scavenger hunt-esqueness of it all, and provide a birth year legacy for my son who in time will hopefully continue the exercise (or tradition if you're a romantic). I'm amazed how technological evolution churns out these great tools (like eBay, blogging, wikipedia) and it's purely by accident that we find (well it could just be me that wakes up to practical interesting uses for the continual waves of new and cool tools crashing over us) ourselves able to facilitate a project like this through the tips of our fingers. This project would have been completely impractical and improbable just one generation ago.

So, first steps first.

Decide on the representative facets. I tried to find things that have persisted since 1950 so their respective comparative evolutions would be fairly evident. Not just in the contents of the item, but the format in which it is stored and/or delivered. In this way I'm tracking the advancement of technology, social perception (which even at first glance is hilariously cyclical), communications, and several other elements at the same time.

Decide on the time(s). I chose birth month and year of both of my parents, my wife, myself and my son. CAUTION: Do not surf eBay using excel listings late at night or you will undoubtedly mix years and months and end up with a few cast offs. I just won an auction for a Popular Science magazine from my wife's birth year and my mom's birth month. Annoying.

So I've started with music, printed periodicals, coins, stamps, comics, books, and license plates. That should keep me busy for a while, as the research for each can take a while, then the sourcing and acquiring can be a little tedious depending on how far back you're going.

Music. 1973 was an amazing year for music. Dark side of the Moon, Houses of the Holy, Goatshead Soup, Goodbye YellowBrick Road, The Piano Man, Band on the Run, Tres Hombres with debut albums from Aerosmith, Queen and Skynyrd, not to mention about 200 other albums, the majority of which were incredible too in their own rights. I'll work on LP versions of each, which will then spawn the purchase of a record player.

Magazines. The cross section of magazines I chose includes some great titles. You'd be surprised how few magazines were around back in the 50's and of those that were, even less from back then are are still around today. Hot Rod, Esquire, Popular Science/Mechanics, Reader's Digest, Life, TIME, Rolling Stone, Playboy, Sports Illustrated, Golf Digest, National Lampoon and Home and Garden have all made the list so far. Not all of those 'zines them stretch from 1950 to 2006, but a good number of them do, and a few of them made the list strictly for that reason.

Coins. I chose to attempt to assemble the standard 6 coin sets from each year, preferably in a mint proof set. Penny, nickel, dime quarter, half dollar and dollar coins. 2006 was a breeze, with 1973 and 1968 being not too much harder, but 1951 and 50 are a mess. $700+ for a mint set has changed the original goal to a loose collection of the coins. At $80 for a nickel in decent shape from 1950, it's going to take a while to get that set rounded out.

Stamps. A simple USPS stamp set from each year will do here, at least for now. I haven't messed with them much yet.

Comics. I compiled a spreadsheet (like I have for the other categories) of all comics released in April 1973 and I'm working on 1968 now. I'll pick a dozen or so from the list and gather those next.

Books. I plan on finding one each of a fiction, non-fiction, children's and cook book from each year. That'll take a little research to get something relevant and interesting of each type. Fiction from 1973 was easy - Vonnegut is one of my favorite authors, so Breakfast of Champions it is.

License Plates. This one will be fun. I've decided to mix year and city of birth for these. I found mine already, but working on my wife's is becoming a challenge. Apparently Texas plates are rarely turned in, as they never actually expire (or something, I'll never figure out Texas) so they're harder to come by and most of them have bullet holes in them. Alright, that was a stretch, but they're spendy and rare so far.

Simply through the collection process I've stumbled over a few interesting tidbits from 1973. Cameron Crowe's first article for Rolling Stone was published the week I was born, Watergate broke a few weeks before my birthday, the US pulled out of Vietnam, the landmark Roe V. Wade case overturned the state ban on abortions, the World Trade Center and Sears tower opened, the DEA is founded and NASA launched Skylab. Those are just the things I've picked up from looking at the covers of magazines and reading the descriptions of items. A little digging should turn up all kinds of cool and weird things from the time.

I'm looking at steamer trunk type storage for all of this stuff. I haven't decided on what type or size yet, but I figure one for me, one for my wife, one for my son and one for my parents combined should do the trick. When it comes to storing everything I may have to consider seeking off site storage.