By HANS MADSEN

CALLENDER — Dennis Tucker, who spent 30 years from 1966 to 1996 as the principal of the former Prairie Elementary School, wasn’t too sure if he would be around to help open the time capsule that was put into the school sign on May 26, 1976.

“I told the kids when we put the stuff in there I most likely wouldn’t be around,” Tucker said. “They’d need to speak loudly and look up. The good Lord let me be here today.”

Tucker said the credit belongs to the students.

“This was all the kids’ project,” he said.

So what did they put into the capsule back in 1976?

“Messages on a cassette, essays on what we thought would be going on in 2026, lunch tickets, old textbooks,” he said.

Tucker made his own contribution, which survived in pristine condition.

“I put some Jets stickers in there,” he said. “I handed them out every year.”

Joyce Silvey, of Moorland, was part of an adult committee who helped the student council with the project. Her daughter, Kimberly (Silvey) Good, was among the students.

“We met and talked about different ideas.” Silvey said. “I look forward to seeing this again.”

Sara (Bilstad) Harbacheck, of Boone, was in fourth grade in 1976.

“I think I had Mrs. Phillips,” she said. “I remember the day very clearly though. I remember we did things as a class, a recording and what it would be like in 50 years.”

So what was her prediction?

“Flying cars, robots that did homework, Jetsons type things,” she said.

Darrin Wooters ended up a member of the class of 1983. He was part of the student council that raised the money, got permission from the school board and organized the time capsule project.

“Five of us, as 10- and 11-year-olds, presented it to the school board,” Wooters said. “We raised the money. It was a big deal to save $500.”

Wooters helped open the capsules Saturday. Item by item, he showed the crowd a cassette, a tape player, a teachers’ supply catalog, tiles they sold to fundraise, an envelope with Tucker’s Jets stickers, textbooks and folders of written essays.

Everything looked almost new, including the Coleman coolers used to hold everything. They were molded in an odd organic yellow color that’s probably no longer in the company’s catalog.

Wooters remembered the day it was sealed up.

“We had a ceremony; the band played,” he said.

As the event came to a close, a former student who may or may not have encountered one of the paddles Tucker had in his office, asked him if he was going to be laid to rest in the sign base.

Tucker was quick with a good comeback.

“They’d probably like that,” he said.

The time capsule items will be cataloged, then put on display at the Gowrie Historical Society.