Unearthing buried treasure: time capsule sends classmates 50 years into the past

The year was 1969.

The first man set foot on the moon, the first (and only) Woodstock festival was held and the first Trudeau was still prime minister

It was also the year Grade 7 students at Kerrisdale Elementary School buried time capsules.

Now, 50 years later, those former classmates reunited Wednesday to crack open the treasure they stowed away so long ago.

There were letters from then Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and Vancouver's then-mayor, the latter talking about demolishing a whole bunch of buildings in downtown to make room for Pacific Centre.

But the capsules were mostly full of letters students wrote to their future selves.

"I remember saying I was going to be a nurse and that I was going to drive a jet,"  Jocelyn McCord recalls.

McCord made good on one of those bets. She ended up running the operating rooms at the University of British Columbia for eight years.

Ken Paris brought his daughter Kim to see where the capsule was when she was 5 years old. He made sure she was there for the unveiling.

"It's kind of funny," Kim recalls of her dad's buried letter. "He thought hippies wouldn't be around anymore … it was pretty cool to see."

So what changes in five decades?

"Your waist line," joked Wendy Moe.

"A lot outside and very little inside," said Lori Stuart in agreement. "Sometimes I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror and go, 'how did that old person get into my house?' "