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CASCADE, Iowa (AP) — Students used hammers to crack open a cornerstone laid in 1961 and peer into a time capsule from a now defunct eastern Iowa Catholic high school.
Construction crews in Cascade discovered the forgotten time capsule last fall while building a gymnasium at Cascade High School, according to the Telegraph Herald (http://bit.ly/1fu62hQ ). The building was formerly home to Aquin High School, which closed and became Cascade High in 1976.
Students opened the cornerstone Wednesday during a school assembly. They removed a small metal box that contained copies of the Cascade Pioneer-Advertiser newspaper, religious relics, a rosary, coins from 1959 and school plans.
Five 1965 graduates of Aquin High joined the students for the capsule opening. They pointed to graduation photos and recalled the tumultuous times of the early 1960s.
"We're all saying, 'Remember when?'" said Corrine McQuillen, one of the Aquin graduates who now lives in Peosta. "It was a fun time. I came from a very small school with 10 people in my eighth-grade class. It was kind of hard adjusting, but once I got adjusted, I made some lifelong friends. We still get together about once a month and do dinner or lunch."
Cascade Principal Greg Vander Lugt said the religious relics will be given to neighboring Aquin Catholic Elementary School. Other items will be used as part of discussions in history classes or given to the Tri-County Historical Society.
At the assembly, Cascade High history teacher Olin Skattum partially quoted William Shakespeare in explaining the significance of the capsule.
"Our past is our prologue, so it's a nice link from our past, what we initially were, to today," Skattum said.
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Information from: Telegraph Herald, http://www.thonline.com
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