TINY TIME CAPSULES

So far we’ve seen Sesquicen-tennial belt buckles, knives, tote bags, paperweights, thermometers, windbreakers, money clips, wristwatches, posters, cookbooks, coffee cups and magazines, so why not a burial vault? Sounds a little morbid, but really, Texas funeral directors aren’t any different than any other flag-waving, red-blooded Texas entrepreneur; they want a piece of the Sesquicentennial action.

“Don Dorsey [Dallas Sesquicentennial honcho], Dallas County Commissioner Chris Semos and 1 were having lunch one day and an idea was thrown on the table,” says Dallas funeral director David Clayton. The idea: Let Texans bury a little bit of history-for a price, of course.

The result: The Texas Sesquicentennial Time Capsule. It’s an eight-foot, fiberglass-lined, air- and water-tight cement vault packed with about 50 one-foot cylindrical compartments. For $1,000, a corporation or family can place almost any object in a compartment. “They can put in anything they want to-but no dead animals or people,” says Dorsey. The vault will then be buried at a designated spot in Fair Park on June 20 in a finale ceremony for the Texas Funeral Directors Association convention. A plaque will be mounted over the vault. The message to the future will be opened 50 years later, during Texas’ Bicentennial, and the individual mementos can be reclaimed by the corporation or members of the family. Proceeds from the rental of the compartments will be used to finance other upcoming Dallas area Sesquicentennial events and any objects not reclaimed in 2036 will then be donated to the Dallas Historical Society.

“It should be rather intriguing to see the types of memorabilia we’re going to be getting,” says Clayton.