STRONGSVILLE, Ohio — Earlier this week, a time capsule buried for more than 70 years at a school in Strongsville was unearthed by demolition crews.
A suburban Cleveland man has since come forward — still remembering that moment in time captured for prosperity.
Rodney Wheller, 93, was one of the students in the Center Middle School Class of 1938. He was surprised when his daughter-in-law called him with news about the time capsule being unearthed.
“She said they found this time capsule, and there’s a picture in it,” he said. “It’s on my iPad, and ‘you’re in there and all your classmates’, and she mentioned a lot of the names and a lot of the names ring a bell of ones I went to school with.”
Wheller said he’s lost track of many of his classmates after he enlisted in the U.S. Army and fought in Europe during World War II. He married his sweetheart and raised four children.
Although many of his contemporaries are no longer with us, he said it’s been a life well-lived.
“I feel very lucky,” he said. “I had a bad last year. I broke two hips and whatnot and lost my wife three years ago, but I’m happy I’m still here.”
Thanks to the time capsule that had been long forgotten, Wheller said he was transported back to 1938.
