Publication Date: Wednesday, June 16, 2004
Terman's missing 'bomb'
Terman's missing 'bomb'
(June 16, 2004) Students search for time capsule from 1978
by Steve Shih
Sometimes X doesn't mark the spot.
In 1978, Terman Middle School was closing, so students buried a Jordanian bomb full of hall passes, report cards, and candy with the intention of coming back to the spot, as adults, to unearth it.
Twenty -six years later the bomb is missing and nobody seems to remember where it was buried. In fact, the students and faculty at the newly reincarnated Terman didn't even know this historical bomb existed until 13-year-old Tara Levens learned about it in her research.
Levens was trying to confirm a rumor about the Beatles landing on school grounds back in the '60s when she discovered a photo of kids with feathered hair and bell-bottoms standing around a bomb.
"I though it was really cool nobody knew anything about it," Levens said.
While nobody at the new Terman knew about the bomb or time capsule, Levens and her partner, 12-year-old Monika Smith, found a number of old Terman alum who were more than willing to share their knowledge. Time, however, and its unending march forward seems to have taken its toll on the memories of those who tried to transcend it.
Enlisting the help of former students and faculty, including "Voice of Stanford" Mel Froli, the girls found each person thought it was in a different location.
"Everyone has their own ideas on where it is," Smith said.
Undaunted, the girls enlisted the help of engineers from the city in an effort to make their search more scientific.
"They were great guys and totally helpful," Smith said. "They didn't treat us like we were 5-year-olds."
But it was only after the engineers' helpfulness that the girls spoke with the president of Terman's class of 1978, Brad Elman of Los Altos, and realized they had yet another problem. According to Elman, the parking lot had been reconfigured by the Jewish Community Center, which opened its doors on the site of the school in 1983 before moving on in 2002. The JCC is currently in the midst of moving so all their records are still locked away in storage and thus inaccessible to the girls.
Now the search has been put on hiatus for the summer. Although Levens is graduating and will be attending Gunn High School next fall, both girls remain stalwart in their commitment to continuing the search. Smith hopes to get the digging started before the rainy season begins later this year and Levens said she will come back to take part in the unearthing but wants to leave future generations with one word of advice.
"If you're burying time capsules make sure you tell people," Levens said.
Steve Shih can be reached at sshih@paweekly.com.
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