Monday, June 11, 2007

TULSA TIME CAPSULE SET FOR RECOVERY

Fifty years ago this week, Tulsa bigshots buried a 1957 Plymouth Belvedere in the courthouse lawn. Reason? It was part of an elaborate time capsule, designed to show the weird future people of 2007 what life was like in that uncivilized era known as the Fifties.

Friday, they're digging up the car. In the glove box -- Dad used to call it a "cubbyhole" -- the curious should find a bottle of tranks, according to the Tulsa World. From the paper's June 15, 1957 edition:
The tranquilizer pills got into the act when the committee decided to make the auto typical by stocking the glove compartment with the contents of a woman's handbag.

The pills showed up along with 14 bobby pins, a compact, cigarettes and matches, two combs, an unpaid parking ticket, a tube of lipstick, a package of gum, a plastic rain hat, pocket facial tissues and $2.73 in bills and coins.
There's also a case of 3.2 beer in the Belvedere. Thanks, 1957.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Except for the plastic rain hat, life in 1957 seems much like it does today. That, and the beer being 3.2

Anonymous said...

Major label beer seldom, if ever, was 3.2. And not 5 percent, either. Three-two was a dodge pushed through when Prohibition was lifted. The breweries wanted some guarantee that the next president or congress wouldn't re-enact the ban. So it was legally decreed that 3.2 beer wasn't intoxicating and therefore could continue to be produced and sold even if Prohibition came back. Breweries started churning out something between 4 and 5 percent beer and labeled it according to its destination. It all comes off the same production lines fed by the same vats. So when you claim that 3.2 beer gives you a headache or won't give you a buzz, it's your imagination, not the beer, talking.

Desdinova said...

Remember the Fifties had more regional breweries and bottlers. It may not be a major brand.

Anonymous said...

One thing's for certain. No matter the brewery of origin or the exact percentage of alcohol, it's going to take a "church key" to sample, or at least open, one of the half-century-old brewskies, assuming it's packaged in cans. Pop tops weren't around in 1957.

Anonymous said...

No pop tops in '57? How will it ever be opened? Wait! I have a old-fashion DeVice in the kitchen drawer ...

Busplunge said...

I always thought 3.2 beer was "Sunday Beer"

Anonymous said...

Here are some high resolution pictures of the car and the items that were stored inside it. Looks like a "fixer upper"

Pics:
http://www.jlaforums.com/viewtopic.php?p=8700431#8700431