I am the mother of four and grandmother of six and I think that this announcement is stupendous!  Whenever I am out and about running errands, I always find myself wishing there was a strip mall closer to Alpine.  My mother always used to say, “Where there’s a Mall, there’s a way…to get the latest fashions.”  She was always good at turning cliché’s and popular sayings into something creative of her own.  She even tried to copyright the phrases, “Everyone needs a shoulder to spy on…that’s why we all love to gossip” and “All’s well that bends well…so stretch before early morning exercise.”

Before he retired, my husband Paul worked as a structural engineer and has plenty of experience with commercial development.  He even had a small part in designing Thanksgiving Point.  He says that putting the Thanksgiving Point sign on the water tower was solely his idea.  He always tells people, “They wanted to put real water in that thing, but I told them that it would never work because in the case of a natural disaster there would be hoards of people swarming around Lehi for a chance to get a free drink.” 

Ever since our kids took us to see that “War of the Worlds” movie, Paul has been saying that we need to build a bunker in the backyard just in case anything terrible were to happen.  He even bought a new shovel and started digging a couple of weeks ago, but soon became tired of digging and decided instead that we would bury a time capsule.  I was excited about that idea until he told me that he wanted to dig it back up in one month.  He was adamant about it and so I put a tablecloth and an old Better Homes and Gardens magazine in it while Paul contributed a spare house key, a picture of himself, and his old 2002 Winter Olympics T-shirt.  He even wanted to put the shovel in it too, but I then asked him what we would use to dig it up and he was silent and then started laughing hysterically and pointing at me, going on about how I was so gullible and that he should just bury me in the time capsule.  As soon as he said that he stopped laughing, had a serious look on his face, and said, “Wait a minute…if we had a tube for air and enough food and water….”  He then started thinking out loud and talking to himself like he was being interviewed or something, saying, “…the first woman to ever be in a time capsule…that’s right folks… step right up…it was my idea…”  and then he started making noises and saying some other weird stuff like, “Grape nuts?  No I shouldn’t…I’ve got a time capsule to look after…you want to be in the time capsule?...only 5 bucks.” 

The day that we were to open the time capsule, Paul was as excited as a child on Christmas.  He called the kids to see if they wanted to come over and help dig it up, but they all had plans already.  So I spent the afternoon hauling earth in a wheelbarrow while Paul kept joyfully digging.  The longer he dug, the more excited he became which in turn made him dig faster.  While he was digging he said, “Diane, we’re almost there…it won’t be too much longer now.”  Finally he hit the wooden box with the tip of his shovel and started screaming, “We found it!  We found it!!!”  He made so much racket that two of our neighbors came over to see if we were okay.  When I told them what we were doing, they opted to stay and witness the historic event.  When Paul hoisted the wooden box out of the hole, one of our neighbors grabbed his crowbar and they both cracked it open.  We all gazed at the box and the items that Paul began pulling out of it.  The Better Homes and Gardens magazine was the first to come out followed by the rest of the items.  The neighbors soon lost interest and went home, but Paul and I stayed and gazed at the phenomenal condition everything was in.

Paul decided that we needed to make some sort of Rudding time capsule tradition, so we decided to bury a new one on the first of every month.  So we are looking forward to next Wednesday (February 1^st) when we bury our next one.  Paul even has an old pair of pants and a few other items picked out.  The day we dug up our first time capsule, Paul said, “Diane, it’s funny how the world doesn’t realize that going without things for a while can really give you a new way to look at things as well as a new perspective on looking at things…not to mention the wonderful world that lurks beneath the earth’s crusty soil.”  When he says things like that, I’m not sure there is a deeper thinker than my Paul.