Local News

Here’s what was in the Natick Mall time capsule from 1994

The contents of the time capsule went on display at the Natick Mall Wednesday.

The Natick Mall time capsule was opened 28 years later on Wednesday. Sheena Peabody

October 16, 2022

While 1994 — a year when the highest-grossing box office film was “Mrs. Doubtfire” and the Grammy’s Album of the Year award went to none other than Tony Bennett — doesn’t seem like it was that long ago, a lot has changed in the 28 years since.

Staff at the Natick mall are learning that first-hand after unearthing a time capsule Wednesday which was put underneath the mall’s floor in 1994, according to reporting by Metrowest Daily News.

The Natick Mall time capsule was opened 28 years later on Wednesday. (Charlene Leith)

“We opened the mall following its second renovation on Oct. 12, 1994 — 28 years ago today. They buried a time capsule at the time, and they asked the community to bring any letters, magazines, things that were significant to them that they wanted to put inside,” said the mall’s General Manager Jennifer Kearney.

One of the capsule’s highlights included a series of letters from local students, according to Metrowest Daily News.

“We had a contest to see what it would be like in 2022, and I won second place,” said Sheena Peabody, now 39, who submitted a letter when she attended fifth grade at Medway Middle School.

Her letter, like many others, made predictions about what the world would be like in 2022.

“It wasn’t that crazy; I thought I maybe had said something about flying cars, but I talked more about hairstyles and clothes and music groups. I had forgotten I had written that stuff,” Peabody said.

One third-grade student at the Brophy School in Framingham said 2022 would include cleaner cars and everyone owning moon shoes that would let them jump five feet off the ground.

Students whose predictions tended to be more on the accurate side, coming from a marketing class at Framingham State, said in 2022 everyone “would carry one SMART credit card, used for all purchases and create a cashless society,” and have the “capability to order your own custom design for high-priced items, using a computer to order direct from the manufacturer.”

Other items in the time capsule included menus from nearby restaurants, a two-page advertisement for Camel cigarettes, vinyl records, and a whole lot of “Friends”-related merch, according to reporting by The Boston Globe.

Kearney, a 15-year employee of the mall, said the staff has been waiting for this day for a long time.

“We knew that as the day was approaching, we wanted to make it a big deal for the community,” she said. “It was one of those things, where if you knew about it, you noticed it in the ground, but most people would walk right by it for years and years. One of our maintenance guys, Craig, is a Natick native and he was very enthusiastic about finally pulling this out of the ground.”

The contents of the time capsule went on display at the Natick Mall Wednesday.