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Aspinock Historical Society President Bill Pearsall journeyed back 25 years into Putnam's past when the society's Time Chest was opened Jan. 22, 2022. More photos on page 4. Linda Lemmon photos.

Key was missing;
bolt cutters did the trick
By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
PUTNAM — A TV guide that could double as a door stop. Evidence that Putnam has always been a hub. And much more.
The Aspinock Historical Society’s president Bill Pearsall, with all the fanfare that a bolt cutter can provide, opened the society’s 1997 time chest Jan. 22, 2022.
Pearsall said when he became active in the Aspinock Historical Society in 2005 he saw the chest by the door. Where did it come from? Boy Scouts? A school? He learned that it was the time chest. The bolt cutters came in handy because, he thinks, the key for the lock must have been hanging in the closet of the old society building and that building was demolished. Nothing a bolt cutter can’t fix.
In 1977 the society decided to celebrate its 25th anniversary by creating a time chest. The homemade wooden chest was built by the late Richard Flagg. The society gathered “clean” items from the year 1977. Items were collected most of the year and the chest was sealed on November 30, 1997. It was not to be opened until after January 1, 2022, the year of the society’s 50th anniversary.
Packed amongst the Styrofoam discs, were folders and items including photographs, theater and fair and festival brochures, newspapers (including the Putnam Town Crier in its black and white days), calendar from Viens, business cards, menus, a scoop from Deary Brothers and much more. On top of the offerings was a straw hat that the president then, Ruth Flagg, created and hung on the Aspinock Historical Society’s door for the entire year in 1977.
Nelson “Buzz” King, former principal of Putnam High School, was there for the opening. PHS materials were part of the chest’s trove. He said in 1977 he got a thank you note from Ruth Flagg and at the end Flagg told him “I just know you’ll be there” when the chest is opened. And so he was.
Pearsall said the society will make a display of the chest’s contents in the society’s new home inside the Putnam Municipal Complex.
Items Sought for 2047
AND the time chest will live on.  According to Kathy Zamagni, the society is looking for items for the 2022 version of the time chest to be opened in 25 years. Mail or drop off items that show what Putnam is/was like in 2022 to the Aspinock Historical Society, 200 School St., Putnam, CT 06260.  It will be opened in 2047. Pearsall joked he’d be 99 so “I won’t be around.”
The late Ruth Flagg wrote a letter to the future with her plain and simple words in “Greetings to the Citizens of 2022:” Speaking from the heart she had advice for school administrators, religious communities, government, and parenting. She saved for last her words “To the Historians: Never forget that you are the guardians of the gates of life. Through your hands will pass the generations, past, present and future. The accomplishments and deeds of others and their world as they knew it; the buildings they built, the work places they knew and established and their dreams are yours to record. A dream even if it never develops can become another’s dream. It is worth remembering. All the unpleasant things must be remembered also. Society must learn from them. Make history a road map and mark each landmark upon it.”
She ended with “As you review each and every item in this 1997 time chest, please do so with contemplation and study. It is all we have to give you — our way of life in 1997. It is my deepest hope that you, the citizens of Putnam in the year 2022, will record the history of your year and prepare it for another generation. Link your hand with mine so that we may share the ages together. God Speed in Your Endeavors. Ruth Flagg.”

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