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Gaither gets blast from past

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By COURTNEY CAIRNS PASTOR

cpastor@tampatrib.com

Published: August 5, 2009

NORTHDALE - A red Igloo cooler, slightly banged up, has protected the 1980s for 25 years.

Inside are signed baseballs, softballs and shoes from athletic teams, newspaper clippings, a Starettes cowboy hat and other memorabilia from the 1984-85 school year, Gaither High School's inaugural year.

Organizers plan to reveal the time capsule's loot at a 25th anniversary celebration, scheduled for Aug. 22.

The fashions, technology and popular songs have changed since its first year, but the school itself looks much the same. The $12 million building opened in 1984 and enrolled 1,912 students, with no senior class for its first year. Ron Allen served as principal.

Becky Burgue, one of about a dozen charter faculty members who still teach at the school, has been organizing the anniversary party, talking to alumni on Facebook and seeking former teachers and administrators.

The event is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. in the Gaither cafeteria. The band will perform, the agriculture department will hold a cookout and other departments will set up displays. Teachers in the Little Wranglers preschool program will offer activities for children, and an open microphone will be available for the community to share stories.

The time capsule received some buzz, Burgue said. Former students kept sending her tips on where they thought it was buried.

The only problem? It was never buried.

The capsule - the cooler - spent the past 25 years in a vault inside the school. A Tampa Tribune clipping from 1985 says it was supposed to be opened in 2005, for the 20th anniversary. But no one remembered at the time.

Sifting through the contents reveals a peek at the first students and their interests. A roster, printed from a dot-matrix printer, contains everyone's name and address at the time. Programs and autographs show who was involved in what activities.

Changing technology may also keep some of the contributions hidden. A VHS tape from the science department still will play on the school's VCR - although a letter from the department in 1985 wondered whether it would. But the school may not be able to find out what the math department saved on a floppy disk unless it unearths an old Apple computer.

Burgue, though, was excited to see something old-fashioned and sentimental survive. The school's namesake, the late Vivian Gaither, included a letter in the capsule that she plans to read at the event.

"No honor could have been greater than to have had the school given my name," he wrote in part.

Reporter Courtney Cairns Pastor can be reached at (727) 451-2343.

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