Memories from a plague year Mon, 01/11/2021 By Jean Godden With 2020 departed and nothing left but dismal memories, it seems appropriate to try to reconstruct for future generations what it meant to live through a year rife with life-threatening illness and untimely deaths. The idea of somehow memorializing our lost year got me thinking about time capsules, a way that our ancestors communicated with future generations to show how they once had lived. The oldest known example in the United States dates from 1795 when someone -- likely Sam Adams and Paul Revere -- buried a capsule at the Massachusetts State Capitol in Boston. It has since been exhumed, its fragile contents documented and the capsule reburied with additions.