I saw this story the other day on boing boing and thought it would make a excellent story. In 1957 they buried a 1957 Plymouth Belvedere Sport Coupe in a “giant concrete sarcophagus” to be dug up fifty years later. Well, June 15 is the big day. Not only did they bury the car, however. They also treated it with rust-resistant preservatives as the Plymouth was very prone to rust. Inside the car they packed a case of Schlitz beer and the contents of a lady’s purse including “ find fourteen bobby pins, a ladies compact plastic rain cap, several combs, a tube of lipstick, a pack of gum, a wad of Kleenex, $2.73 in bills and coins, a pack of cigarettes with matches, an unpaid parking ticket.” The car will be awarded to whomever guessed closest to the city’s current population figure.
The most interesting part of the story for me was there was a bottle of tranquilizers in the glove compartment. Why was that included?
Just reading the article I could imagine a story in which someone was accidentally buried with the car but somehow was kept alive (or preserved) by the rust-resistant preservatives only to wake when they dig up the car on June 15.
Anyhow, I thought it was interesting. I’m definitely going to keep my eye on this story to see exactly what they find when they unearth the car.
************************UPDATE *********************************
That car I have been talking about the past few days was unearthed late Friday and was completely rusted. Someone was nice enough to leave this link in the comments to pictures of the 1957 Belvedere. Here is an article about the unveiling that also includes pictures. Not only was there water in the car, but the Schlitz beer they included in the capsule also rotted through the cans (similiar to what it does to the human stomach) and got into the car.
The Struggling Writer 