Anniversary

A decade has passed since that sad, sad day. I hadn't seen Blue Peter for many years. Presenters had come and gone. The beautiful Karen Keating, so cruelly cut down in her prime. Richard Bacon, sold to the redtop scum by his best friend for a handfull of silver.
This episode was different, I saw it advertised. The holy trinity of Valerie Singleton, John Noakes and Peter Purves were back. Like the Pistols at Finsbury Park or Led  Zeppelin at the O2 arena.
In 1972 I was 7. A common school essay was, 'What will life be like in the year 2000'. This seemed impossibly far in the future. It would be shiny silver with spaceships and robots, even a fool, even a 7 year old fool could see that.
The Blue Peter team made a time capsule. A collection of items from that time, a Blue Peter annual, various other pop trivia. The items were placed in a box, this time capsule was then buried in the Blue Peter garden to  be dug up in the year 2000.
The concept fascinated me, like when they sent a Kajagoogoo record in to space so the aliens could hear how far we had come musically.. Laikas' barks of disapproval can still be heard, the sound travelling through space will be reaching them now. I digress.
The holy trinity of Singleton, a kind of spiritual mother to all 70s children. Purves, a precurser to the Top Gear generation, so popular now. And of course, the maverick, the daredevil, the hero John Noakes. He had sailed off from these shores, disgusted with the trivial direction English culture was taking. Who knows for certain why he returned to these shores but I'd place a bet it was for the disinternment of the time capsule.
It was a rainy day as the trio took spade to earth. The box was once again free of its grave. I watched in awe at the ceremonial opening. Tears filled my eyes as the contents had turned to mush. Perhaps the sticky backed plastic seals had failed and the contents were destroyed. To me, who had waited 28 years for the event it was too much. I spiralled off in to depression, alcoholism, heroin addiction.
A decade has passed since that grey day in 2000. I realise now that lessons were learned. Entropy. Time.
We may no longer have the turntables to play Slade but CD boxsets can take us back in time even if we cant yet travel forward.