You've heard the expression, "If these walls could talk," but a time capsule house in Nebraska has proven that some walls can actually speak to us. A family in Arapahoe was gifted mounds of letters tucked into the walls of their ancestral home describing the good and bad times of relatives who lived in the home over a century ago. A family friend had purchased the home and turned over their find during renovations on the house. Relative Ruth Haarberg told NTVABC, “Way back in the late 1800s, my mother’s side lived there and then my dad’s side bought it in 1902 or 1899 and then 40 years later they get married.” Haarberg says 16 years'-worth of letters between siblings and handwritten notes of what life was like for their family in the early days have become an invaluable time capsule.
The letters illustrate particularly hard times when the family lived on "water and wind." Haarberg says, “You saw some letters where it was February and they were running out of food, like the canned food they had done from the year before, and they were doing something to get by, they bought 10 cents of apples." Haarberg says seeing her grandmother's handwriting on the notes and letters was the best part of the find. "I just was tickled pink," she says. Haarberg's daughter, Gretchen Kubik says, "We have no idea why they were in the walls, but it was a wonderful discovery and wonderful of them to share it with us."
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