BACK TO THE FUTURE
Time capsule loaded up
Windsor centenarian and Miss Windsor 1934 Elmira Frenette remembers the day the Ambassador Bridge was completed and opened to traffic.
“I was a teenager and the bridge was just opening up and they hadn’t opened it yet to cars,” said Frenette, 101, referring to the Nov. 11, 1929, opening. “So we wiggled our way in there and got right to the front and shook hands with the Americans. There was a big line and we all shook hands.”
Frenette shared some of her memories after she placed a list of Windsor’s 38 centenarians in the W time capsule on Sunday. A special ceremony was held at city hall on the final day of 2017 — Windsor’s 125th birthday — when 25 items from the past were placed into the red, yellow and blue W capsule and sealed. The capsule will be opened in 2042.
Mayor Drew Dilkens said sealing of the time capsule was a great ending to a spectacular year filled with many highlights. This past year was also Canada’s 150th anniversary and Windsor embraced the celebration. Dilkens said 25 items were selected to represent the past year. Already in the capsule were 25 items from the city centennial in 1992.
“In 2042. they’ll open it and reflect on what’s in there,” Dilkens said. “Hopefully, some of the technology exists, like USBs, since we put a few in there. We really had the whole community involved in this, whether it was seniors or youth, sport or art. It really touched every element and what was happening in the community.” Dilkens said it “was a spectacular year for the City of Windsor.”
Highlights cited by the mayor
included the MasterCard Memorial Cup tournament in which the host team Windsor Spitfires won as underdogs; Bright Lights Windsor; Open Streets; and the SESQUI Dome, a red inflated igloo that attracted throngs of people to the riverfront to view a 20-minute, 360-degree film called Horizon.
“Our economy is just humming in Windsor and some of the things council has done has positioned the city well in the future to be able to attract investment and we are working on so many exciting things,” Dilkens said. “We gave the community something to celebrate each and every month. The list of things we celebrated and the list of things we accomplished were very, very positive.”
And Dilkens said get ready for an even better 2018.
“We’ve got a lot of things already in the hopper,” he said. “The Amazon bid (the joint Windsor-Detroit bid to host the firm’s second North
American headquarters with 50,000 jobs), the German company (which should decide soon whether to locate a 300-job auto parts plant in Windsor) and we are going to get that Canadian Club brand centre opened. There are just a number of things we are working on.
“We are really well positioned financially as a city to move into 2018 and I think a number of our programs we are working on are really exciting.”