Roya Boustany, left, Jeremiah Carriere, second from left, and Matthew Latiolais, right, look over contents of a twenty-year time capsule, recently opened by the classmates, with their third grade teacher, Vickie Ritchey, second from right, at Boustany's home on Wednesday, June 15, 2022, in Lafayette.
Clockwise from left, Roya Boustany, Danielle Coles, Vickie Ritchey, and Jeremiah Carriere, look over the contents of a twenty-year time capsule, recently opened by the former classmates, at Boustany's home on Wednesday, June 15, 2022, in Lafayette.
From left, Jeremiah Carriere, Danielle Coles, and Vickie Ritchey, view contents of a twenty-year time capsule, recently opened by the former classmates, at Roya Boustany's home on Wednesday, June 15, 2022, in Lafayette.
Seated, from left, Jeremiah Carriere, Vickie Ritchey, and Matthew Latiolais, view contents of a twenty-year time capsule recently opened by the former classmates at the home of Roya Boustany, right, on Wednesday, June 15, 2022, in Lafayette.
Roya Boustany views contents of a twenty-year time capsule, recently opened by former classmates, at her home on Wednesday, June 15, 2022, in Lafayette.
Jeremiah Carriere looks at the contents of a twenty-year time capsule, recently opened by former classmates, at Roya Boustany's home on Wednesday, June 15, 2022, in Lafayette.
Matthew Latiolais looks at the contents of a twenty-year time capsule recently opened by former classmates at Roya Boustany's home on Wednesday, June 15, 2022, in Lafayette.
The contents of a recently unearthed twenty-year time capsule are looked over at Roya Boustany's home on Wednesday, June 15, 2022, in Lafayette.
Danielle Coles views the contents of a twenty-year time capsule recently opened by former classmates at Roya Boustany's home on Wednesday, June 15, 2022, in Lafayette.
Roya Boustany, left, Andy Matthew Latiolais view some of the contents of a twenty-year time capsule, recently opened by the former classmates, at Boustany's home on Wednesday, June 15, 2022, in Lafayette.
Roya Boustany, left, and Matthew Latiolais, view some of the contents of a twenty-year time capsule, recently opened by the former classmates, at Boustany's home on Wednesday, June 15, 2022, in Lafayette.
Handwritten notes are among the items in a twenty-year time capsule, displayed at Roya Boustany's home on Wednesday, June 15, 2022, in Lafayette.
Matthew Latiolais, left, and Jeremiah Carriere, center, look over the contents of a twenty-year time capsule recently opened by former classmates with their third grade teacher, Vickie Ritchey, right, at Roya Boustany's home on Wednesday, June 15, 2022, in Lafayette.
Matthew Latiolais views the contents of a twenty-year time capsule recently opened by former classmates at Roya Boustany's home on Wednesday, June 15, 2022, in Lafayette.
Matthew Latiolais, left, and Jeremiah Carriere, look at their third grade yearbook, which was among the contents of a twenty-year time capsule recently opened by the former classmates, at Roya Boustany's home on Wednesday, June 15, 2022, in Lafayette.
A few members of Vickie Ritchey's 1994-95 third grade class and their friends are pictured at S.J. Montgomery Elementary School on June 6, when they dug up a time capsule buried 27 years ago on the school campus. Pictured from left to right are Jeremiah Carrier, Danielle Coles, Dawn Thibodeaux, Amber Land, Roya Boustany and Christopher Baca.
A few members of Vickie Ritchey's 1994-95 third grade class and their friends are pictured at S.J. Montgomery Elementary School on June 6, when they dug up a time capsule buried 27 years ago on the school campus. Pictured from left to right are JennaLee McCoy, Dawn Thibodeaux, Mickie Benoit, Amber Land, Danielle Coles, Jeremiah Carrier, Chris Kesel and Roya Boustany.
Roya Boustany, left, Jeremiah Carriere, second from left, and Matthew Latiolais, right, look over contents of a twenty-year time capsule, recently opened by the classmates, with their third grade teacher, Vickie Ritchey, second from right, at Boustany's home on Wednesday, June 15, 2022, in Lafayette.
Clockwise from left, Roya Boustany, Danielle Coles, Vickie Ritchey, and Jeremiah Carriere, look over the contents of a twenty-year time capsule, recently opened by the former classmates, at Boustany's home on Wednesday, June 15, 2022, in Lafayette.
From left, Jeremiah Carriere, Danielle Coles, and Vickie Ritchey, view contents of a twenty-year time capsule, recently opened by the former classmates, at Roya Boustany's home on Wednesday, June 15, 2022, in Lafayette.
Matthew Latiolais looks at the contents of a twenty-year time capsule recently opened by former classmates at Roya Boustany's home on Wednesday, June 15, 2022, in Lafayette.
The contents of a recently unearthed twenty-year time capsule are looked over at Roya Boustany's home on Wednesday, June 15, 2022, in Lafayette.
Danielle Coles views the contents of a twenty-year time capsule recently opened by former classmates at Roya Boustany's home on Wednesday, June 15, 2022, in Lafayette.
Roya Boustany, left, Andy Matthew Latiolais view some of the contents of a twenty-year time capsule, recently opened by the former classmates, at Boustany's home on Wednesday, June 15, 2022, in Lafayette.
Roya Boustany, left, and Matthew Latiolais, view some of the contents of a twenty-year time capsule, recently opened by the former classmates, at Boustany's home on Wednesday, June 15, 2022, in Lafayette.
Matthew Latiolais, left, and Jeremiah Carriere, center, look over the contents of a twenty-year time capsule recently opened by former classmates with their third grade teacher, Vickie Ritchey, right, at Roya Boustany's home on Wednesday, June 15, 2022, in Lafayette.
Matthew Latiolais, left, and Jeremiah Carriere, look at their third grade yearbook, which was among the contents of a twenty-year time capsule recently opened by the former classmates, at Roya Boustany's home on Wednesday, June 15, 2022, in Lafayette.
The third grade students in Vickie Ritchey's 1994-95 class at S.J. Montgomery Elementary were nicknamed the time keepers and, until last week, they had an engraved stone on the school campus that included that designation.
That's because a few members of the class recently returned to the school to dig up a time capsule they buried there 27 years earlier.
"I was supposed to be on vacation, but we ended up not going," said Roya Boustany. "We worked on that forever, and it meant so much to us back then. I had to be there."
Seated, from left, Jeremiah Carriere, Vickie Ritchey, and Matthew Latiolais, view contents of a twenty-year time capsule recently opened by the former classmates at the home of Roya Boustany, right, on Wednesday, June 15, 2022, in Lafayette.
The 8- and 9-year-olds in the 1994-95 class predicted all the ways life would be different in May 2020 when they planned to return to the school to dig up their project.
Jeremiah Carriere thought automobiles might be replaced by "airmobiles" or use water instead of gasoline. He expected a car would cost at least $1 million by the year 2020.
Jeremiah Carriere looks at the contents of a twenty-year time capsule, recently opened by former classmates, at Roya Boustany's home on Wednesday, June 15, 2022, in Lafayette.
Instead, 2020 brought a pandemic and the news from school administrators that the grown students would not be able to unearth their project as planned.
When members of the class finally dug up the plastic storage container sealed with caulk, they were greeted with a muddy mess of items to sort through — everything from comic books and baseball cards to photographs and a VHS tape with TV shows. Most of the paper items were laminated, but not everything was salvageable.
Roya Boustany views contents of a twenty-year time capsule, recently opened by former classmates, at her home on Wednesday, June 15, 2022, in Lafayette.
Although Carriere's predictions were far from current reality, a note to the students from Lafayette's mayor at the time did come true.
"Hope 'today' we have our bridge: Camellia Blvd," Kenny Bowen wrote in a note to the third grade class.
Bowen, who served three terms as mayor, pushed for the Camellia Boulevard bridge over the Vermilion River. He died in 2002 — just before the construction project was completed.
Matthew Latiolais views the contents of a twenty-year time capsule recently opened by former classmates at Roya Boustany's home on Wednesday, June 15, 2022, in Lafayette.
The time capsule also included letters to the students from former Gov. Edwin Edwards, former President Bill Clinton and other elected officials.
Boustany is the one who wrote to the politicians to ask for autographed photos and notes to include in the class project at her mother's recommendation.
"I knew from a young age what Roya would become," said her mom, Debbie Sadreddini. "She always said she'd be the first woman president."
Boustany works as an assistant district attorney for the 15th Judicial District Court and is campaigning for Lafayette City Court judge.
After digging up the project alongside her classmates and friends, Boustany shared photos of their findings on social media and lamented that they weren't able to find contact information for their teacher. A Facebook friend who knew both Boustany and Ritchey was able to connect the two women, who met with other members of the class at Boustany's home this week to look through the cleaned-up time capsule items.
A few members of Vickie Ritchey's 1994-95 third grade class and their friends are pictured at S.J. Montgomery Elementary School on June 6, when they dug up a time capsule buried 27 years ago on the school campus. Pictured from left to right are Jeremiah Carrier, Danielle Coles, Dawn Thibodeaux, Amber Land, Roya Boustany and Christopher Baca.
Among the items that survived was a sheet with the price of movie tickets and concessions at the Acadiana Mall's movie theater, which has since closed. Movie tickets in 1995 were just $5.50 for adults and $3.75 for children. A medium popcorn was $2.25, and a medium soda was also $2.25. A medium candy was $1.50.
Ritchey, now 70, could still remember details about the students she taught 27 years earlier.
"Do you have a twin?" Ritchey asked Matthew Latiolais, who nodded yes. Ritchey looked at the grown man. "You're tall," she added.
A few members of Vickie Ritchey's 1994-95 third grade class and their friends are pictured at S.J. Montgomery Elementary School on June 6, when they dug up a time capsule buried 27 years ago on the school campus. Pictured from left to right are JennaLee McCoy, Dawn Thibodeaux, Mickie Benoit, Amber Land, Danielle Coles, Jeremiah Carrier, Chris Kesel and Roya Boustany.
Ritchey spent 27 of her 35 years of teaching at S.J. Montgomery before retiring in 2011. Sometimes, when her students would see the project's stone with her name on it, they would ask if she was buried on the campus or if she was planning to be buried there.
The 1994-95 class doesn't stand out to her more than any other one, she said. It was made up of "just a bunch of different personalities," Ritchey said. "You remember those that were very talkative. You remember some very quiet ones."
Handwritten notes are among the items in a twenty-year time capsule, displayed at Roya Boustany's home on Wednesday, June 15, 2022, in Lafayette.
It was the classmates who could recall the details from the school year when they created a time capsule.
Carriere remembered getting six weeks of detention after punching another student. When the 30-somethings told Ritchey how harsh that punishment seemed, the teacher was quick to say the office staff was responsible for doling out disciplinary actions like that.
"It’s incredibly important to record individual time," Boustany said. "When you’re a little kid putting that stuff in there, you can’t really imagine what the future’s going to look like. Now, as an adult looking back, I think about the friends I made. It was an incredible experience, something I'll never forget."
Email Megan Wyatt at mwyatt@theadvocate.com.
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