Maintenance employees at Manitou Springs High School find a mountain of vintage orange juice and soda cans, as well as other nostalgic items ranging from the early 70s to early 80s.
Initially, Scott Tindall noticed before winter break that there was old duct work and cinder block walls in Jack Willie Gymnasium that indicated past construction changes. The purpose of the exploration was to ensure there was no mechanical equipment left behind, as part of an effort to improve air quality and ensure a healthy environment for the students.
“So what I ended up doing was taking the lift and going up on top of the gym entrance, and taking the grill at the top off to get inside,” Tindall said. “And that’s actually where we found a ton of old opened mountain dew, pepsi, and juice cans, all from the 1970’s.”
Due to the potentially dangerous location where the vintage stash was found, Tindall had an accomplice to help him explore safely. Former student and wrestler at MSHS, Wesley Reeves is employed by the maintenance staff at MSHS. “Scott was like, ‘Hey, do you want to go check out this hole in the wall with me?’, and I was like yeah,” Reeves said. “And really it wasn’t a whole lot of climbing, more squeezing through a confined space, kind of like caving.”
After researching the vintage finds, Tindall looks at avenues for the cans to be displayed. The Indian Citrus Museum based in Vero Beach, Florida is a place that collects historic memorabilia surrounding the beginning of commercial cultivation of citrus. “So I sent them a picture, and right away they were like ‘Oh my god, those are such beautiful specimens’,” said Tindall. “The goal is to send the package to the museum, with the two juice cans wrapped up nicely.”
While the original reason for exploring the confined space was intended to support the safety and health of the students, the walls of MSHS had a different plan. “I just thought it was really cool to get to see that time gap,” Reeves said.
