Michelle Loubon

"Emo­tion­al." It was the feel­ing that pre­vailed when the ANSA McAL time cap­sule was be­ing sealed. Among those who wit­nessed the his­toric mo­ment were his­to­ri­ans Prof Brid­get Br­ere­ton and Michael An­tho­ny, 1976 Olympic gold medal­list Hase­ly Craw­ford, mas­man Bri­an Mc­Far­lane and hu­man­i­tar­i­an/busi­ness­woman Han­nah Janoura. They were joined by UWI St Au­gus­tine cam­pus prin­ci­pal Prof Clement Sankat and en­vi­ron­men­tal­ist Mol­ly Gaskin. Artist LeRoi Clarke was al­so present.

Ran­dom checks with sev­er­al il­lus­tri­ous cit­i­zens re­vealed they, too, felt "a bit emo­tion­al,"?as they re­flect­ed up­on T&T's 50th an­niver­sary mile­stone. They felt the time cap­sule was an ex­cel­lent idea among a sea of sug­ges­tions to cel­e­brate In­de­pen­dence. Hav­ing just re­turned from Ko­rea, Sankat said it pained him that when com­pared to T&T, Ko­rea had made great strides in cre­at­ing a pros­per­ous so­ci­ety with lim­it­ed nat­ur­al re­sources.

"We have so much nat­ur­al re­sources here...So much more could be done," he said. While her trade­mark Nah Leav­in played in the back­ground, for­mer ca­lyp­so monarch Denyse Plum­mer said:?"It was an emo­tion­al mo­ment. I could not re­strain the tears. I felt proud as a cit­i­zen. It was a good idea for ANSA McAL?to have a time cap­sule. It is an amaz­ing con­cept. I am so full...full, full. Hap­py In­de­pen­dence, T&T!"

She wore a red chunky neck­lace and match­ing ear­rings. When the me­dia radar shift­ed to Craw­ford who brought home gold from Mon­tre­al, Cana­da, he said:?"I am proud of all that we have ac­com­plished...es­pe­cial­ly Keshorn Wal­cott. I was out there in Eng­land sup­port­ing him. He is hum­ble and hard-work­ing. Many peo­ple may not know it, but he trains on pub­lic hol­i­days. Even on Sun­days. He is fo­cused. Wal­cott was emo­tion­al. To­day is an­oth­er emo­tion­al day."

Se­nior cit­i­zens like San Juan res­i­dent Lynette "Granny" Luces and tele­vi­sion broad­cast­er Hol­ly Be­taudi­er re­mem­bered In­de­pen­dence Day (Au­gust 31, 1962)?as though it were yes­ter­day. Ac­com­pa­nied by her hus­band and chil­dren, Luces made the trek to Port-of-Spain. She felt In­de­pen­dence meant striv­ing to be an in­de­pen­dent woman.

Be­taudi­er, 87, said:?"I re­mem­ber the Prime Min­is­ter (Er­ic Williams). It is one of the great­est ex­pe­ri­ences in my time. I had to do five-minute clips for every cor­ner and es­tab­lish­ment through­out Trinidad and To­ba­go so they could par­tic­i­pate in In­de­pen­dence."