NORTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. - A message in a bottle found after being hidden in a wall at Quonset Naval Air Station for more than 60 years came with a question its authors knew couldn't be answered unless their makeshift time capsule was discovered
The message asked, "Will this bottle see the sun?"
It did after being found in May, and Quonset Development Corporation authorities in North Kingstown made the bottle and its contents public Friday.
Harry Berrio, a demolition crew member, found the bottle while taking down barracks at the Quonset station. Berrio said when he saw the writing, he realized it was something special.
The bottle offers a rare glimpse into the past. The message inside was written in 1941 on a business card by two carpenters _ Theodore Jackvony of Providence and Emile Gaudette of Seekonk. The men wrote their names on the back of the card, which was from a Providence candy store that no longer exists. Then they shoved it into a pill bottle and sealed it inside the walls of the building they were working on.
North Kingstown historian Tim Cranston said the two men were part of a civilian army hired to build two military bases in the area. Much of what they built is now gone.
It isn't clear why the men left the message, but Jackvony's daughter, Estelle Borino, said her father, who died in 1976, had a mischievous side.
