Back in August of 2017, I drove two hours to Alliance, Neb., in order to witness the eclipse in totality. It was worth every moment. I went to a nice park where I knew my way around. As I perused the area I saw a group with a huge telescope all set up. They were there to see the eclipse and also to share their knowledge and looking devices. One fellow had gone to a welding shop and purchased the lens like is in a welding helmet. That gave him a nice rectangular viewing piece.

The man in charge of the group, we’ll call him Dude, was on is 11^th eclipse and his wife, Dudette, on her ninth. They have ventured throughout the world to do this. They were from St. Paul, Minn., and they chose Alliance due to the central location for their small group. It was composed of a couple from the Netherlands, a man from Australia, another from Spain, and a handful of Americans.

The park was not any more crowded than any summer day. The kids played on the swings and the many, many dogs, well, they did their thing and I never saw anyone picking it up. The eclipse was a darkness and coolness compared to a late dusk, not totally dark. The most prevalent comment that people made even where they were not in the area of totality was “It didn’t get dark!” For some reason they thought it would be dark as night.

With the glasses I watched as the eclipse moved through its phases. People without the special glasses missed so much; the ones I heard from were in areas predicted to be 98.5 percent of totality or a bit less. Without the glasses they weren’t able to realize the changes as the eclipse progressed. I’m sorry these folks have the glasses which were given away for free at assorted venues.

Dudette had a small white tablecloth on the ground and periodically she held up a colander she had brought along to show the phases in shadow, through the small holes. She also had a piece of heavy paper with holes punched throughout for the same purpose. Since she used to be an elementary teacher she was particularly attentive to children and explained many things to them. After the eclipse was over one boy about 11 years old said, “It was so worth it!”

My regret was my grandkids were not allowed to accompany me to see it since it fell on their first day of school.

I could see there was going to be a mass exodus from Alliance and therefore traffic snarls. I hung around the park, watching the fountain and seeing the archway constructed by the National Youth Administration, which was one of FDR’s work project groups during the Great Depression as I let the crowds thin out. It paid off as I had a fairly traffic free drive home.

Sander’s internet latchstring is always out through peggy@peggysanders.com.