I thought I remembered a solar eclipse from when I was a child. Of course, I thought it was a total eclipse, but there were no total eclipses in Bend, Oregon when I was a child! When I look at a site which shows all the solar eclipses in the twentieth century there were two that might have been the one I remember–in 1959 and 1963. Probably the 1963 one is what I remember. I remember we used a pinhole projection into a box, I think, to see a projection of the eclipse. Bend probably only had 50% of the sun eclipsed that year. So my memory of that past eclipse is not very accurate.
My husband and I have decided to drive to Kansas City to see the total eclipse. However the forecast is for clouds and there even thunderstorms, but we’ll see what we see! We have two pair of solar eclipse glasses so we are prepared. (Plus there is a genealogy library I’ve wanted to visit in Independence, Missouri so I’ll have a chance to do a little bit of research while we’re there! Just a coincidence, of course!)
Since I didn’t remember too much about the eclipse from my childhood I decided to search for solar eclipse information from my hometown newspaper–The Bend Bulletin. I found a few very funny stories.
For example, there was a partial solar eclipse in Bend in 1923. The newspaper apparently announced that the eclipse would be the day before the actual event so the next day they published an amusing article stating that since it was Sunday and so many people were in church the eclipse was postponed a day!
So many people were engaged in church services and so many others out of town that Monday seemed a better time for the eclipse. Arrangements were made accordingly, although it was not possible to give notice to all, and the eclipse was held this noon with a high degree of success. (The Bend Bulletin, Monday, Sep 10, 1923, page 4)
Another funny article in 1959 talked about a television show on CBS which decided to follow a group of scientists who traveled to the Pacific island Puka Puka to film a solar eclipse. The CBS camera crew filmed the scientists. However, the scientists weren’t very entertaining.
Among the show’s duller pieces of padding, I would include an irrelevant trip to a Honolulu nightclub, a peek at the initiation ceremonies aboard a ship when it crossed the Equator, a group of speeches by natives in Puka Puka and a group of speeches by scientists in semi-scientistese. (The Bend Bulletin, Tuesday, Jan 20, 1959, page 8)
Parts of Oregon are on the total eclipse path for this eclipse and officials in Oregon expect up to a million people to travel to the path of the eclipse! There has already been bumper-to-bumper traffic in parts of Oregon. I’m glad I’m not in Oregon fighting that traffic.
My brother still lives in Oregon and he is in the path of the eclipse so I think I will probably have to depend on him for eclipse stories since the weather in Iowa and Missouri doesn’t look very good.
Remember the families 