ECLIPSE
When my wife first told me that she wanted to travel to my hometown in South Carolina to see the Eclipse I thought she was crazy! We had just been to SC back in the middle of July to attend a wedding and going back within a few weeks to see a 3 minutes eclipse was the last thing on my mind. Sometimes rather than verbalizing an entire sentence regarding her interest, she would just walk past me in the house and utter the word “ECLIPSE!” I was beginning to realize that she was being deadly serious!
Cecelia is a big science fiction fan! She reads science fiction and she drag me to all those movies. When we are sitting in the theater, and whenever an advertisement for an upcoming Science Fiction film is previewed, I get an immediate sense of doom, realizing that punishment is in my near future. In order to ameliorate this doom, I sometimes I become proactive, and tell her, “Let just go and get it over with”; in that way, I can lessen the duration of the upcoming pain.
Once we do attend such movies, and on those occasions when she would to leave the theater for the lady’s room, upon returning her first question to me is: “What happened?” Not only am I being punished, but I am also being evaluated on the inner details of my punishment! This would now require that I invest more effort into remaining awake during her absence!
You see I can recall the eclipse from May 1967. I don’t recall what it was called, total, partial, solar, but I do recall it getting as dark as night. We knew it was coming and it was nice to see, but I never thought much of it. It was just exciting to seeing darkness in the day time. It was certainly eerie though, and many folks in my community thought that the world was coming to an end. What else could be the explanation?
In the end I finally relented and decided to accompany Cecelia and a friend from college to South Carolina. We would spend a couples nights with my uncle who recently relocated to Manning from Miami. This was very convenient for us because there were no hotels available. Manning, South Carolina was one of those lucky areas that found itself in the “eye of the storm” as it were. It seems that for once, South Carolina was the destination for folks on the East Coast.
Therefore, we left New Jersey for South Carolina very early Sunday morning. We even decided to bring our little dog, Sammy, to SC for the first time. He loves riding in cars, and this would be his longest ride ever. Leaving very early Sunday morning, we did not experience much traffic until we got to North Carolina. In all my years of driving through North Carolina, I have never experienced traffic jams as we did on the day before the eclipse. At one point, our GPS even had us get off I95 for about 10 miles, and guided us down what seems to be a one lane high way which had no name. I have never had to take an alternate route when traveling to South Carolina. But this Sunday was different!
We arrived in Manning SC at around 5pm on Sunday afternoon. We had dinner at Shoneys in Manning out on 261. There weren’t many choices unless we drove to Sumter, and after driving for over 12 hours, we wanted something a bit more convenient. As I mentioned earlier, we also accompanied one of our dearest friends who now lives in New York and who had been Cecelia’s friend since their college days. This was Silvia’s first time in my hometown, so I wanted her to really see where I was from. After dinner we drove to Davis Station. After arriving in the big DS, I drove in the direction of my childhood home which is located behind New Light Baptist Church.
As we were arriving near the church, we noticed ambulances and police cars lined up at the edge of field that was abutted against a wooded area. Of course, we would be curious about what was going on. After all, this was near my childhood home, so obviously I would be interested in what was happening. I made a U-turn and asked one of the several onlookers what was going on. One guy I recognized immediately and was able to learn that a body had been found. I would later learn that it was the body of someone who had been missing for several days and was accidentally found by a Preacher walking along the wooded area. A couple of days later I realized that the deceased was an individual that was listed as “missing” on my Facebook just a few days earlier. Out of respect for the family, I will not list a name.
After our visit to Davis Station, we returned to back to my uncle’s home. It had been a very long day, and after showers we all went to bed, anticipation the Eclipse the next day.
Monday morning was hot and humid. After giving Sammy his morning walk, we all went to Breakfast at the Huddle House, also on highway 261. Since moving back to South Carolina, the Huddle House has become my uncle’s favorite place for breakfast. All the waitresses know and like him! After breakfast we returned to my uncle’s home for some relaxation and continued preparations for the eclipse.
At around 11am we went to the local Walmart to get some items for lunch since Eclipse was would be happening shortly after lunch. After arriving at the Walmart, I was surprised to see the number of cars in the parking lot. Folks were staking their places. Some folks had put up tents, and some had apparently been in the lot for the entire night. The entire scene appeared festive, and one would think that a football game was about to happen with all the tailgating. It was very hot and humid, and we were so fortunate to being staying with a relative, as opposed to being exposed to the temperature in a parking lot. I was informed by Bobby and Sherial that the park near their home was absolutely packed. Inside the Walmart people were buying up all the goodies they could scavenge. Picnic foods such as Fried chicken and potato salad were flying off the shelves.
The Eclipse was expected to hit our area at approximately 2:40 PM. Cecelia rushed through her lunch and ran outside early. She was so excited that the very hot temperature was only secondary in her mind. She didn’t want to waste time eating chicken wings, particularly after having ridden more than 12 hours to see the eclipses. She could see that they were celebrating totality in Missouri; therefore, she went outside knowing that the eclipse would initiate shortly after 1pm in our area and you could see it beginning to happen on the east coast. She was fascinated with the speed with which it was happening with a speed of nearly 1200 miles per hour.
Later we were all outside, using our glassed of course. It was exciting looking at the moon’s obit as it began to hide the sun. As the eclipse was happening you could recognize a gradual drop in the temperature. As the transition was occurring the atmosphere took on a hazy look and finally had a twilight effect. With our glasses we could see the percent change as the moon was hiding 50% of the sun, then 75%, and finally total. You could hear crickets chirping in the dark!
It was one of those rare times in our country when there was a sense of community! We realized that we are all part of the one universe! We also realized the importance of science; the fact that we can predict these occurrences!
Our understanding of the world is likened to grain of sand on an expansive beach. There is so much we don’t know and will never know!
Perhaps experiencing the eclipse humbles us and reminds us that we are only minor players in a vast universe. Perhaps the ultimate mysteries of the world will never be known.
The Sun is our closest star! It is approximately 93,000,000 miles away. The Moon is much closer at 240,000 miles away. Scientists tell us that there are many suns and perhaps many moons and many planets.
However:
The moon happens to be our moon!
The Sun happens to be our Sun!
The Earth happens to be our planet!
The eclipse is an alignment of the three, if ever so briefly!
I am indeed humbled!
Jerome