Monday, April 8, 2024

Total Eclipse 1970

Well, today's the long-awaited day of the total solar eclipse! Are you ready?

I hadn't even thought about getting glasses to see it, since I get off work at 3:00 and figured I would be in my car driving home from work when 'zero hour' hits. But on Saturday, during my stop at the Lorain Public Library, an employee kindly fixed me with an official pair of LPL glasses. So I'm probably going to loiter in the parking lot of my place of employment for twenty minutes to be part of the hoopla. 

After all, this might be one of those "Where were you?" moments in our life. 

I've been asked a few times about the 1970 total eclipse. My memory of it is a little fuzzy (I was 11 at the time). I remember being on the side of the house with the little box I made, with a pinhole in it. How did I know how to make it? Maybe it was featured in "Cappy Dick."

Anyway, for those of you who weren't born yet in 1970, as well as those who wonder how the media covered it back then, here's the front page of the Lorain Journal of March 8, 1970. I like how the headline makes reference to 2024. It sure seems futuristic in that context!

And here's the continuation of the front page story.

I know we had saved that particular newspaper for a while. But when I checked the large plastic container full of crumbling Journals that my parents saved, it was not to be found.
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4 comments:

  1. Don HiltonApril 8, 2024 at 8:21 AM

    I remember the 1970 ee-klips pretty well - Dad was into such things. He had a couple sets of old welder goggles that we used to semi-singed our retinas. It was a total, though, that ran all along the east coast of the U.S.

    NASA says the next one that comes as close as Columbus is on Sept. 14, 2099.

    Hey, Dan... You gonna be blogging about 2024 in 2099?

    You'll be, what? Right around 140 by then.

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  2. BusterApril 8, 2024 at 11:56 AM

    I feel like I am 140 now, but according to my driver's license, I am only 75. That means I was 21 the last time the eclipse rolled around. I don't remember a thing about it, but then I don't think it was total or close to it around here. (Could be wrong, tho!)

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  3. Don HiltonApril 8, 2024 at 1:15 PM

    Buster... in 1970 it was a partial in this neck of the woods. Totality ran right along the eastern seaboard.

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  4. BusterApril 8, 2024 at 1:27 PM

    Don - Thanks for the information! I was in college and it was the day after my 21st birthday. So less than total recall of the occasion.

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