Like most of you, we were super psyched about the solar eclipse. Even though Concord wasn’t in the path of totality, who doesn’t want to see a partial black out of the sun by its nighttime counterpart.
Then we heard some pretty disappointing news: Those special glasses you need to see the eclipse were just about impossible to find. Shame on us for waiting till the last minute.
Now we could have been defiant and just starred at the sun, but who wants to have their vision affected for the rest of their lives for a few seconds of enjoyment. Plus, we kind of need our eye sight for this line of work.
Understandably bummed, we still held out hope of getting a glimpse of the event – just wasn’t quite sure how.
It began in Concord at 1:27 p.m., just prior to when we needed to leave the office for an interview at the Concord Public Library.
As we made our way to the library from our free two-hour parking spot on Centre Street, luck was on our side. A few people from Tarbell & Brodich were in the law office driveway gazing up at the sun (using the special glasses, of course). We asked how they worked and they said ‘do you want to look?’ Did we look that desperate?
Of course, the answer was yes and at that point, right around 2, there was just a little bit of the sun blocked out, but cool nonetheless.
After my interview with Laila Ruffin, the new state youth poet laureate (read about her on the previous page – assuming you’re reading this is the hard copy form) who was also interested in seeing the eclipse at its maximum. we hit the streets outside the library to see if anyone would be out there and willing to share their glasses.
This must have been our lucky day because there was a nice group of ladies (who had been given a free pair outside of a store earlier in the day) who were more than happy to share. As it turns out, we got to see it at the best and most covered time. A few others took in the generosity, as the glasses got passed around. Including Grayson Barth and her mom who were using one of those cereal box creations to see it. We checked that out too, which was cool but the glasses were so much better.
If for some reason you missed the eclipse or didn’t know about it (which we find hard to fathom) you won’t have to wait long. The next solar eclipse will take place in 2024 and the ol’ Granite State will be in that previously mentioned path of totality. We’ll definitely plan ahead to get some glasses for that.
We certainly don’t want to miss that.
