Turning Out the Lights

     21 August 2017. This was the day of the "Great American Eclipse." A solar eclipse swept from Oregon to South Caroline, bringing a swath of total darkness through a number of state capitals, incuding Salem, OR; Lincoln, NE; and Columbia, SC. NASA broadcasted its images.
     In Wenatchee, WA, we lay a few hundred miles out of the path of the umbra, but we could see the eclipse by looking through safe eclipse lenses. Every time a broadcaster said that the eclipse looked like a bite out of a cookie, Jerry said "Num num num num." Even though we experienced a 90% eclipse here, we had a bright, sunny day and the sky did not darken appreciably. Brook reported a nice,sunny day in Salt Lake City, and a good show through dark lenses. But Eric saw it all:  He took his family to Charlston, SC, to the university campus from which NASA was doing some of its broadcasting. He said the light show was awesome, and his boys were duly impressed.
     I asked if either of them remembered the eclipse in Seattle in 1979. I was working at the Seattle City Attorney's office, and stood in the 10th Floor lobby of the old City Hall watching the sky turn as dark as night, suddenly, then immediately brighten up. I was surprised at how quickly the total part of the eclipse passed.
     Brook was nine years old at the time. His recollection is vague. Eric was in the 6th grade and recalls that the sky was overcast, so only the loss of light was noticeable, no images of monsters taking bites out of the sun, no coronas. He said that at the darkest, the street lights blinked on, but then winked out again.