The eclipse was a hit. How about an encore in 2025?
Just a suggestion: Let’s have a total solar eclipse more often.
Almost a month has passed since the last eclipse here, and my binge-watching self cries out for another and another and another.
Good grief, the next total solar eclipse in Rochester is scheduled for 2079. Talk about bad programming. It’s hard enough that there was no fourth season of “Ted Lasso.” Putting off an eclipse for 55 years is just insane.
Basically, less is not more when it comes to eclipses. We need more.
How many more?
Well, every other month would suit me, but I’m willing to accept one every other year.
That would give us several months for the buildup. Then we’d have the actual three- or four-minute event, to be followed by a year and a half of reflection.
OK, I know eclipses take work, though I’m not sure of the mechanics.
I assume that for the April 2024 event some physicists tinkered with gravity and orbits and all the stuff I forgot to learn in high school.
Whatever the scientists did, it worked. The eclipse was good for the soul and good for the economy. People were happy. They had something to talk about other than politics and the inflation rate. Hotels were full. Special eclipse craft beers popped up. Eclipse T-shirts were everywhere.
In Geneseo, where we live, the T-shirts featured our iconic bear fountain, the oft-hit one in the middle of Main Street. I had my shirt on when my wife, Cindy, and I went down to the village park to witness the eclipse.
We were right back where our coffee group had gathered once a week during the bad days of the pandemic. Socially distant then and bundled up, we sat six feet apart in a wide circle. We talked of illness and isolation. It was good to be together, but it wasn’t quite fun.
The mood in the park for the eclipse was different. There was a band. There were people of all ages. No one seemed to worry about social distancing.
We found ourselves near a young family from New Jersey. They had come to Geneseo to be in the path of totality. They were prepared with snacks, a blanket to cover the ground, and, of course, glasses for watching the sun disappear.
Actually, the glasses weren’t necessary, as clouds covered the sky. But the moon worked its magic behind the clouds, and around 3 p.m., it got dark suddenly, right on schedule.
It was as if a switch had been flipped, a gray day quickly becoming a dark day. It was terrific. People in the park applauded. They cheered again when light began to return. It was a good show all around.
So, really, let’s do it again. Maybe April 2025. Nice people from all around will come. Schools will close again for the day. We’ll chat, and suddenly it will be dark. Not scary dark, just dark.
Then the light will return, and someone will cry out “Encore.” Two years later, it will happen again, encore after encore. That’s total totality. Bring it on.
Fountain news
Speaking of the Geneseo Main Steet fountain: It was back in the news again early in April for a familiar reason. Yes, it was hit, this time by a pickup truck pulling a trailer.
The impact moved the fountain a little off its base, but by noon the next day everything was back in place.
According to a running tally kept by Eric Osganian, Geneseo’s chief of police, this was the 18th time the fountain had been struck since a major hit on April 7, 2016, toppled the central column, bear and all.
Last month’s incident was the first hit of 2024. There were six hits in 2023, a bumper year.
Every time the fountain is hit outsiders suggest that it should be moved off Main Street, perhaps relocated to a lawn or a parking lot.
People in Geneseo, at least the people I know in Geneseo, say the fountain needs to stay where it is. If nothing else, it gives us something to talk about while we’re waiting for the next eclipse.
From his home in Geneseo, Livingston County, retired senior editor Jim Memmott, writes Remarkable Rochester, who we were, who we are. He can be reached at jmemmott@gannett.com or write Box 274, Geneseo, NY 14454.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Total solar eclipse was a hit in Rochester NY area. Let's do it again.
