Did you see it? Did you feel it? Could you hear nature turning down its volume?

Of course you did. And while nature’s noise diminished, human voices grew louder and stronger. What did we hear from those voices of Totality 2024? The more subdued offered simple pronouncements, such as “I enjoyed my viewing experience”. Others took to social media to broadcast their personal experiences, such as “I’m super pumped!”, “I had a blast – a fun-filled weekend”, “heard the best playlist”, “share your pics!” Hawkers - not to be dissuaded by the expiration of the event - joined in and proclaimed the continued availability of “eclipse merch”.

The descriptions offered during “totalities past” stand in sharp contrast to those of our recent event.  The total eclipse of January 24, 1925 earned its place in the Elyria Chronicle Telegram with a reminder that it was “the first total eclipse visible here since June 18, 1806,” and there would not be another until the year 2024. “Veritably, this is the chance of a lifetime” intoned the journalist. The moon was predicted to “shroud Elyria in a pall of varying twilight”, with “a show in the heavens that will live up to advance notices”.

The 1925 eclipse was preceded by an 1806 totality event, with its own uniquely colorful news column imageries. A New York newspaper called the eclipse a “sublime phenomenon”, conspiring to “produce an effect on the mind which cannot be described”. The reporting journalist must have been deeply stirred, as he continued with his inspired words: “a sudden chillness pervaded the atmosphere, and night at mid-day seemed to envelope the earth, until the glorious luminary, bursting from its confinement, instantly dissipated the gloom, and gradually restored the day”. To add to that dazzling narrative, he wrote: “Just before, and after the total obscurity, innumerable vapoury shadows, of various forms, were seen, in tremulous motions on the surface of the earth, resembling the undulations of the ocean”. The article also presaged the Chronicle’s 1925 stark reminder that “many generations must pass away before so grand an exhibition of the kind” will again occur.

Kudos to the admirers of the 2024 eclipse, but a weak applause for their summations. No-one mentioned their viewing experience in the pall of varying twilight; not a word about being super pumped for a celestial imitation of the undulations of the ocean; and no-one shared having had a blast in the glorious luminary. Nevertheless, it appears that a good time was had by all.