Written and submitted by my dear friend Jo Anne P. in NC
Jo Anne and husband Tom in their antique store – 2019
In 2017, our little town of Andrews (pop. 1800), was a totality town for the solar eclipse. We had approx. 25k people descend on our community from all over the world. My store was packed with people wall to wall. I spoke with folks from 26 countries from Russia, China, Brazil, New Zealand, etc.
Our little airport had 129 planes fly in, and the mayor shuttled visitors in the towns golf cart.
Because there weren’t enough Port-a-Potties to go around, my store restroom was busy. And, folks visiting were cleaning my bathroom throughout the day. This went on for 3 days.
Our schools became campgrounds and Air-BNBs with visitors utilizing the gyms, cafeterias, and bathrooms and showers.
Nasa staged a high-powered telescope for patrons at the local middle school. And a large projection screen outdoors provided a movie night. Our community center and pool were open to visitors, too. We had all kinds of events going on related to the solar eclipse as well.
All in all, it was a great experience and everyone loved their time spent in our town. On the following Monday, when everyone left, there was no single negative impact on our town. Every visitor collected trash and left our town as they found it! It’s was so impressive. It was great fun!
That weekend of the solar eclipse in 2017 was phenomenal! Folks that had visited our town that year came back the next year just to say hello and visit us again. Even those from other countries. It was great.
I pray our little community will have the same luck, it will be here in full regalia.
Exciting times.
I’m in Western Indiana, and in our part of the countryside people are planning their yards for “parking”. They may be a little over zealous…😂