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Colander eclipse

The day of the eclipse, April 8, 2024, was bright and warm, but not hot. The weather felt perfect, calm and restful with glorious sunlight. Then for three minutes it was dark, so dark that the streetlights came on. A toddler near us in the park started crying; the air felt cold and lifeless. The moment the very edge of the sun emerged from behind the moon, everything came back to life. We cheered. The light filled our lives again.

My children and I drove to Marion, Indiana, to view the eclipse. The town expected lots of people to visit from further north, so they held an “eclipse-a-palooza” in a large park. There were food trucks, a live band and announcer, a weather balloon launch, and several craft vendors. I bought some stone jewelry and an eclipse t-shirt. We all sat on the grass and wore special glasses made of cardboard, with dark polarized plastic lenses, to view the sun as it was slowly covered by the moon.

I brought a colander, a large metal bowl with round holes cut in it for draining vegetables. When held three or four feet above a surface, the colander showed the progress of the eclipse by showing crescents of light instead of circles. After the totality had passed, as people were stretching and children began to run around again, I went from group to group, asking if I could show them something cool. They all thanked me after seeing the crescents of light on cloth surfaces. Many of them asked me to stay a moment so they could take a picture. It was a lot of fun and I enjoyed sharing.

My daughters, with an air of discovery, said, “Mom, you need a group of first graders to show this to,” and “You could lead storytime and library activities!” I realized that they are right; I would love to share with small children the cool things I’ve learned. I don’t know how the public libraries work, or if they allow random people to volunteer to tell stories. I bet some do and some don’t, depending on regulations and past experiences. But the homeschool co-ops would probably like having a story-teller now and then. And I would get to talk to the moms before and after.