Menu
Solar Eclipse 2024: 'It was awesome'
Wanting a summary of an event that won’t grace us with its presence here in Greencastle again until Oct. 17, 2153? Well, here goes.
It was awesome!
That succinct assessment is courtesy of Sheriff Jerrod Baugh when asked about traffic conditions as folks were exiting Putnam County late Monday afternoon.
Now, I can’t be sure whether he was referencing the eclipse itself or the relatively calm traffic day compared to what was considered possible.
I’d like to think it was both.
First of all, being in the path of totality was truly awesome in the truest sense of the word. I’m not talking in the surfer crowd Jeff Spicoli/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles sense in which we’ve used the word since the 1980s.
I mean it was awesome in that it literally inspired awe. And if you’re not such a fan of Mr. Webster’s penchant for defining a word with another form of the same word, we can say the total solar eclipse variously inspired dread, veneration and wonder that is inspired by the sacred or sublime.
Some of you might say I’m getting a bit carried away. That’s OK by me. The events of shortly after 3 p.m. Monday afternoon certainly felt sacred and sublime to me.
I wasn’t alone in that feeling.
When was the last time you heard applause break out for a simple act of nature? It happened where I was stationed at the Putnam County Regional Airport. My wife and mother-in-law reported that the same thing in her southside neighborhood. People were told what to expect and yet they still found themselves awestruck.
After watching totality approach for more than an hour, the moment lived up to the hype. When does anything in life live up to the hype?
Of course, when it comes to the hoopla surrounding the event, some elements may have been overblown. Did the population of Putnam County double on Monday? I certainly didn’t see evidence of any such thing. The traffic I saw both before and after the event would have caused me great stress on any other day.
But compared to what I expected? It was a piece of cake.
Baugh and Cpl. Scott Ducker both seemed to be in this boat as well. Around noon, both officers reported an increase in traffic, but nothing that seemed to worry them too much.
Afterward, the biggest local problem was U.S. 231 from Greencastle north to U.S. 36. The sheriff reported that local authorities got in touch with INDOT, at which point state officials changed the timing on the stop light at U.S. 231 and U.S. 36, opening up the northbound and southbound lanes for twice as long as normal.
In Baugh’s estimation, the best thing was that the county was prepared for the worst, keeping students home from school as well as many adults home from their jobs.
While out on the roads, he said he saw very few local cars, instead seeing easy-up tents and working grills in people’s yards.
“I can’t believe how smoothly today went,” Baugh said. “I think putting these kids at the house with their families was great. It was awesome to have people sitting at their home and not out on the roads. If the factories had let out ... oh my goodness.”
On county roads, one deputy even described traffic as “almost Covid-like” in its scarcity.
At events such as the one at the airport, viewers found a similar experience — busy but not too busy.
“This is perfect because there’s not a huge amount of people, but you’re not alone,” Bonnie Senft of Wisconsin said.
Indeed, airport officials were pleased with their event, which attracted drivers from as far away as Denver as well as 35 different aircrafts from as far away as Sioux Falls, S.D.
And what did they come all the way to little, old Greencastle to see?
Something that won’t happen here again until we’re long dead — a wonder of the cosmos.
They saw something awesome.