In honor of the January 15th African annular eclipse, I thought it apropos to flashback to the only total solar eclipse I’ve seen in person, the February 26, 1979 eclipse in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
About a dozen of us, all junior and senior high school boys, and very loosely chaperoned by our Physics teacher, made the three hour drive north and spent the night in a Winnipeg hotel. In our room, I remember Alan Parsons Project’s Pyramid and (naturally) Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon cassettes playing in the background. Probably some cards were played, and possibly we actually slept, too.
On the big morning, we set up near the Winnipeg airport, along with a couple other cars of people also parked along the barren road there.
Dono don’s his snow gear as others monitor the eclipse’s progress
"é rayhahn, rayhahn" 