Party in the Path

 

by Pa Rock

Dweller in Darkness

While my little community, West Plains, Missouri (pop. 12,000), is a nice and relatively safe place to live, and a few of its residents live very comfortably, it is by no means wealthy, and locals here are always on the lookout for new ways to make a buck.  It therefore wasn't surprising when word began to circulate a couple of years ago that the Great Eclipse of 2024 would pass directly over West Plains that some of the more enterprising citizens came up with the idea of using that rare natural occurrence to bring some money into town.  A committee was formed, and slowly a plan to turn the eclipse into a four-day commercial event began to materialize.  It was dubbed "The Party in the Path," and it commences today and will culminate on Monday with the total eclipse of the sun.

West Plains has a good set-up for indoor and outdoor activities, with a nice park system along with some other green areas in town, a large, modern civic center with abundant parking, a modern and newly expanded hospital complex, a campus of Missouri State University in town, a great library, and a vibrant business community that stretches across three separate portions of the community.  It is ideally organized and situated for multi-day events with an outdoor focus, and it hosts a couple at least every year.  But a four-day eclipse party would be something different and very unique.

I'm not much on crowds or festivals, so I doubt that I will go to town at all during the festivities.  I bought groceries yesterday, and I have mowing and housekeeping chores that can keep me busy at home.  I am expecting friends from out of town on Monday to enjoy the eclipse from the tranquility of my yard, and I am looking forward to that.

The Busch family Clydesdales will be in town one of the four days, and I would like to see them, but unless those big horses come clopping down my country lane dragging their beer wagon, I probably won't be making their acquaintance.

My son who works in town and hears all of the gossip, said that all of the motel rooms have been rented - at exorbitant prices, and that expectations are that 150,000 people will try to find places to park, eat, and relieve themselves in West Plains over the next couple of days.  He suggested that we should perhaps rent out camping spaces on our ten acres, but I am more the Clint Eastwood / John McCain type of character who would be better suited to standing on the front porch and yelling, "You kids get the hell off of my yard!"

So I'm going to intentionally miss all of the commercial hubbub, but I will catch the main event when the sun and moon align as they pass over West Plains, Missouri.  It will be a sight to behold, and it will come with a joyful soundtrack:

Ka-ching, ka-ching!