Many seniors attend eclipse party

The front lawn of the Golden Hour Senior Center was filled with seniors looking at the solar eclipse with special glasses.

On Monday the center embraced the event by handing out solar eclipse viewing glasses, fact sheets, quizzes and paddles. They also received snacks, which suited the theme, including moon pies, Sun Chips and sun-shaped sugar cookies with an Oreo cookie on it to represent the moon passing in front of the sun.

A couple of the seniors were talking about the last time they had seen an eclipse. They knew it wasn’t a total eclipse, but they could recall it.

Maria Milliken said she remembered viewing a partial eclipse in high school.

“Looking at it through a piece of cardboard,” Milliken said.

Everybody used cereal boxes to make pin hole boxes to watch the eclipse with. It was nothing like watching it with a nice pair of glasses.

Milliken also recalled a time in the early 1980s when she woke all of her kids up in the middle of the night so they could see the blood moon. Both she and her kids can still recall that experience they shared together.

Shirley Kellum said she didn’t recall an eclipse, but she did recall seeing a blood moon when she was in New Mexico. It was one of the most beautiful things she had ever seen.

Milliken said she was waiting to see how the animals responded to the eclipse and how much the temperature was going to change when the moon moved in front of the sun.

Milliken couldn’t think of any better place to enjoy the eclipse than with her friends at the senior center.

“It’s just a fun group,” she said. “They always do good things here.”

Senior Viola Espinoza said this was her first eclipse and she wanted a good place to watch it from. She said it was just a great way to get together with her friends and watch history.

Espinoza said her yard was all shaded so the location at the senior center was much better viewing and company.