‘That’s so cool’: Bakersfield residents make time to experience partial eclipse
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — It was a typical case of the Mondays for most during the start of the work week, but for eclipse enthusiasts in Bakersfield, it was time to take a pause and look up.
“That’s so cool,” said Georgia Perez. “That’s super crazy,” her husband Ernesto Perez, said.
Georgia and Ernesto Perez went to America’s Best Contacts & Glasses to get their hands on eclipse glasses.
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“The last eclipse that we saw, I had made like a cereal box cut out with a sheet of paper and the sunlight comes in and you see it on the ground in a shadow. It does not compare,” Georgia said.
The glasses were sold out just about everywhere else.
“Our phones are just blowing off the hook, and it’s not even for exams, it’s literally just for the glasses,” Rian Kosareff EGM for America’s Best Contacts & Glasses said. “We even have Home Depot and Lowe’s sending them straight to us.”
The scramble didn’t stop there. One worker at the Krispy Kreme on Rosedale told 17 News more than 100 of the chain’s eclipse donuts were sold out before 10 a.m. The eclipse started at 10:09 a.m.
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Before 2017, the last total solar eclipse was in 1979 and only five states saw totality. Kosareff said she’s not going to wait 20 years for the next one.
“Even at work I’m still going to take my break so I can get out and look at it too,” she said.
Gospel singer, Jennifer Keel took a break from her recording session at a studio in downtown Bakersfield on her new album to look up during the peak of the partial eclipse.
“By day I’m an economic developer,” Keel said. “By weekend and otherwise my fun thing is singing.”
Keel performed at the Crystal Palace for years singing alongside Buck Owens and opening for Loretta Lynn and Tammy Wynette. Her album, “Bakersfield Believes” drops soon, but on Monday morning, she focused on the shadow in the sky.
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