Diverse crowd shares once-in-a-generation moment at Quincy's Thomas Crane Library

QUINCY - "We're all out of eclipse glasses," Vaughn Driscoll shouted over and over to a stream of chagrined passersby hoping to snag a last-minute pair.

Driscoll, the safety officer at Thomas Crane Library, said more than one thousand pairs had been distributed over the past week. Staff intended to hand out the remaining supply at 2 p.m., just as the moon's shadow began to make its pass across the sun's face. The line of people in front of the library had other ideas.

“We couldn’t hold them back,” Driscoll said. “The crowd was getting antsy.”

But the multiethnic, multilingual and multigenerational crowd assembled on the lawn was in a festive mood and more than willing to share resources. Fran Walsh, 77, and his wife Elaine Walsh, 80, both of Wollaston, awaited the moment seated on lawn chairs while snacking on baby carrots.

Neither had seen a lunar eclipse before. Fran said he once experienced a lunars eclipse as a reservist while participating in war games at Fort Drum in New York. "The moon just started to disappear," he said. "I asked the commander what the hell was going on. He said, 'Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you.'"

The younger crowd was also excited. Maximilian Horiyama, 9, of Quincy, was let out early from the Adams Montessori School on Adams Street. Max's father, Masa, said the teachers were concerned they wouldn't be able to ensure that none of the students would look at the sun with their naked eyes.

By now the moon's shadow had shaved a slice from the sun's lower right corner. "It looks like a Pac-man," Max said.

Charlotte Kishbaugh, 7, of Grand Rapids, Michigan, was in Quincy with her sister Clara, 9, and mother Jennie visiting her grandfather, Roy Cayley. She said the sun looked like "someone took a bite out of a cookie."

Charlotte explained that during a total lunar eclipse, animals get confused. Some nocturnal animals come out, she said, while other diurnal animals go to sleep.

Charlotte was happy she was able to witness the rare event while she's still young. "I'm going to be 47 the next time," she said.

Cindy Bistoury, of Florida, expressed a similar sentiment. "I definitely wanted to be here," she said. "Next time, I'll be in my 70s and might not care as much."

Bistoury, who fitted a special lens over her camera to photograph the eclipse, traveled north to Quincy, where she used to live and which she still considers her "home base." She said that that the view from Florida only afforded a 50% view of the eclipse and that the forecast was cloudy. "(The trip north) was totally worth it," she said.

Quincy Councilor-at-large Noel DiBona made the rounds, shaking hands and collecting signatures as he runs for the Norfolk County Registry of Deeds.

"It's exciting to see all these folks out here today," DiBona said. "We're a city with a small town feel." DiBona credited recent improvements to the downtown with creating the perfect venue for the day's special event.

As 3:30 p.m. approached, a drop in temperature had people reaching for jackets and pullovers. The light dimmed and only a sliver of the sun remained visible behind the moon's shadow. The crowd, so diverse in age, race and place of origin, all directed their gaze to one focal point, a moment that captured our shared human trait of curiosity and wonder.

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This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Thomas Crane Library in Quincy holds special solar eclipse event