A year later, thankful for eclipse experience

At the one-year anniversary of the solar eclipse, I just wanted to publicly thank Sparta and especially Stearns Furniture, without whom the day would have been far less magical.

My daughter and I drove down from DeKalb, Illinois that morning, leaving home at about 3:30 a.m. We hoped the traffic would allow us to get to Marissa, which we knew was within the path of the shadow. Reaching there, we had enough time left so we ventured further, finally deciding to stay in Sparta for the event.

We were not prepared. We had no eclipse glasses or welding shields and planned to make a projector out of cardboard until totality. But, for kicks, we stopped at the Walmart on the off chance there were still any glasses available. There was not, but an extremely helpful woman in the optical department directed us to the furniture store where she thought glasses were available.

We drove to the store where we met a delightful, engaging group of employees. Not only did they have glasses available, they had emptied their warehouse of recliners, lining them up about 75 of them in the front parking lot. Is there a better way to view an eclipse than lying on your back in a cushy recliner? We now know that it is the absolute best way!

All the employees of the store were incredibly helpful, keeping everyone updated on the event, making sure everyone had a recliner, and even running a raffle for one of the chairs. Everyone there had a wonderful time and really enjoyed the amazing experience.

Anyway, the anniversary is the perfect chance for me to give a belated thank you to Stearns Furniture, all its employees, and the worker at Walmart, who together gave my daughter and me the perfect eclipse experience.

Craig Adams

DeKalb, IL</group><group id="8588A559-914F-4C5D-AE6C-C2A4506CA9BD" type="seoLabels"><seoLabels></seoLabels></