From the sandwich shop to the radio airwaves, how the solar eclipse united a Vermont town

ST. JOHNSBURY, Vermont ‒ Crowds ballooned to about 15,000 people, more than doubling the population of this historic town Monday, under an unseasonably cloudless sky.

A sandwich shop that typically sells 300 sandwiches on a busy day made that many in its first hour and predicted its five employees would end up making 1,000 sandwiches each before the day ended. Eclipse sugar cookies with butter cream frosting sold for $3 each and people were already lined up before noon at the Whirligig Brewing pub which had made a special ale in honor of the eclipse.

Fire chief Bradley Reed grew up 2 blocks from the center of town. He said it was “the biggest crowd I’ve ever seen” in St. Johnsbury. When forecasts began predicting beautiful weather for Monday, the town knew a lot of visitors would be arriving at this prime eclipse-viewing spot about 48 miles south of the Canadian border.

On the north end of Main Street several families set up in Arnold Park to get some distance from the hordes.

Katie and Mike Mayer had driven up from Bethlehem, Connecticut, about five hours away, so as not to miss the spectacle.

"We wanted to get the full effect," Mike Mayer said. The pair ordered plastic eclipse glasses ahead of time and brought coolers full of coolers with cheese, crackers, wine and other "nibbles." Katie Mayer remembered making box eclipse viewers in elementary school and has been fascinated by them since but had never seen a total eclipse.

Jim and Kim Cooper had come over from New Hampton, New Hampshire, their first time doing more than just driving through the town locals call St. Jays.

Their son had proposed to his girlfriend in Tennessee during the 2017 eclipse and then had an eclipse-themed wedding. But the Coopers had never seen a total eclipse for themselves, so they decided to come to the closest place where they could be assured of a good view.

Jeffrey Breau had seen that 2017 eclipse for himself and was so impressed that he convinced family members to join him this time. Breau’s girlfriend Nell Hawley came up with him from Cambridge, Massachusetts, his brother Alex and his girlfriend Diana Ventura drove up from New York City and his father Walter all came to see their first total eclipse.

His mother had to watch from home in southern Vermont, because she teaches kindergarten and couldn’t get the day off from work. “I would have been okay watching it in the yard,” Walter said, though he would only have seen a partial eclipse from there. “That’s what you think now,” Jeffrey answered quickly. “Talk to me in two hours.”

Shortly after the totality as people began to stream back toward their cars, Reed said he’d seen no problems so far. “Everybody’s been great,” he said.  

The Conaway family of Northfield, Massachusetts, had all played hooky from school Monday to see the eclipse.

Gary Conaway, a classroom helper in fourth grade, said it was worth missing school for this. “Since I was a kid, I’ve always been interested in astronomy. To be able to enjoy this with my kids. I had to,” he said. A city kid, he was close to his grandmother who lived on a farm and would show him the stars when he came to visit.

Sarah Conaway, a prekindergarten classroom helper, designed and made shirts for the day for herself, Gary and their sons, Noah, 10, and Seth, 8, who both said “school is important but a solar eclipse is importanter.”

Noah, a fourth grader, loves astronomy like his dad, and hopes to go to Mars someday. “I never knew the moon could cover the sun,” he said. “I thought it would be too small.”

Sitting in lawn chairs in the middle of Main Street waiting for the totality Peter Schweigert, Gretchen Steen and their two sons Arlo, 10, and Brahn, 8, had the distinction of coming perhaps the least distance to view the eclipse – just two blocks. They could have watched from home, but then they would have missed all the excitement.

Schweigert and Steen had both seen partial eclipses before, but never a total. “I’ve heard it compared to the difference between riding in an airplane and jumping out of one,” Steen said, quickly adding that she’d never jumped out of a plane.

Arlo, a fourth grader, had learned about eclipses in science class and during a school assembly. He was excited, though cold in a t-shirt and shorts, as the moon slid further in front of the sun.

Peter had just hung up with his mother in San Antonio, Texas, who had seen just a glimpse of the total eclipse through clouds.

At 3:24 p.m., just five minutes before the totality was due, the light turned decidedly dim. It didn’t look so much like a typical dusk as it did as if the world had turned gray.

As darkness fully descended, the crowd shrieked and screamed and oohed and aahed. “This is SO COOL.” “It’s so beautiful.” “Oh my God!” “Stars!” “This is amazing. Just amazing!” “This is so crazy!”

Applause broke out as the sun reappeared a minute later. “Aw, come on. That was so cool!”

The bells of the United Community Church, one of five churches in the town center rung out twice.

Gregory Smith of Goffstown, New Hampshire, was so overcome, he dropped to his knees, tears streaming down his cheeks.

A few minutes later, when he was able to speak again, he said “I’m awestruck.”

He had grown up in a cult and after he left, he had nightmares about signs in the stars. “To see that and be standing here afterwards, it’s just a really, really intense moment. It’s unbelievable,” said Smith, who just published a book of poetry called “Profligate Angel.”

“That was just really moving and gave me goosebumps,” added Smith’s friend Miko Lionne, also of Goffstown.

Gretchen Steen, walking down Main Street, agreed. "My heart was pounding for sure."

Artist Rachael Savoie hand-made pins and magnets for the occasion, selling them out of a cooler inside of a wagon pulled along with her friend Aidan Levesque. Levesque said he was surprised by how much colder it got as the sun began to disappear. It was also odd to see so many people fill the streets they knew so well. “It’s absolute bonkers to see everyone out here.”

Mark Breen spent the eclipse co-hosting a public radio show on Vermont Public from the middle of Main Street. Although Breen has talked about astronomy on radio for 30 years and served as meteorologist at the Fairbanks Museum and Planetarium for even longer, he had never seen a total solar eclipse before.

“It was everything every has ever described,” he said. He could watch and feel the darkness approaching. “It was just astounding.”

He said he hopes the event will turn more children onto science. “There is nothing like some kind of natural event to inspire kids,” said Breen, who traces his own interest in meteorology to snow and ice storms in his upstate New York childhood.

During his hour-long radio show, which included one minute and 31 seconds of totality, Breen and a co-host took calls from Brazil, Spain, California and other locales, as well as one surprise call from his mother in Pennsylvania.

“Everybody was a community,” he said. “What else can you say? That’s what humanity should be.”