photoA group of Wallowa County residents (many from the Dragon Boat Paddling Club) watch the eclipse from Mt. Howard.

The solar eclipse of 2017 has come and gone. An eerie shadow was cast over Wallowa County, which was interesting to watch. It was dark enough to trigger security lighting in many spots.

The much-anticipated influx of tourists did not occur here. Sunday afternoon, we did a windshield tour of the lake and the state park. There were many open camping spots and even fewer people out and about than normal for a Sunday. Hotel rooms were plentiful. There were no lines at restaurants. No massive traffic jams. The apocalypse did not occur.

Even our normally sketchy Internet service kept running all morning on Monday, and my cell phone functioned normally.

I couldn’t help but recall the hysteria that led up to Y2K. Remember that? The predictions were gloomy for midnight on Dec. 31, 1999. Everything from a major failure of the nation’s power grid to the implosion of personal computers was predicted. There was even a prediction that gas prices would rise to $10 a gallon.

Got up Jan. 1, 2000, and none of the dire predictions had come true. Business as usual.

I couldn’t help but wonder what it must have been like for our ancestors to experience an eclipse. Having no way of receiving notice, it must have been fairly scary when the sun began disappearing in the middle of the day for no apparent reason.

Now back to everyday life as we know it.

I PROMISED to keep you updated on the journalism session we are producing in cooperation with Fishtrap.

It’s called, “Journalism: The Other Writing Genre,” a takeoff on the popular promotion “Pork, the Other White Meat.”

When someone says “writer,” most people think of someone who has authored a book or published a poem, but not everyone thinks of journalists as writers and certainly not “creative” writers. I would argue that journalism requires a great deal of creativity, especially in an age when reading is less popular than ever.

The class will be 6-8 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 19 at Fishtrap, 400 E Grant St., Enterprise. It’s free, but registration is requested. Visit fishtrap.org.

One of our goals in producing this session is to begin dialogue with Wallowa County residents who would like to join our team of freelance photographers and writers. If you’re interested, this would be a great way to make the connection. It will be a learning adventure and lots of fun.

SPEAKING OF freelance writers, we are in the process of replacing Katherine Stickroth’s “Wallowa Gal” column. Katherine is pursuing other projects. We will miss her take on life on Wallowa County.

Five individuals have proposed column ideas and are in the process of writing sample versions. We will be reviewing these over the next couple weeks with an eye toward making a selection by the end of the month.

We are trying to find a way to include a “people’s choice” vote in this process. Stay tuned for details.

A SHOUTOUT this week to everyone who participated in the Wallowa County Fair Livestock Auction. Bidding totaled $266,755.70 for this year’s crop of beef, swine, sheep, goat and poultry. That represents tremendous support of our 4-Hers and FFAers who diligently pursued perfection.

Teagan Miller’s 27-pound turkey was one of the highlights of the auction.

I couldn’t help but feel a bit choked up during the auction as a number of participants sobbed at the thought of parting with their project. The critters become like family for many.

What a great crop of young people we have in Wallowa County.