Terry Dickson: Business will boom Aug. 21 in the moon's shadow

BRUNSWICK, GA. | You know that old saying, all is darkest before the dawn?

Try this one: All is brightest during the eclipse, at least for business.

We’re due for the big one, something of astronomical proportions on Aug. 21. That’s when the moon’s shadow will fall across the entire United States with the darkest casting a diagonal line of darkness from South Carolina to Oregon. If you have a hospitality business — hotel, restaurant, etc. — along that line, you’re going to line your pockets.

Try reserving a hotel room in Anderson, S.C., my hometown, which lies just north of the very center of the shadow of totality. Everything is booked with prices jacked up as if an undefeated Clemson were hosting an undefeated South Carolina up the road in Death Valley. People booked those rooms to have something like the shadow of death fall on them about 2:45 in the afternoon.

Clemson University is charging $50 for prime parking in a lot that serves tail-gating fans on game days. “Tailgazing” sites, they’re calling them.

My late grandmother remembered an eclipse when she and grandpa were farming. Unlike now, they weren’t warned it was coming and nobody told the farm animals.

“It got so dark the chickens got on the roost,” she said.

I wish I’d thought to ask if the roosters crowed when the sun came back out.

Not everyone will have the luxury of taking off toward the line of totality which means out in the corners, from Lubec, Maine, to San Diego folks will enjoy only a partial eclipse. The “obscuration” for O.J. Simpson in Lovelock, Nev., for example, will be about 86 percent.

We’re due for a 90 percent eclipse in South Georgia and Northest Florida. The magnitude of the eclipse will be about 0.9 around Jacksonville with an “obscuration” of 88.41 percent.

So what do we do? Go from sun screen to insect repellent because you know the mosquitoes will come out for a quick snack.

Will the few remaining drive-in movie theaters across the shadow belt take advantage and show a five-minute matinee?

You can bet productivity will drop toward the line of totality as workers leave desks, warehouses and factory machinery and head to parking lots. Farmers can just look up from the tractor seats, I guess.

In the South Carolina low country, the shadow will come close to Moncks Corner, home of locally owned Moncks Corner Inn.

“We are completely booked” and have been for about six months, desk clerk Morgan Carraway said.

There is typically room at the inn although it usually gets pretty full for weddings and big family reunions, she said.

But the only thing that rivals the eclipse is a hurricane evacuation, Carraway said.

Asked how much the Moncks Corner Inn bumped prices, she replied, “Not at all.”

Not so in the Upstate where the $95 to $125 a night rate at the Country Inn and Suites jumped to $225. It, like every other hotel in town, was booked solid, although that didn’t stop people from trying.

“I’ve got a gentleman standing in front of me,” desk clerk Tequisha Whitener said. “His wife sent him out on a mission, to find hotel rooms.”

Whitener had to tell him there were none.

Some people will be in town for the eclipse and won’t have to worry about a room.

“It’s Clemson move-in day,” she said.

Well, at least the students won’t have to worry. Mom and dad may have to sleep in the car. People already do it for bowl tickets, so why not?

You have to wonder what Motel 6 will do for its customers. When the eclipse hits in the middle of the afternoon, will they leave the light on?

terry.dickson@jacksonville.com, (912) 264-0405