"The sun at that time, at 3:30 p.m., was in the one oclock position,"
I took it mean where he thought the sun was on the sky.....at his one o’clock position
The eclipse in 1962 was on July 31.
Sunset in Portland on July 31 1962 was at 8:40 PM (sunrise 5:51 AM).
So, at the time of the eclipse, there was still over 5 hours until sunset... so I guess the sun was still pretty high up in the sky.
http://suncalc.net/#/45.5231,-122.6765,10/2017.08.17/16:56
Remember they have a few more hours of daylight up that way.
Burnt his brain a little too.