How can it be possible that a year that started just a day
and a wink ago is already coming to an end?
It is said: the older
you get, the faster time flies. I am
finding this to be so very true. It
seems like just last week 2017 was a promise of so many hopes and plans coming
true. And now we find it is suddenly time
to be exhilarated and rejoice over our accomplishments and/or to mourn lost dreams
and opportunities and lick our wounds. Yet, in just four days human nature will allow
us to look at 2018 with as much renewed expectancy and anticipation, shiny-eyed
hope and vigor as we did at the birth of this year that is drawing to a close.
New Years seems to be more of an adult celebration than one
for children, since it comes when most children are in bed and fast
asleep. Nor was it welcomed with the fireworks
that usher it in now-a-days—a happy welcoming that often starts in the early
evening before the young-ones go to bed and sporadically lasts through the
midnight hour. Although, before we were
sent off to bed, we were allowed to go out on the front porch and join the
other neighborhood youth as we tooted horns, spun noisemakers, or banged on
pots and pans and shouted “Happy New Year” as our participation before the cold
would drive us back inside, glad to head for the warmth of our beds. Later on in the quiet of the night, I vaguely
remember the sound of cheering and horn blowing at Times Square in New York
City being broadcast over the radio along with Guy Lombardo’s orchestra
playing, “May old acquaintance be forgot…”
I also remember that we kids would get together, spending
hours giggling and laughing as we tried to outdo each other with all the absurd
“New Year’s resolutions” we would invent.
Even then, we somehow knew very few resolutions, many with good intent,
would never be achieved.
My parents and three other couples would get together every
now and then for an “adults only” time.
One of these events was held on New Year’s Eve at our house, and just
after midnight Mother served a meal of pork and sauerkraut. In our area of the country, that was traditionally
the “good luck throughout the year” first meal eaten. Although Christmas was not a time for our extended
families to get together, often on New Year’s Day my maternal grandparents were
our guests on January first for this traditional first supper of the New Year. During our years of living in Florida, however,
we learned that the southern version of this “good luck” meal was pork jowls
and black-eyed peas, or maybe some liver and lights.
One thing that hasn’t seemed to change too much over the
years, though, is that the first of January is the day for dismantling the Christmas
tree and putting away all the decorations.
The whole family would participate.
Silver icicles would be as patiently and carefully removed from the
branches as they were put on them and rehung over the cardboard insert that
slid back into their storage boxes. Ornaments
were removed and wrapped in tissue paper before being slipped into their individual
compartments in their boxes, or gently piled into a common box. Each tree-light string was coiled and tied,
hoping to eliminate the chore of untangling them next Christmas. Elves and villages returned to their storage
homes, and everything was assigned back to its place in the attic until next
December.
Two noticeable things have changed through the years. The trees, usually ready to shed their
needles, were taken out to lay in rows along curbs of residential streets
waiting for trash pick-up. Now they are folded
up and put in their own boxes and stored along with the ornaments they will
wear again the following year, their needles just as fresh as they are
now. And secondly, instead of music or
programs from the radio accompanying these tasks, it is the televised Rose
Parade or one of the many football bowls.
New Years, like Christmas, has its own memories and
traditions that somehow last throughout time, often old, yet ever fresh as they
are remembered from our own childhood and passed down to the generations coming
along behind us.
It will soon be time to say goodbye to the old year with
nostalgia and look forward to a New Year with hope.
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