1989
I can remember being young when the ball started to drop, I was in the family room of my parents’ house, surrounded by friends and family, many whom were holding wooden spoons and pots and pans. When the clock struck midnight, we all shouted, Happy New Year! and marched out of the house, through the front yard, and into the street, banging our pots and pans the whole way.
1999
I can remember sitting on the balcony of a row house with my girlfriend and some of her friends, all of us feeling bored and disappointed with our New Year’s festivities while waiting for the fireworks across town to launch and wondering if the predictions of Y2K would come true. We were cold, and when the ball dropped, we were trying desperately to overcome the lack of excitement our company brought each other by catching a buzz off cheap wine and watery beer, bad pot, and ineffective mushrooms.
2009
I can remember sitting with my cousin in an odd nook that was just big enough for two people and a small table at the end of a short corridor in some restaurant near the Gion District in Kyoto. When the ball dropped, the sliding doors across the hallway at the end of our corridor suddenly burst open and the faces and voices of ten or more university students appeared saying, Akiome! Akiome! which is an abbreviated form of Happy New Year in Japanese.
I can remember where I was during a lot of different situations on a lot of different New Year’s Eves, but one of my favorite New Year’s moments took place at the end of 2005 or 2006. I was in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., and as it is pretty typical in America to spend New Year’s Eve in a bar, a restaurant, or at a party, I was sitting at the bar of a restaurant called One Caroline listening to the live jazz that was being played and drinking Maker’s Mark. Part of the reason why this New Year’s is so memorable to me is because, counter to New Year's tradition, I was alone.
I had made tentative plans to meet up with a friend at this bar and those plans had apparently fallen through. Instead, I happened to run into an old high school classmate whom I hadn’t seen in seven or eight years. We had a nice time talking for a bit and just before the ball dropped, I finished my drink, said goodbye, and walked outside. It was snowing. And the snowflakes were the big, cotton-ball type. They were beautiful. The sky was completely grayed by them, and their size and the way they fell to the ground created warm glowing halos of light around the street lamps that lined the street.
After walking out the door, I turned left, down the slope of the hill that the street had been built on and just as I did, fireworks began to explode in the air above me. Their colors and flashes were muted by the snow and the trails of smoke they produced wafted heavily downward toward the pavement. Through all the drifting and lingering smoke, I could see a hoard of people pouring out of a corner bar. They were all singing Auld Lang Syne in unison.
The entire scene was so spontaneous and arrestingly beautiful that I stopped in my tracks just to watch and listen. Behind the echoing bombardments of firework explosions came the rich, jovial sounds of men, many of them probably strangers, joyously singing, Should auld acquaintance be forgot, And never brought to min’? As they did so, more people from other restaurants and bars poured into the street, some of them with their arms around each others' shoulders, some of them with their hands in the air. Some of these people, too, joined in the singing.
And when the song came to an end, there was this crowd of people all hugging and kissing and shouting, Happy New Year! in the street as colorful flashes of fireworks burst over their heads, their designs hidden by the foggy smoke and falling snow.
It was an incredible moment, one that somehow felt to me like the epitome of an American New Year's.
Where were you when the ball dropped on your favorite New Year’s Eve? Or, where do you think you will be when the clock strikes twelve this New Year’s Eve? Please share your stories in the comments below. As promised, a portion of the rewards from this post will be shared with those of you who make quality comments. For more information about reward distribution, please refer to this post. Also please note that comment rewards will not be distributed to comments that have been added to this post after the initial twenty-four hour voting period has closed.