COUNTDOWN

Countdown? To what? Another one of my breathtaking, fantastic posts?

Nope. It's another one of my yawn-inducing mediocre posts.

(with that announcement, half the audience leaves). 

I'm jesting. In case you didn't notice.

You're stalling, Jon. Cut the crap.

Okay. Countdown to the new year. Do you like New Year's Eve?

In all of my long sordid life, I can't ever remember a bad New Year's Eve (got a feeling that one is coming up, though). They were all pleasant.

In New Jersey, with all of our relatives, I remember New Year's gatherings when I was three or four yrs. old.

In California (3,000 miles away) relatives were a nonentity. So (when I was 11 or 12 or...) my parents and I indulged in the ritual that all stay-at-home Americans did.

We gathered around the (black & white) television and watched the annual New Year's Eve show - - Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians at the Waldorf Astoria in New York. He directed the orchestra in the Grand Ballroom, amid endless dancing.

I called it "The Waldorf Hysteria." Funny. Sort of.

(if you don't know who Guy Lombardo is, you're too young to be reading this blog).

We always ate snacks while watching TV. I blew up balloons and we threw and volleyed them around.

During the duration of the night, we'd get phone calls from numerous N.J. relatives to say "Happy New Year!" 

Time Zone

NJ was three hours later than CA. When it was midnight where we were, it was 3:00 a.m. in NJ.

Guy Lombardo did the NY New Year's Eve shows from the late 1960s to 1976.

In later years, several Southern California TV channels would show all night movie marathons. All Marx Brothers films, all Mae West films, etc.

Is this getting boring?

No, Jon, it was boring when you first started.

I had much more interesting New Year adventures when I got older, of course.

I planned to write more, but I'd better quit before you throw left-over candy canes at me.

Jon ❤️

realizing stale candy canes can be lethal, when thrown properly