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.
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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).
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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
❤️
ReplyDelete❤️❤️❤️
DeleteJon, you said you remember New Years Eve when you were 3 or 4 years. Just, curious, what is your earliest memory you can pin down to a specific age? In my experience, most people can’t remember before 5 or 6 years. I, personally, can pin down a memory when I was 2 years, 4 months old. I know because my mother was in the hospital for the birth of my brother and my grandmother was staying with me. I had a traumatic thing (for a 2 year old) happen to me. At the age of 75, I have a very clear memory of it.
ReplyDeleteDo you think it is unusual to remember very early years? I guess it is possible people do have those memories, but no point of reference to date them.
I hope 2026 will be a turning point for you.
Carolyn
Carolyn, your comment is an interesting one. I was blessed with an extraordinary memory. Some people might not believe me (not you), but I remember things when I was one or two - - and very possibly younger.
DeleteMy very first memory was when I was learning to walk, probably age one or so. I fell in the living room and hit my face on the corner of the coffee table. Received a deep cut near my left eye...and I still have a scar today. I think we often remember traumatic things at an early age, as you said.
I would be interested to write a blog post about my early memories (after the new year).
Thanks, Carolyn
I think many people can remember things from when they were toddlers. I myself can remember as far back as 1965 when I was 2 ! They use to have these walker type things for toddlers shaped like a log with fake fur, caster wheels and a stuffed animal head with two handle grips sticking out the side of the head. And I well remember that upstairs apartment me and my family lived in at the time on Citrus Street in Orange CA in 1965-66. Living at Mrs Grey’s Victorian house on Olive Street in Orange in 1966 for a few months with a very memorable fox bat that lived in a tree in her front yard, I thought it was vampire !
DeleteOr 1967 when we lived in an apartment on McCoy Road behind the McCoy Ford dealership on Main Street.
Not to mention watching teen dance shows like Shebang, Shivaree and Hollywood à Go Go with teen relatives, and the Winchell -Mahoney Show hosted by ventriloquist Paul Winchell with his dummies Jerry Mahoney and Knucklehead Smiff. And of course the Hollywood Christmas parades with real celebrities of the 1960’s who were all well very known, unlike today’s celebrities.
And I remember going over to well off uncle’s house in 1966 to watch color tv for the very first time.
-Rj
Yes, to watching Guy Lombardo on New Year’s Eve with my family in my NJ hometown although I can’t recall what else we did that evening. My recall is not as good as your own, Jon, but I’m sure we had a snacks and stayed up till midnight.
ReplyDeleteThere was a time when Guy Lombardo offered popular TV viewing on New Year's Eve. Times have sure changed since then. Seems like things were the same in NJ as in Calif.
DeleteThose were the days, my friend!
ReplyDeleteAgainst my better judgement, the last few years we've watched the (so called) festivities from Times Square ... which makes memories of Good Television all the more acute. If I'm inclined to stay awake, I'm hoping to find a good pay-for-view movie. Any suggestions?
I've given up watching the Times Square broadcast nowadays. It seems that they only allow people under 30...and they're all kissing and trying to stay within camera range. I miss the Lombardo days.
DeleteI can't think of any pay-for-view movies. I'm hopelessly out of date.
I never seem to make it to midnight any longer, although my intentions are good. Growing up in England, it was tradition for the first person to walk through the front door right after midnight , be a dark-haired man, for good luck. If not dark-haired they had to carry a lump of coal. We would watch all the men in the village running around the block, carrying their lumps of coal, and entering their front doors ...lol I wonder where they would even find a lump of coal nowadays. Good memories, it's what keeps us going.
ReplyDeleteHugs,
Jo
I've never heard of that tradition - - but I would be carrying a lump of coal. As you said, it's hard to find coal nowadays. When I was a small child, I remember my grandmother had a coal bin in her cellar.
DeleteThanks for sharing your memories, Jo.
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Delete🤎
ReplyDelete