The city treated more than 2300 elderly residents from the various Senior Centers and apartment complexes to an early New Year's Eve celebration with music, dancing, food, performances, noisemakers and hats. It was a rocking good time.
We were actually part of the army of volunteers that made the event possible. We were joined by a large contingent of young high school and college students who gave up a day of their winter break and really worked hard to make the event a success. There were also many city employees involved (who were released from their desks to take part in the event), but TH and I are both on vacation this week so it was truly a volunteer effort for us.
Neither of us is big on new year resolutions, but we do recognize our blessings and resolve every year to try our best to pay it forward. And since this was a new event for us, we figured we could count it as a date as well.
After all, what constitutes a date? I Googled the question....and discovered there were more than 137 million results. I didn't read past the first three and decided that, YES, it is still a date even if it's daylight and there is no romance or alcohol involved.
Here's the itinerary:
8:15am: check-in and receive our T-Shirts and assignment. We were designated as table runners for the Purple section. Yup, that means we got to wear purple t-shirts, size XL only.
9:00am: continental breakfast followed by volunteer briefing in ampitheatre
10:00am: set up. Every team had a task in preparing the 230 tables that would seat 10 guests each.
The purple team had a very important task: Salt and Pepper. Yesiree....there were a dozen of us dressed like Barney the dinosaur, hunched over a long table in the prep area, counting out those little tiny packets. We were instructed to place 10 salt packets and 10 pepper packets on a plastic plate for each table.
Are you kidding me?! Okay, I can understand the Green group having to count out exactly ten dinner rolls for each basket...but salt and pepper? What if a senior wanted an extra packet, or two? Or what if they wanted to take a few extras home in their purse? But....NO, we diligently counted out EXACTLY ten salt and ten pepper for each table.
When we were finished, every table was beautifully set with 10 paper napkins, 10 plastic knives, 10 plastic forks, 10 party hats, 10 noisemakers, and one plastic plate with exactly ten salt and ten pepper packets.
You can barely see the salt and pepper plate, it's partially obscured by a hat in the photo above. Oh, there was also a placard on every table with instructions in many languages reminding them to remain seated after the event until their bus is called. Excuse me....I thought this was an event for Seniors, not pre-schoolers!
At 10:30, the fun began when the buses started to roll up. The early arrivers were clearly veterans of these events and they knew exactly where the prime tables were located. We didn't witness any fights, but there was a lot of seat-saving and finger-pointing going on. There were also quite a few noisemakers swiped from the not-yet occupied tables.
By 11:45, the hall was abuzz with excitement and sequins. Many of the Seniors were dressed in their most gala attire, men and women alike. However, I did note that the men were out-numbered about 40 to 1 and I quickly pointed out to TH that the longevity odds were not in his favor. OK, so maybe the guys just chose to sit out this dance....which only reinforces the power of girlfriends. Those ole gals were having a grand old time together!
I did notice, however, that the tables with the Asian groups had many more couples celebrating together. So if there are any unmarried girls out there looking to mate for life....you may want to look in that direction. Or at the very least.... marry a much younger man!
At 11:59 the countdown began. With the Mayor recovering from knee surgery, his wife Angela did the honors. There were no fireworks, but plenty of cheering as the clock struck....NOON.
That's when we went to work, and in less than 20 minutes the volunteer worker bees had delivered to every table a basket of 10 buns, 10 bottles of water, and 10 plastic plates piled high with turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, peas/carrots, cranberry sauce and gravy.
Just as swiftly, we cleared the tables in preparation for dessert. It did break my heart a little when several Seniors requested tea instead of coffee, or asked if they should keep their forks for the final course. We sadly informed them that there would be no hot beverages served, but we'd be happy to refill their empty spring water bottles. And no, they wouldn't be needing a fork, because dessert was ONE individually wrapped Hostess cupcake, fresh out of the box.
But, you know what struck me most, we never heard one complaint from the Seniors. Every one of them enjoyed the afternoon, many danced, every one smiled, they posed for pictures, hugged each other, were polite and respectful.
It so happens that we bumped into our older son, a reporter who, unbeknownst to us, was covering the event for the major metropolitan newspaper. He told us that all the Seniors he questioned, as to what they'd like for the new year, their answers were all similar versions of either world peace or good health.
It was a pleasure and an honor to serve this grateful group of citizens who still recognize the importance of celebrating special occasions with old friends. They fully understand that they have fewer new years ahead of them than those in their rear view mirrors, but they are going to enjoy every last one.
It also got us thinking that we, ourselves, really need to celebrate the new year...because we never know when the year ahead could be our last.
New Year's Eve has rarely been a celebration for us. When the boys were little, we didn't like to leave them with sitters. As they grew a little older, we were usually exhausted from spending the week at hockey tournaments. We enjoyed staying in and sharing Chinese Food while watching the 3 Stooges with our best friends, the C family. By the time our sons were in high school and wanting to celebrate with their own friends, we didn't dare leave the house..lest we missed an important phone call (this was long before cell phones).
From 2000-2005, I joined the L Street Brownies in their annual dip in the ocean on New Year's day....but TH refused to join the festivities.
The past few years we've travelled on New Year's eve day. Last year we arrived home after a 14 hour drive from Virginia and I guarantee we weren't awake at midnite. The two previous years were spent flying home from California (We've discovered that flights are much cheaper on December 31st) and I'm pretty sure jet lag had us snoring soundly by the time that ball dropped in Times Square.
And speaking of Times Square....everyone must celebrate New Year's Eve there at least once. We did in 2006, and I must admit that has probably ruined every future celebration for us because I don't believe ANY New Year's Eve will ever top that magical nite. EVER!
I had a bucket list long before they were popular. On my 40th birthday, I made a list of 50 things I wanted to do before I turned 50. I was fortunate to complete 32 items before that milestone birthday, and a few more after....still working on it!
However, one of those items was to celebrate New Year's Eve in Times Square. As 2007 was fast approaching, I realized this was my last chance to check this off the list before I turned 50. TH was on board, and truthfully he has gone out of his way to help me complete the list. We tried to enlist the members of our Supper Club. At first they sounded enthusiastic and everyone was on board (and it didn't hurt that two of the guys worked for Amtrak and we could enjoy a free ride to/from the Big Apple) but as the day approached, everyone backed out and we cancelled the plans.
But on December 31st I was still itching to go. And TH learned long ago that when I get an itch, he had better scratch it or he'll never stop listening to me whine, so he agreed to drive down to New York City. I believe his decision was also influenced by the unseasonably mild weather we were having. TH is a man who HATES the cold, and will take part in very few outdoor activities in the winter. It was also a Sunday, so he realized the traffic would not be an issue.
It was almost 1pm by the time we decided to go, and we hadn't eaten since breakfast, but there was no time for lunch. We grabbed many layers of clothing and hopped on I-95. We didn't stop to eat along the way either, because we strategized that we needed to get there as soon as possible to stake out a location, and then we'd eat. Ha! We still laugh about that naive decision.
We were in Gotham City by 5pm. We parked on West 109th Street in front of our son's former apartment because we knew our car would be safe and it was inches from the subway. Once underground we learned that all the platforms near Times Sq. were closed, so we exited at Columbus Circle and started walking down Broadway. It was crowded, and all the sidewalks were barricaded, you were only allowed on if you had a ticket to an event at a hotel or restaurant.
We continued walking down the middle of Broadway, past the David Letterman theatre and noticed many people had stopped there in front of a jumbotron with a video feed from Times Square. How odd, I thought, that folks would watch the festivities from 53rd Street, when Times Square was just 11 blocks away. So on we continued noticing that every block was enclosed by a corral of fences, but we continued walking until we couldn't walk anymore. Why had everyone come to a complete standstill?
We tried to walk around the crowd, but there was no passage way. When we questioned a police officer about the holdup, he just laughed and said, "that's as far as you're going tonite!" What?! We were only at 50th street. We couldn't even see the ball because we were beyond the curve to Times Square. Shortly after they sealed off the corral behind us and we were penned in. Now I understood why there was a crowd back at Letterman.
Now I can be a bit claustrophobic, and I don't love crowds. So we made our way to the edge of the pen to assess our situation. At the back NW corner of the pen was an exit, but you could only exit to the north, away from Times Square, and if you left....you could not return. You had to go all the way back to Central Park and start over again. That meant you could not exit for food, or bathrooms. We would be stuck there until midnite, still another 6 hours away. There was an entire contingent of rookie cops on duty at these exits and they took their command very seriously.
After 30 minutes or so, many families with young children, and other folks with growling stomachs or weak bladders, gave up and left when they realized this was not where they wanted to celebrate the new year. Therefore, they opened the corral in front of us and allowed us to surge forward. Hooray, we'd made it to 49th street! And if we stood on our absolute tippey-toes at the back corner (because they would not let you climb on the barrier) we could actually see the teeny-tiny crystal ball way up in the sky.
So there we stood for hours, not relinquishing our spot that happened to be right next to the exit. From there we listened to every excuse possible as folks pleaded to leave temporarily or try to rejoin their families. TH started manning the exit gate and patiently explaining the process to everyone trying to leave and, sometimes if a cop turned his back, letting folks sneak back in.
Now our son is a journalist, and that was my undergrad degree...so I would like to believe some of his great writing skills rubbed off from me. But truthfully, TH is the original reporter in our family. He will interview anyone, no matter where we are, be it the server at a restaurant, the cab driver, or the person bagging our groceries. Sometimes the interview sounds more like an interrogation, however, and we have to reign him in. And this nite was no exception.
While I was taking in the sites and enjoying watching the crazy world pass before my eyes, TH was inteviewing every policeman on duty. He struck up a lengthy conversation with an undercover detective, about our age, wearing dirty jeans and a ratty old sweatshirt underneath the gold shield hanging from his neck. The man appeared bored by his assignment, and quite frankly didn't care whether anyone exited or entered our corral. and he stood and listened as TH told him where we were from, why we were there, etc. etc.
Somewhere around 10:00, I overhear this nice man ask TH, "Do you two want to move up further?" We didn't quite understand his question, but we said, "Sure." I'll admit I was a little afraid he was only moving us up to the front of our corral and I'd have to give up my only chance of seeing the ball drop. But we followed him out the exit and onto the sacred sidewalk.
Suddenly, it was like we were following Moses as the Red Sea parted. At every intersection, the young rookies scrambled to move the barricades and say, "Good evening, Captain." He would point a thumb at us and mumble, "They're with me." As we kept walking he told TH that he'd been watching us all evening and observed that we never complained, and tried to help everyone around us. He declared us to be his good deed for the nite.
We kept walking, right into the bright lights of Times Square. It was like Dorothy when she first sees Oz. My jaw was on the ground, but TH just kept right on walking and talking to the Captain. We walked past Anderson Cooper and the CNN stage and I wanted to take a picture but we were still walking. We passed Vanessa Minillo and Nick Lachey nuzzling underneath the MTV stage, and still we kept walking.
Then a final barricade was moved aside for us and the Captain informed the cop on duty, "These two are my guests." We barely managed to say Thank You, before our angel disappeared. We never even learned his name. But he had deposited us right in the middle of Times Square, in the VIP pit area right next to the stage where Ryan Seacrest and Dick Clark presided, and directly under the crystal ball.
We arrived in time to hear Rascal Flatts, Daughtry, and Christina Aguilera perform. We could literally reach out and touch the staircase they used to exit the stage. We were in dreamland and could not believe our good fortune. There was a red carpet leading from our pit to a hotel where we could warm up or use the rest room. TH made the trip, but I was afraid they might not let us back in so I saved his spot.
The 90 minutes we spent in that pit were magical. We were given noisemakers, pins, and pom poms. But the folks who arrived earlier in the day had all kinds of loot such as fleece hats and scarves, thunder sticks, snacks, beverages and box lunches. But we weren't complaining. We just didn't want to wake up from what was surely a dream.
Just before midnite, they played John Lennon's, "Imagine." Everyone sang along, it was quite magical. And then we counted down and saw that crystal ball make it's very short journey into 2007. They released a blizzard of confetti that was actually little cards from Target with messages of inspiration. I still keep two in my jewelry box that say, "Cheer" and "Peace."
Immediately after midnite, the speakers blared Frank Sinatra singing, "New York" and every barricade came down. Within minutes, everyone was ushered off of Broadway and the street cleaners appeared out of nowhere. But on the side streets the partying continued. I don't think we ever had as much fun after dark without a drop of alcohol.
We slowly made our way back uptown and stopped for pizza in a bodega. We were finally eating after about 15 hours, but we were so giddy as we sat in the store window and cheered the revelers that we barely ate. From there it was a very crowded adventure on the subway back to Harlem, and a long, long car ride home. We were still on a high when we arrived home at dawn.
And that, my friends, is why every other New Year celebration will pale in comparison. But, before we turn into those jaded Seniors who only reminisce about the 'good old days' we will try to celebrate this New Year's Eve, and every one to come, in a special way.
Wishing everyone the same thing those Seniors know are the ONLY things that matters for the new year: Peace, Good Health, and Love.
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