LIFE ON THE PLAINS: New Year’s Eve…and day

Water St. looking north. Notice the row of tenement buildings on the right. Those were built on the river bank, and were supported by stilts. They were removed in the 1960s and 1970s. (photo courtesy of E. Roger Hallee)

by Roland D. Hallee

Back in the 1950s and ‘60s, New Year’s Day and following, didn’t really mean much to us kids. We would still be on Christmas vacation, although it was about to end abruptly on January 2.

Also, during those years, winters were harsher than they are now. By January 1 snow would have accumulated to relatively high levels, the ponds – and our backyard ice rink – were frozen solid and ready for winter sports, although I don’t recall snowmobiles back then. I think the Bombardier Ski-Doo was just being introduced in a rather primitive form.

Also, I would notice how the adults, every time they would run into each other – at church, the grocery store, shoe repair shops, etc. – would always greet each other with the “Happy New Year”. It would go on for weeks into late January. Didn’t they realize New Year’s was January 1, and not January 20?

Anyway, life was pretty much dull and routine during those early months of the new year. We did look forward to – in a way — going back to school to show off our new clothes we received at Christmas to our friends. Or maybe we got new skates, hockey stick, or a new sled. We really weren’t too much into showing off our new clothes.

The actual new year’s eve celebrations weren’t all that exciting to us, until we got a little older and were allowed to stay up until midnight to watch the ball go down on Times Square, in New York City. And to our parents, the crème to la crème, was the playing of Aulde Lang Syne, by Guy Lombardo and his orchestra. It just seemed to put an exclamation point on the whole evening. And we couldn’t figure out why everyone went around kissing everyone. Yew!

Of course, then there was new year’s day, when my mother wouldn’t miss turning on the television set to watch the Tournament of Roses parade, from Pasadena, California. She wouldn’t miss it for the world. And, oh, what a thrill when we got a color TV, and she could watch it in all its glory. Once the parade was done, it was a day full of college football – the Sugar Bowl, the Cotton Bowl, the Orange Bowl, and, of course, the Grand Daddy of them all, the Rose Bowl. Today, there are dozens of bowl games played from mid-December into mid-January. Not the same.

I don’t recall too many new year eves in the ‘50s, but I do remember one in particular. The night 1959 turned into 1960. Wow! we were entering into the space age and for some reason, 1960 was the beginning of something great. For one thing, while attending parochial school, we were told that in 1960 the Pope would divulge the content of a secret letter that would foretell the future. Well, 1960 came and went, and we didn’t hear anything about it.

So, times have changed, and Guy Lombardo is gone, and, unfortunately, so has his music. The midnight celebrations now just aren’t the same. I guess New Year’s Eve is for the young – or the young at heart. My wife and I, in our 70s, still stay up with friends and watch the old year go out and the new one come in.