New Year's Eve

The first time I was allowed to stay up until midnight on New Year's Eve to see the ball dropped in Times Square I was 10 years old. In those days part of the tradition was to listen to Gaetano Alberto "Guy" Lombardo (June 19, 1902 – November 5, 1977) and his Royal Canadians play their music from the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York.  The music may have sounded corny to a first time listener but it didn't take long for one to realize they were a well organized and tight group of musicians.  They were noted for playing the traditional song Auld Lang Syne and their recording of the song still plays as the first song of the new year in Times Square.

While my younger brother and I waited for midnight and were being shown traditions like the Royal Canadians and the sight of all the people at Times Square, we soon realized we needed some confetti to throw at each other at midnight. The first thing we started ripping up was our blank notebook paper used for school reports but after a short while we were steered towards the newspapers in the pantry. In those days before the town began recycling,  this was  the logical thing to do.

When the clock struck 12 the ball began its descent at Times Square and we heard for the first time Guy Lombardo's version of the Robert Burns poem Auld Lang Syne. We could also see on the old black and white TV that people had begun to throw their confetti so we started throwing ours in support. After all the confetti was thrown we picked it up and threw it all again. This second celebration finally wore us out and we were sent off to bed, with the nostalgic tunes of the Royal Canadians playing in the background to lull us to sleep.