A New Year’s Eve Memory

Memory is the diary all of us carry about with us. ~ Oscar Wilde

So today a friend texted me to remind me our our New Year’s Eve celebration for the year 2000.  As you may remember, there was a lot of talk about the world possibly ending.  That whole pesky Y2K thing had everyone very excited, amazing what a few misplaced 1’s and o’s might do.  So I figured if it was going to be the end of the world, it ought to be celebrated in style.

When I was younger, I never expected to ever see the year 2000.  I have a clear memory of laying on the playground watching clouds with a friend.  We were maybe 12, and it dawned on me that we would be 36 in the year 2000.  Then we both started laughing and said, “well, guess we won’t see that.”  My life and my mind were in a very different place at that point in my life.

So, having made it, I decide to celebrate in style.  So with a friend I rented a beach house  in Port Saint Joseph on the Gulf of Mexico in Florida.  I also bought the most expensive bottle of wine I’ve ever bought.  I was a grad student and a $100 bottle of wine was a lot of money for me back then.  The first thing we did, was to watch TV as the first places in the world hit the magical 2000.  I remember watching the fireworks in Sydney Harbor, meaning of course that things hadn’t gone haywire on Australian computers.  It looked like the world would survive after all.  Turns out a lot of hardworking nerds had actually averted a potential disaster, if it actually existed.

The plan was at midnight to pour a couple of glasses of excellent wine and ring in the New Year standing in the Gulf of Mexico.  Why? Seemed like a good idea at the time.  As the night progressed we made friends with our neighbors who invited us to join the massive Cajun style boil they were doing.  We had a great time hanging out with them and eating really good food.  At midnight we indeed clinked our glasses to welcome in the next year, century and millennium.

It was a bittersweet time for both of us, our grandfathers‘ were dying and in between our small adventures, including paddling out to some dolphins in a tiny rubber boat, we could call to check on them.  The dolphins in fact were sharks, and it was a pretty funny realization that quickly reversed our paddling direction.  Unfortunately both of our grandfathers soon passed away.

Grandpa Kane

I rarely celebrate New Year’s Eve, a neighbor of mine used to refer to it as amateur night.  A night for people who don’t normally drink to go out and get drunk.  Too many drunk people, too many fights, too many drunk drivers.  My celebrations now are quieter, alone or with a friend or two.  A quiet celebration of the passing of one year into another and the hope for many happy days to come.  Happy New Year my friends.  ~ Rev Kane