Happy New Year!

By Lea Tyrrell

New Year's Eve is upon us and it's time to celebrate. As many cheer the beginning of a new year, many others are celebrating the fact that 2008 is over! As one of my Long Island Talks guests, who's a financial planner recently emailed me, if there's any year that should be over, it's 2008.

I'm working New Year's Eve so I'll be watching the Times Square ball drop on television from home. But there have been two times that I've seen it in person. And it's quite something to see. If you've done it, then you know what I'm talking about. But if you haven't spent New Year's Eve in Times Square, you've got to do it once in your life. Just try to pick a year with a warmer forecast!

I made my trips before the September 11th terrorist attacks and I imagine things have changed quite a bit because of the tighter security. But I don't think anything can take away from the spectacle.

The roar of the countdown is deafening and gets louder and louder until the ball lights up the new year. Tons and tons and tons of confetti come raining down from the tops of skyscrapers. Then you find yourself being hugged and wished Happy New Year by people you don't even know. My first experience with that came courtesy of four Norwegian tourists who were drinking from bottles of champagne.

 It's complete chaos for about a half hour. And then all those people just disappear!  What's left in Times Square are small mountains of confetti and waves of sanitation crews cleaning things up. Amazingly, when you see Times Square the next morning, all that confetti is gone. A few wisps that got away from the sweepers go flying by in the wind, but considering the amount of paper that fell from the sky, the clean up crews do an incredible job.

The forecast for this New Year's Eve looks a little cold, so if you're going to be out in Times Square, dress as warmly as you can.  If you're going for the first time, enjoy the fun.  I imagine there's nothing quite like it around the world.  I'd like to do New Year's Eve in Times Square one more time, with my daughter when she gets a little older, but before she gets old enough to be embarassed by Momhanging around!

From all of us here at News 12 Long Island, have a Happy, Healthy and Safe New Year!  And thanks for helping us get to our 22nd year on the air.  We celebrated News 12's anniversary on December 15th.

 

Comments

[Peggy Lazenby-part-time Michigander and New Yorker]

I have lived here on Long Island for most of my life except for attending college and teaching for a total of a little more than 25 years. -and I love New York City! I spend as much time in the city as I can and I was so happy to move back here to New York! I have never been in the city to watch the ball drop but I surely would love to some day with my adult daughter,too!