“What a wonderful thought it is that some of the best days of our lives haven’t even happened yet.”
Happy New Year!
I don’t know what to expect this new year, but I have my suspicions. It may very well be like the last year which would be such a disappointment. I’m wishing for better. I figure it depends on me. I’ll be my best me. Maybe that is the key.
When I was a kid, I remember how disappointed I was when I got my first look at the new year. Nothing had changed. It looked exactly the same. I didn’t understand all the excitement, all the hoopla back then, but I did when I was older. I understood the hope each year brought. I still hang on to that.
Yesterday it poured. I had a 5 o’clock uke concert in Chatham, but the God of parking was good, and I got a close spot. The concert was great fun. The crowd sang along and clapped and did the rhythmic arm waving. For the first time, I had friends in the audience. It was wonderful.
The evening was quiet, but I enjoyed it. I had bought a few munchies so I noshed on cheddar, crackers and quesadillas. I drank egg nog. I watched movies. At midnight, I cheered and spun noisemakers to welcome the new year and ring out spirits of the old. I do think of the old year proverbially as that tired old man using a walking stick. I don’t think of the new year as a baby. It comes in dragging stuff with it. A teen? Maybe.
In my town in Ghana, cannons went off at midnight to announce the new year. I don’t remember parties, but the cold room at the Hotel d’Bull was so filled you didn’t feel the cold. It was a bar, and it was the only air conditioned room in the entire Upper Region; hence, its descriptive name. I drank there a few times, always Coke. Beer was big, but I didn’t drink beer. I didn’t like the taste. I still don’t. Nonetheless, it was a great bar. When I went back so many years later, the Hotel d’ Bull still existed but under an alias, the Black Star Hotel. The saddest part was the cold room was gone, replaced by a tiny Internet cafe with 4 machines. My first return was in the days before all of Bolga connected with the wider world so I went to that Internet cafe a few times. When I looked around, I still remembered the Hotel d’Bull. It was, back in its day, the fanciest place in town.
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January 1, 2023 at 5:18 pm
Hi Kat,
Like you I never understood what all the excitement was for the new year as a kid. Nothing had changed except the date. Now looking back on so many New Year’s Days, I realize how much has really changed in my lifetime. We spent the night at the Embassy Suite hotel in Frisco, Texas. This morning at the complimentary cooked to order breakfast the changes since the 1950s was obvious everywhere. The dining room was filled with hundreds of families of every color and every ethnicity. There were many mixed families and their kids. This scene would have been impossible in North Texas or anywhere in this country in the 1950s. African Americans in those days still required having, “The Green Book”, in their cars to safely traverse anny part of the entire country.
Every year I look forward to better and more peaceful times. I hope that the Russians are defeated in Ukraine and Putin is deposed. I hope that the far right wing government of Benjamin Netanyahu will try to bring peace between the Arabs and the Israelis. I hope that the Republican majority in the House of Representatives proposes useful legislation rather than punitive hearings on President Biden’s son’s emails. I doubt any of this will happen, but I can always hope for the best.
January 1, 2023 at 6:34 pm
Hi Bob,
I looked forward to a few new year’s like the year I turned 13. Finally I was a teenager. 16 was a big year, but 21 was the biggest. I could vote and I could drink. The rest of the time things changed but slowly so I didn’t notice. You are right about all the changes we’ve seen. They have been monumental.
What a wonderful way to welcome the new year, to make it special. Breakfast is my favorite meal to eat at a restaurant.
I have never witnessed a color line. There were a few black families, but they were just people in town like everyone else. There were no rules.
I hope all of the same hopes as you have. I too am skeptical but can’t imagine what might happen if I don’t have hope.
January 2, 2023 at 8:22 am
Happy New Year Kat and to the KTCC Family.
2023 wandered in to Michigan with unusually mild weather and promises of something in the 60s tomorrow (Tuesday) . Mrs MDH and I are waiting anxiously for the arrival of two grandchildren who, no doubt, will dominate our year
January 2, 2023 at 5:51 pm
Happy New Year, My Dear Hedley!
It is warmish here. I hung around the house wallowing in lethargy.
Have a wonderful visit with your grandchildren.