Celebrating New Year’s Eve was something Amy and I did with gusto for a long time.
We celebrated among the throngs on Piccadilly Circus in London one year. We welcomed the change of century on the National Mall in Washington, DC, as the clock ticked past midnight on Jan. 31, 1999.
Braved the cold on Times Square in Manhattan on another.
Passing into the new century pretty much climaxed our celebrations. I had quit drinking six years earlier and she no longer imbibed. We might watch the fun at night on TV but more often than not, we were in bed asleep then the moment passed.
The reasons for partying at the end of the year seemed to slip away in a fast-paced lifestyle where years change in the midst of doing one’s job. I missed several New Year’s Eves because I was on the road for one reason or another.
Our New Year’s Eve in London came because she took a People’s Express fight with the wife of someone in my group between Christmas and New Years in 1986. She came to New Mexico to join me one year. On some New Year’s, I was somewhere not too hospitable in tense parts of the world so she partied with friends or alone.
When we were together, we celebrated the end of the year in a hot tub with good friends or dressed naughtily in New Orleans style for a raunchy party at a friend’s house.
At least three places in and around Floyd plan public New Year’s parties: The Floyd Country Store and Dogtown Roadhouse, both on South Locust Street in town and Wildwood Inn out near the Parkway. Both says the party will reach midnight and beyond.
A dinner at Chateau Morrisette ends before midnight (also near the Parkway).
Tonight, we will recognize the end of 2017 at home. I may venture out earlier in the evening to shoot some footage at a few local public gatherings, but I will be home before midnight to recognize the change of years with the love of my life.
Our best wishes to each of you at we party out the old and recognize the new wherever you are on this frigid evening. With luck, some of you will be in warmer locales. Happy New Year.
If you party, please be careful out there. We want to see you among us in 2018.
