This week’s Sepia Saturday prompt featuring Scottish
troops celebrating the New Year at their billet hut in France during World War
I makes me realize how calm my own New Year celebrations have always been. As the poster child for “Morning People,” I’ve
always struggled to stay awake watching television to see the ball drop in Times
Square.
When my sister and I were kids, we looked forward to
December 31 for one reason:
sparklers. Our grandparents
bought them and lit them for us. Holding
one sparkler in each hand, we watched them sizzle and pop. We’d draw designs against the night sky with
the little “jet stream” emitted by moving the sparkler really fast. Before the fire went out, we’d throw the
sparklers in the air. Often they got
lost in the grass until the next day or until spring when the lawn mower would
find them.
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| By Krzysztof Maria Różański, (Upior polnocy) (Own work) [CC-BY-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons |
For several years, New Year’s Eve always meant my sister Mary Jollette would have her friend Gail over for the night. It became a tradition for awhile. They enjoyed the sparklers too. Sometimes they played games.
 |
| It looks like I was off to a good start buying up properties around the Monopoly board. For some reason, I liked the railroads and utilities. |
 |
| What is Gail pouring into that beer stein? |
One year they went into the attic and found some of my
old clothes. They had a grand time
trying them on.
 |
| I actually remember that polka dot dress Gail is modeling, but I have no idea what that plaid sailor number is that Mary Jollette found. That salute! Good grief! |
Do we know how to bring in the New Year right or what? I wish you all the happiest of new years!
Please visit Sepia Saturday to see how others are
bringing in the New Year.
©
2014, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved.
You always post such great pictures! I hope 2013 is a wonderful year for you. :)
ReplyDeleteWell thanks! I hope 2013 is a year of joy, love, inspiration, and more writing success for you too!
DeleteThanks. :)
DeleteAnd a very happy new year to you Wendy. May 2013 be a Year of great Old Photographs and great new friends.
ReplyDeleteI'll drink to that!
DeleteHappy New Year Wendy! I've been wondering where you've been. I see you must have been playing a very long game of Monopoly, or dancing the night away like Gail and Mary. (Ya, that photo is awesome!)
ReplyDeleteAnyway, it's nice to see you back in the blogosphere. I hope you had a great Christmas and a very Happy New Year!
Hey Jana. I'm around, just in a "what should I write" slump. Plus I've been at our lake house this past week without access to any of my genealogy stuff. But I'm very excited about some of the ideas gleaned from your Friday Finds. I can hardly wait to get writing again.
DeleteOooh! Spending time at your lake house sounds absolutely wonderful.
DeleteHello Wendy, what a wonderful reminder of maybe my most happiest New Year's Celebrations. That was our favorite family and friends board game and still is! Just looking at the happiness in those photos really make me rethink our plans for next year. Thanks for the sweet old time memories, when it was so darn fun!!!!
ReplyDeleteI can't remember the last time I played Monopoly. But it is a great game.
DeleteThat looks like a very fun New Year's celebration you had.
ReplyDeleteIt was always a party when Gail was around. She was and is a pistol!
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteOops, I'll try again.
ReplyDeleteCrickey! That's a bottle of Drambuie being emptied into the beer stein. We were playing board games this New Years Eve - but were in bed before midnight as my daughter had to catch a plane next day back to the USA.
YES! Drambuie! My parents were very excited about that bottle, as I recall. So obviously Gail and Mary Jollette were just playing. I knew some boozehound would come along and recognize the bottle ;-)
DeleteI enjoyed reading about your tradition of bringing in New Year - it sounded a lovely happy family time and something very valuable and heart-warming to look back on.
ReplyDeleteIt was indeed fun to look back on those early New Years celebrations, which I would not have done had it not been for the Sepia Saturday prompt. I love how Bob's identification of the Drambuie made me remember a little detail I had long forgotten.
DeleteHappy New Year. I tried to watch a New Year celebration on TV but fell asleep!
ReplyDeleteI actually stayed awake this year because I was at a party. I had no choice but to stay awake!
DeleteHappy New Year! Sparklers on new years; that's an idea I had not heard before but sounds like fun.
ReplyDeleteEverything is outlawed around here these days, so sparklers would be new to most people younger than me, too.
DeleteI enjoyed this happy story. Happy New Year!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Prenter!
DeleteHi Wendy, what a grand post! I have trouble staying awake too. I think that I went to bed at 9:30 this year, not even bothering to make an attempt.
ReplyDeleteAbout 12 years ago, I lived in a neighborhood who had some darned good fireworks on New Years Eve. I went to the dollar store and got a bunch of those "poppers" and other fireworks to give to the kids. That was one of my most fun New Years Eve celebrations ever.
Are you a lot older than Mary?
Kathy M.
Yes, 8 years. Here is the story of how she came to be: http://jollettetc.blogspot.com/2012/07/sepia-saturday-and-here-comes-wendy.html
DeleteYou commented but have forgotten. Go ahead and refresh your memory - you never know when there might be a quiz. HA!
It sounds like you did New Year's just right. I long ago gave up on it and quietly went to bed knowing I'd be awakened by fireworks or stupid gunfire. What goes up must come down, but those who shoot guns in the air in celebration apparently never heard of physics.
ReplyDeleteGunfire?!? Yikes! I'll stick to Monopoly.
DeleteKicking up your heels to the New Year sounds like more fun in your house than standing around in the cold at Times Square waiting for a dumb beach ball! Best of blogging in 2013!
ReplyDeleteBeing trapped in Times Square is not on my bucket list.
DeleteI loved playing Monopoly but not everyone in my family shared my enthusiasm as they didn't want to get involved in a game that could drag on for hours. Thanks for sharing your stories and family pictures!
ReplyDeleteThat is one drawback. When I got tired, I'd gladly throw the game in order to get it over with.
DeleteMary's salute is appropriate as there were soldiers in the prompt.
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year!!!
:D~
HUGZ
I hadn't thought of that. Uh, yes, we grew up taking pictures in anticipation of Sepia prompts.
DeleteNew Year's with Gail was the best! I don't think I stayed awake to 12 much after our sleep overs ended. I ran into Gail's Mom the other day and asked if Gail & her family had their sparklers ready.
ReplyDeleteMy salute was cute-don't be hatin'
Yeah, it's cute. It is sooooo YOU! I'm sure you'd be saluting today if you had a sailor dress.
DeleteWendy, I am pretty sure I had both those pairs of pants in the second photo!
ReplyDeleteI had lots of games, but never MONOPOLY. This may explain why I don't give a fig about money.
I was in bed at 11:40 on New Year's Eve and even though we knew it was only 20 minutes to go, we still turned off the light and went to sleep. Boring old farts.
Kat
I've been terrified of sparklers my entire life, something my Mother instilled in me. When she was a young child somehow she dropped a lit one in her shoe and burned her foot. She managed to terrify me that somehow something terrible would happen to me if I ever held one and to this day I never have! My grandchildren came over last 4th of July and wouldn't you know it my son let them hold lit sparklers - I nearly had a heart attack, but of course had to keep my mouth shut!
ReplyDelete