A few thoughts while reflecting on the year 2021

 

I am sitting on my sofa, a small dog sleeping at my side, following the time-honored tradition of reflecting on the past year and preparing for the year 2022.

I consider 2021 to be a good year, in spite of the challenges and trials that visited the nation and the world. 

Lori and I purchased a new vehicle (used, actually, but new to us), we enjoyed a summer trip to the Great Smoky Mountains, and we celebrated Christmas with a sibling we haven't seen since Covid-19 arrived in the U.S. 

Most importantly, we end the year with all of our family members in good health. A few good friends joined the ranks of the departed, and they are missed. We give thanks for having shared their journey, if even for a brief moment, and pray we will meet with them again.

Lori and I will celebrate tonight with dinner at one of our favorite local restaurants, a tradition we have followed for more than a decade now. A movie at the local theater was included in years past, but the pandemic forced our moviehouse to close its doors for good. I'm OK with that. My celebration is complete with just a quiet meal with my lovely wife.

I enjoy standing outdoors at midnight, listening to neighbors welcome the New Year with firecrackers (and a whole lot more). My days of playing with explosives are done, but I still get a kick from all the noise others produce. It is a challenge lately to stay up until midnight, but I plan to be outside, observing this tradition tonight, as I have for at least 40 years. 

We parted company with the late-night partying years ago, nearly 20 to be exact, and prefer the low-profile approach to the New Year. I enjoyed those gatherings as a younger man, but I don't miss the hangovers. We focus our energies now on celebrating the first full day of the New Year.

We celebrate with a variety of small plate foods. It's a tradition I picked up from a friend's family, after attending a gathering in their home in the early '70s. The party included some wonderful food and fun activities. It occurred to me that so much emphasis is put on the celebrations of the Eve that the day itself is overlooked. So I embraced and adopted a new tradition. 

We revised and changed the New Year's Day menu options over the years. When my daughter was in high school and college, we spent the day watching the college bowl games and enjoyed the Festival of Salty Snacks. It was mostly junk food, but we did include a few healthy options and some actual food, usually chicken wings and pizza. The eating would commence in the morning, while viewing the Tournament of Roses Parade and continue throughout the day.

Time and my doctor recently forced another menu revision. We now offer more healthier options (veggies, sliced fruit), but we still have a few salty items, and the creamed herring, of course.

Garrison Keillor, one of my favorite writers, offered the following this morning. I will end with this, and hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

    

"Today is New Year's Eve, a day to take stock of the old year and make changes for a new year.

People across the world tonight will be linking arms at the stroke of midnight and singing "we'll take a cup o' kindness yet, for auld lang syne," from the Scottish folk song popularized by Robert Burns (books by this author). In Scotland, New Year's Eve marks the first day of Hogmanay, a name derived from an Old French word for a gift given at the New Year. There's a tradition at Hogmanay known as "first-footing": If the first person to cross your threshold after midnight is a dark-haired man, you will have good luck in the coming year. Other customs vary by region within Scotland, but most involve singing and whiskey.

English poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson (books by this author) wrote: "Ring out the old, ring in the new / Ring, happy bells, across the snow / The year is going, let him go / Ring out the false, ring in the true."

Here in the United States, the custom of raising and dropping a giant ball arose out of the time when signals were given to ships at harbor. Starting in 1859, a large ball was dropped at noon every day so sailors could check their ship chronometers.

The Times Square celebration dates back to 1904, when The New York Times opened its headquarters on Longacre Square. The newspaper convinced the city to rename the area "Times Square," and they hosted a big party, complete with fireworks, on New Year's Eve. Some 200,000 people attended, but the paper's owner, Adolph Ochs, wanted the next celebration to be even splashier. In 1907 the paper's head electrician constructed a giant lighted ball that was lowered from the building's flagpole. The first Times Square Ball was made of wood and iron, weighed 700 pounds, and was lit by a hundred 25-watt bulbs. Now it's made of Waterford crystal, weighs almost six tons, and is lit by more than 32,000 LED lights. The party in Times Square is attended by up to a million people every year.

Other cities have developed their own ball-dropping traditions. Atlanta, Georgia, drops a giant peach. Eastport, Maine, drops a sardine. Ocean City, Maryland, drops a beach ball, and Mobile, Alabama, drops a 600-pound electric Moon Pie. In Tempe, Arizona, a giant tortilla chip descends into a massive bowl of salsa. Brasstown, North Carolina, drops a Plexiglas pyramid containing a live possum; and Key West, Florida, drops an enormous ruby slipper with a drag queen inside it."

-- Thank you for reading. Comments and questions are always welcome. Feel free to comment here or send an email to kbotterman@gmail.com. May you enjoy a blessed and healthy new year.

September and the rituals of autumn

I am happy to welcome September, the first of the autumnal "ber" months. 

After two months of temperatures in mid-90s or higher in my areab and uncomfortable levels of humidity, we are enjoying cool days and cooler nights, the type that carry a hint of what is to come as we move through autumn. 

Some already have started their autumn rituals. Local coffeehouses offered pumpkin spice lattes in mid-August and I saw Halloween candy displayed at a nearby grocery store nearly a month ago. Theses are the same shopkeepers who display Christmas decorations on October 1.  

All of that is far too early for me. I'm from a time before algorithms and mass merchandising. Sure, we started thinking about Christmas wishes the day the Sears catalog arrived at the house, but we didn't shift to full holiday mode, until Vern Hagenbring decorated the big display window at the front of his store in downtown Arlington Heights.

And we didn't focus on Halloween until Uncle Ernie selected the pumpkins he planned to carve for Jack-o-lanterns, usually around October 20. Carve a pumpkin earlier than that, he'd say, and you'll have a rotten vegetable on your front porch on Halloween. 

Things are more than a little different today. We still have strict adherents who don't speak of fall until September 22, the offficial start, according to the calendar. There are many others who believe autumn begins September 1, and others who think it starts the day temperatures reach a high in the mid-70s. 

Some commentators say it's officially autumn when soccer moms appear in sweaters, down vests and knee-high boots. While that is a reasonable measurement, it overlooks that many moms dress in that manner way too early for the upper midwest, where temperatures might reach the mid-80s in late October. The sweaters go back in the closet when that happens and out come the summer shorts again. 

I view September as a transition month, a segue from summer to autumn, from long days of heat and humidity to shorter days, longer nights, and steadily cooling temperatures. 

September is for me the opportunity to finally say goodbye to August, a month I never cared for at any time during my years. August was physically uncomfortable for me while growing up. I was raised in a time when many homes did not have central air conditioning. Most families either relied on electric fans to move the air around inside their homes, or simply endured the conditions. 

And August also represented the end of summer. No more weekend visits to friends with summer homes on Wisconsin lakes. No more days spent at the public swimming pool, and no more community festivals. (Remember, this was in a time when fests were held only during summer months, mostly because many fathers worked jobs that required Saturday hours.) 

Public school resumed in September, after Labor Day, in those days. I was not a good student academically, but I always tried to put forth a good effort and always enjoyed reading and learning about history. I approached September with a view of it being a fresh opportunity to be a better student. Unfortunately for me, my enthusiasm typically faded by October and was forgotten by November. It was like a curse.

My family followed rituals that followed the calendar. Many families do, so we weren't unusual in the practice, but adhearance to the rituals took root in me. It might be out of habit, but I still follow many of those rituals and practices, some only at certain times of years. And I'm OK with that. 

So I bid farewell to August 2021 (good riddance, you hot, wet SOB), and say "welcome September." Let's hope the month is full of both promise and promises met. 

-- Thank you for reading. Please feel free to comment here, or send an email to kbotterman@gmail.com