Winning Words 12/31/09
“Ring out the old, ring in the new. Ring out the false, ring in the true.” (Tennyson) When I was a boy, it was the custom to have a New Year’s Eve Watch Service to ring in the new year. Just before midnight the pastor would begin to pray. As he was praying the factory whistles would start to sound, and he’d stop and say, “Amen, Happy New Year.” What’s in your memory bank? ;-) Jack

FROM RI IN BOSTON: On New Year's Eve our family was invited to join in at another family's home. The evening was spent with the adults and children playing "rob your neighbor", where small wrapped gifts were given to all the players; then the winner of a round could "rob" the gift from someone else at the table. There was fun and laughter, and just before midnight, everyone was given a glass of egg nog to toast in the new year. Splendid memories. FROM JACK: I've never heard of that game, but I've heard of egg nog and fun and laughter.

FROM PRJS IN MICHIGAN: New Year's Eve was a Swedish night for us. We went to the Brissman's house and had smorgasbord and then at midnight we had herring....Chester would go shoot off his gun at that time also. It was a farm so it wasn't a dangerous thing to do. My Dad was German but was facile with languages and could speak a number of them....a little bit of Swedish, too....like "Kom lilla flicka o kyssna mig" He was a rascal from head to toe!!! He also had a couple of revolvers...one was from a western sheriff who was a political friend (the sheriff of Lincoln, Neb.)....I still have that one. I don't have any bullets and don't want any. If someone broke into my house, I would have to hit them with my sledgehammer....Happy New Year. FROM JACK: Do you member the sayin, "He got the last laugh?" Well, you gave me a "last laugh" on Dec 31, with you sledgehammer comment.

FROM MOLINER CF: ...And I always thought it was my ears ringing! FROM JACK: True! MORE FROM CF: Remembering. My folks used to dress me up in diaper and a sash with the new year imprinted on it. Dad would put on a white robe and wear a beard. I got pretty embarrassing by the time I was eighteen.

FROM SH IN MICHIGAN: We were in Switzerland celebrating New Years with a family in the apartment couple floors above us. They had a couple of kids, we had our daughter. They attached one of those play airplanes on a string to the ceiling. The airplane went round and round. Everyone was pleased and excited the airplane was actually functioning. "See, see!!!!!" we said to Brenda while pointing to the plane. "See, see!!!!!" she said while pointing to the airplane. Those were her first words, New Years, 1984. It was a very, very exciting New Years party, having that little tiny conversation with her. FROM JACK: What a great remembrance; be sure to share it with her. MORE FROM SH: Our daughter had an enrichment seminar at her company "Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High" - book by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler. Here are some quotes from the book "To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often" - Winston Churchill prefacing the chapter "Change Your Life - How to Turn Ideas into Habits". I chuckled at "They had lived together for so many years that they mistook their arguments for conversation" - some woman named Marjorie Kellogg.

May all of your crucial conversations be fruitful this year, 2010, leading to more peace
everywhere in this world!!!! We are thankful for you all and the tremendous impact you
have made on our family!!!!!

FROM SG IN TAMPA: Ringing in 1955 in New Orleans with the great jazz on Bourbon Street when Bourbon Street was respectable, 1959 at the Yacht Club in Nassau, and since then family celebrations with lots of extended families at home or with neighbors. FROM JACK: Bourbon Street was respectable? What does that word mean? In 1955, I was experiencing my first Wisconsin winter, living alone and seeing more snow that I had ever seen before.

FROM GOOD DEBT JON: That describes quite a bell that can do all that. I like it and I like Tennyson FROM JACK: I like the Salvation Army bells, too.

FROM L IN ILLINOIS: Watching Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve from a tiny room at my Godparents' house as a little kid because they always had the NYE party for "the group." And, many years later, I will still run home tonite in time to catch Dick Clark & the ball drop in Times Square...

FROM GUSTIE MN: I have wonderful memories of when I was a kid. My parents and my friend’s parents always went with their friends to a party. Marilyn, Carol, and I would always be together at the Howe house. We always had a “play”. Carol was the littlest, so she was the New Year—Marilyn was always the narrator, and I (because I was blond with longer hair) was always the “Old Year”. It was quite the production!

FROM EMT SINGS IN MICHIGAN: My memory is that at midnight my dad and brother went to the church (we lived down the block) and rang the bell. FROM JACK: That's right. Church bells used to ring, too...and people would bang on cooking pans with wooden spoons.

FROM PRCH ON CAPE COD: We were in California visiting Tiffany's family. This year, and two years ago when we were there, Tiffany's brother and I did a 5k run on a military base which began at 11:45 p.m. It's called the "Year to Year Run" as it begins in one and ends in the next. If one's not going to be in worship, then running with 250 others isn't too bad. FROM JACK: What a great way.... to "run" in the New Year