"What are you doing New Year's...New Year's Eve?"...Harry Connick, Jr. sings...
Yet another year is drawing to a close, and a "New one" approaches nigh...bringing forth a deluge of memories of "Yesteryear".
Isn't New Years Eve so much different for you than it was when you were a child?
I remember that when I was little, this festive occasion was celebrated much differently by the members of my family, than it is now.
For "one"...that was the 1970's--a time when people were just generally "looser"...with "everything". Going bra-less was the new trend; partying like rock-stars with virtual strangers was the norm; tossing bags and bags of "fast-food"- litter and beer/soda cans out of a moving vehicle and onto our country's roadways was randomly done in staggering regularity; and drinking-and-driving was not considered to be as taboo as it is now.
Only after people began to realize:
1. How absolutely GROSS the "bra-less"-look ACTUALLY IS...
2. That if you "party like a rock star", then you had better be able to AFFORD it like a "rock star"! --Also, you are not immune to DYING like the many talented souls our society has lost...
3. The mindless ejection of garbage into our environment was destroying our Eco-system, and contaminating our society...
4. Thousands of innocent victims were maimed/slain by drunken motorists...
...did people finally sit-up and take notice...and take ACTION.
The 70's were ripe with idiotic trends, excess, and ideas...just a general, overall bizarre "vibe". (I may have been little, but I CLEARLY REMEMBER everything that went-on in not only my little "bubble" of a universe, but within the world surrounding my bubble.)
Just because the times were so far skewed from what had prevailed in the previous decades, does not mean that they were not fun, unique, and fascinating...well worth the trip down "Memory Lane". .. ;)
As a child, my brother, sister, and I luxuriated in the lifestyle of the "Rich and Famous" (to a degree)...however, we were too young to fully realize that other people did not generally live that way, and too young to fully grasp the possibilities of our situation...as well as take full-advantage of it! ;)
My parents married in '58...Mom was 18 (Catholic-school virgin) and Dad 24 (Hell-raiser, phenomenally brilliant, driven to the extreme, Marriage-count: #3!)
They were dirt poor...yet Dad (with Mom's help) worked his fingers-to-the-bone, and made a pile-O-money as an Engineer, eventually owning his own "Tool and Die / Engineering" business.
Dad and Mom worked their way up to a custom built-home (which Dad designed) in 1974...5-acre lot; MONSTER 2-story, all-brick house; wrap-around wrought-iron balcony; tennis-court in the back-yard. A FREAKING AMAZING house!
All of us kids had our own HUGE bedroom with custom bath (mine was a walk-in), and French doors leading out onto the balcony (mine overlooked the tennis court.) It was positively amazing...and I--being 4 years-old, was a bit young to actually appreciate the incredible beauty of my surroundings. (However, NOW I would KILL for that bathroom! ;)
My Dad--since he had built his empire--(and invested well), liked to "buy things". And I mean, BIG things...and "NOW".
There was this nightclub on the "Rock Road" in St. Louis that he like to frequent with all of his family and friends... "El Rancho Cocktail Lounge". "El Rancho" was actually (at the time) the most "happening" bar on the "Rock Road"--which was the most "happening" street in town.
The Rock Road was a miles-long strip of bars, nightclubs, pool-halls...you name it. This was the time before the "Dawn of Disco" and discotheques, it was still the era of 1970's Rock and Roll, and live bands in every club.
So, Dad and his cronies discovered "The Ranch" (as it was lovingly referred to.) At the time, Dad was close to turning 40, and Mom was 34...
(MAN! I am currently "smack-dab" between those two ages! How I wish I would had known my parents as "PEOPLE" when they were my age...and not just as the "OLD" parents I mistakenly thought I had!...Hmmm...how "time" changes our perception, huh?)
(Okay..."back at the Ranch!" ;)...This was THE place to whoop-it-up in the 70's...and Dad began this annoying little habit of "BUYING" the bar every night that he went there and "tied-one-on".
Uh..yeah...NOT kidding!
I recall that in the morning, when I would crawl into the MONSTER king-sized bed with my much-hung-over parents, Dad would ask my mom, "What happened last night?"
To which she would invariably reply, "You bought the bar again."
I would sit there between them, with my pink wind-up-music-box "Teddy" firmly gripped under one arm, my satiny ivory-colored "blankie" in the other, and watch in fascination as Dad would--ONCE AGAIN!--have Mom call the bank and "cancel the check"...(whatever THAT meant!)
In the beginning, I did not have the FOGGIEST idea of what was going on during this exchange. but after a month of weekends, and Saturday-morning "bank-calling/check-cancelling", I soon figured it out!
Every Saturday morning I would "rise with the chickens" to click-on the TV (with our NEW, "hi-tech" REMOTE CONTROL!) to watch my much-loved cartoons...all the while listening for sounds which would herald my parents slowly stirring awake.
At the first "sign of life" from their palace of a bedroom, I would abandon my cartoons for the live-theatre which was sure to unfold within their "inner-sanctum". I would then sail-off of my ornate and frilly, pink and white, canopied-Princess bed, and scamper-off to launch myself up-onto their bed...the sound of the plastic-bottomed "feet" of my pink, zip-up, fuzzy pajamas--scuffling over the carpets--signaling my arrival.
It was one particularly fascinating morning, at the end of the month, that I remember vividly...Dad asked Mom the same question, to which Mom gave the standard reply. Dad then said, "Well, good...I guess it is time to start remodeling then, isn't it?!" ;)
I was "fuzzying" with my Blankie as fast as I could, eyes bugging-out, enthralled by this newest turn-of-events.
Dad (who LOVES to tell his stories, and expound-upon them in great detail...hmmm...and I wonder where I got THAT from! ;)...proceeded to explain how the previous night he was SOBER when he bought the bar!
(Now, I don't want to have my parents come across as some kind of raging alcoholics...they weren't...but it just so happens that THIS story takes place predominately in a bar...where there is an abundance of beer and liquor...so the "natural progression" will surely take place. And, HEY...my family was certainly NEVER "boring", that's for sure! ;)
So, THAT night (the night AFTER he bought the bar), we ALL piled into the truck to go to El Rancho..."our" new bar! (Yes, I mean "WE ALL"...it was the 70's, and we owned that bar for YEARS afterwards, and I cannot TELL you the number of times that my entire family headed off to "The Ranch". (I was 4, my sister 8, and my brother 14...and I recall still going there in high school!)
Anyway, that Saturday night, I remember Dad getting on-stage at the end of the night--after the band had finished playing--and announcing: "Well, I've got some 'bad news', and some 'good news'."
...And expectant hush fell-over the crowd...
"The 'bad news' is: 'We are closing the El Rancho'!"
...The startled crowd "boo-ed" and "hiss-ed"!
"The 'good news' is: 'We are going to remodel it and and re-open in a month'!"
..."Cheers" and "shouts" abounded!
For the next month, the club was a swirling site of construction and massive renovations. The Ranch was always kind of a border-line "Road House", and now it was transforming into a REALLY nicely-appointed nightclub.
Dad let my sister and I select the lighting-fixtures for the club (from a catalogue)...and being the consistent-"Glitter Girl" that I am, we chose RED-blown-glass chandeliers with long crystal-droplets dangling about the perimeter!
We were there almost every day, watching the metamorphoses within the bar. At the end of the month, there was a MASSIVE "Grand Opening" party, with the radio station there, our house-band,"Firechild"; and-it seemed like--EVERYONE in the St. Louis area trying to get in the doors.
I practically "grew-up" in that bar, dancing with the cocktail waitress at night-- all-decked-out in my ruffly, pink-and-white sun-dresses!-- and crawling-up onto a bar-stool in the near-empty day-time hours--primly ordering myself a "Shirley Temple"! :)
I would play the electronic "shuffle-board/bowling game", the pin-ball machine, and the juke-box FOR FREE! :) --Because my Daddy would "flip the little switch" underneath the games that allowed "open-play". I occupied myself for HOURS with those games.
And, often, I would fall asleep, stretched-out in one of the red-leather booths, a wet bar-towel pressed to my eyes, to keep the MASSIVE AMOUNTS of cigarette smoke at bay. (Oh, I vividly recall my eyes STREAMING tears from the amounts of smoke which continually hung in that low-ceilinged room...even WITH the "smoke-eaters"! Ughhh!!!)
I had no idea that at the time, my sister and brother BOTH were sneaking drinks from the bartender and waitress!
Like I said, it was a waaayyy different "time". I mean, no parent in their RIGHT MIND would bring their kids into that environment these days...much less let the littlest girl--ME!--associate with a bunch of drunks in a bar, and fall asleep "SOMEWHERE" in a booth! I could have been abducted at ANY TIME...but that was not the "scene" back then. Well, not as predominately, anyway.
Irregardless, we all stayed "safe", and turned out RELATIVELY "normal"...well...KINDA!
With one GLARING EXCEPTION...that same little pink-cheeked, ruffly-dressed girl eventually grew-up to WORK in a bar...and then manage night-clubs..."Drink -Slinger-Extraordinaire!" ;) ...HRMMMPPPHHHHH!!!!!
Now, to RETURN to the original idea behind this diatribe: "NEW YEAR'S EVE!!!"
(...*WHEW!*...That had to have been the LONGEST "TANGENT", ever!...However, a necessary one!..)
"Back-in-the-day"...(SEE!...Now, with the help of the "tangent", you actually know what that "day" was like!)
Anyway..."New Year's Eve" was totally cool back then, at least in my little-girl's eyes. All of the adults would get all glitzed-up and head off to The Ranch, and all of the kids would be shuffled-off to one house where we would be baby-sat by the older kids...and we would spend our New Year's Eve together there.
We would have tons of frozen "Jeno's Pizza" to munch on, as well as chips, pretzels, and soda of every flavor imaginable. We would play games like "Twister" and "Monopoly", and then tune-into "DICK CLARK'S-NEW YEAR'S ROCKIN' EVE!" :)
The sights and sounds of "Times Square" coming out of the TV was the "feel" of New Year's...especially the sound of Dick Clark's voice, as he introduced the bands, and counted-down to the New Year.
Watching that high-wattage, multi-lit "BALL" drop down to have the digits of the "NEW" year illuminate in a fiery glow--with the shouts and sounds of "bells, whistles, and horns" from the crowd in "Times Square" in the backround--was what it was "all about" to me!
I STRUGGLED to stay-awake until Midnight when I was younger, drastically disappointed if I "missed" the "BIG EVENT"...but I could count on my sister to awaken me for the count-down...and I would groggily watch the Ball descend...then fall right-back asleep amidst the revelry!
The adults would return either that night, or the next morning to collect their own brood of kids...finding us all stretched-out on the living-room floor in front of a TV that had already gone to broadcasting the "TEST PATTERN"! :)
However, I have GOT to say that the BEST and most MAGICAL part of New Year's Eve was ALWAYS the FABULOUS: Crowns, Tiaras, Frilly Leis, and AWESOME "noise-makers" which "Mommy" would ALWAYS be sure to bring home for me! These souvenirs of that fabulous night always represented that MYSTICAL transformation from the "OLD" year into the "NEW"!
Even though times have surely changed (some for the "better", some for the "worse")...the New Year will ALWAYS ring-in with a *BANG*!, the dropping of the "BALL" in "Times Square", and with parents all across the globe bringing those party-souvenirs home to their kids. :)
"HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE!...MAY IT BE SAFE, FABULOUS, AND FULL OF FESTIVE-FAVORS!"
"BEST WISHES FOR A REMARKABLE AND WONDERFUL 2008!" :)
*STAY-TUNED FOR MORE "SNOW* DAYS" IN THE "NEW YEAR"! ;)
Yet another year is drawing to a close, and a "New one" approaches nigh...bringing forth a deluge of memories of "Yesteryear".
Isn't New Years Eve so much different for you than it was when you were a child?
I remember that when I was little, this festive occasion was celebrated much differently by the members of my family, than it is now.
For "one"...that was the 1970's--a time when people were just generally "looser"...with "everything". Going bra-less was the new trend; partying like rock-stars with virtual strangers was the norm; tossing bags and bags of "fast-food"- litter and beer/soda cans out of a moving vehicle and onto our country's roadways was randomly done in staggering regularity; and drinking-and-driving was not considered to be as taboo as it is now.
Only after people began to realize:
1. How absolutely GROSS the "bra-less"-look ACTUALLY IS...
2. That if you "party like a rock star", then you had better be able to AFFORD it like a "rock star"! --Also, you are not immune to DYING like the many talented souls our society has lost...
3. The mindless ejection of garbage into our environment was destroying our Eco-system, and contaminating our society...
4. Thousands of innocent victims were maimed/slain by drunken motorists...
...did people finally sit-up and take notice...and take ACTION.
The 70's were ripe with idiotic trends, excess, and ideas...just a general, overall bizarre "vibe". (I may have been little, but I CLEARLY REMEMBER everything that went-on in not only my little "bubble" of a universe, but within the world surrounding my bubble.)
Just because the times were so far skewed from what had prevailed in the previous decades, does not mean that they were not fun, unique, and fascinating...well worth the trip down "Memory Lane". .. ;)
As a child, my brother, sister, and I luxuriated in the lifestyle of the "Rich and Famous" (to a degree)...however, we were too young to fully realize that other people did not generally live that way, and too young to fully grasp the possibilities of our situation...as well as take full-advantage of it! ;)
My parents married in '58...Mom was 18 (Catholic-school virgin) and Dad 24 (Hell-raiser, phenomenally brilliant, driven to the extreme, Marriage-count: #3!)
They were dirt poor...yet Dad (with Mom's help) worked his fingers-to-the-bone, and made a pile-O-money as an Engineer, eventually owning his own "Tool and Die / Engineering" business.
Dad and Mom worked their way up to a custom built-home (which Dad designed) in 1974...5-acre lot; MONSTER 2-story, all-brick house; wrap-around wrought-iron balcony; tennis-court in the back-yard. A FREAKING AMAZING house!
All of us kids had our own HUGE bedroom with custom bath (mine was a walk-in), and French doors leading out onto the balcony (mine overlooked the tennis court.) It was positively amazing...and I--being 4 years-old, was a bit young to actually appreciate the incredible beauty of my surroundings. (However, NOW I would KILL for that bathroom! ;)
My Dad--since he had built his empire--(and invested well), liked to "buy things". And I mean, BIG things...and "NOW".
There was this nightclub on the "Rock Road" in St. Louis that he like to frequent with all of his family and friends... "El Rancho Cocktail Lounge". "El Rancho" was actually (at the time) the most "happening" bar on the "Rock Road"--which was the most "happening" street in town.
The Rock Road was a miles-long strip of bars, nightclubs, pool-halls...you name it. This was the time before the "Dawn of Disco" and discotheques, it was still the era of 1970's Rock and Roll, and live bands in every club.
So, Dad and his cronies discovered "The Ranch" (as it was lovingly referred to.) At the time, Dad was close to turning 40, and Mom was 34...
(MAN! I am currently "smack-dab" between those two ages! How I wish I would had known my parents as "PEOPLE" when they were my age...and not just as the "OLD" parents I mistakenly thought I had!...Hmmm...how "time" changes our perception, huh?)
(Okay..."back at the Ranch!" ;)...This was THE place to whoop-it-up in the 70's...and Dad began this annoying little habit of "BUYING" the bar every night that he went there and "tied-one-on".
Uh..yeah...NOT kidding!
I recall that in the morning, when I would crawl into the MONSTER king-sized bed with my much-hung-over parents, Dad would ask my mom, "What happened last night?"
To which she would invariably reply, "You bought the bar again."
I would sit there between them, with my pink wind-up-music-box "Teddy" firmly gripped under one arm, my satiny ivory-colored "blankie" in the other, and watch in fascination as Dad would--ONCE AGAIN!--have Mom call the bank and "cancel the check"...(whatever THAT meant!)
In the beginning, I did not have the FOGGIEST idea of what was going on during this exchange. but after a month of weekends, and Saturday-morning "bank-calling/check-cancelling", I soon figured it out!
Every Saturday morning I would "rise with the chickens" to click-on the TV (with our NEW, "hi-tech" REMOTE CONTROL!) to watch my much-loved cartoons...all the while listening for sounds which would herald my parents slowly stirring awake.
At the first "sign of life" from their palace of a bedroom, I would abandon my cartoons for the live-theatre which was sure to unfold within their "inner-sanctum". I would then sail-off of my ornate and frilly, pink and white, canopied-Princess bed, and scamper-off to launch myself up-onto their bed...the sound of the plastic-bottomed "feet" of my pink, zip-up, fuzzy pajamas--scuffling over the carpets--signaling my arrival.
It was one particularly fascinating morning, at the end of the month, that I remember vividly...Dad asked Mom the same question, to which Mom gave the standard reply. Dad then said, "Well, good...I guess it is time to start remodeling then, isn't it?!" ;)
I was "fuzzying" with my Blankie as fast as I could, eyes bugging-out, enthralled by this newest turn-of-events.
Dad (who LOVES to tell his stories, and expound-upon them in great detail...hmmm...and I wonder where I got THAT from! ;)...proceeded to explain how the previous night he was SOBER when he bought the bar!
(Now, I don't want to have my parents come across as some kind of raging alcoholics...they weren't...but it just so happens that THIS story takes place predominately in a bar...where there is an abundance of beer and liquor...so the "natural progression" will surely take place. And, HEY...my family was certainly NEVER "boring", that's for sure! ;)
So, THAT night (the night AFTER he bought the bar), we ALL piled into the truck to go to El Rancho..."our" new bar! (Yes, I mean "WE ALL"...it was the 70's, and we owned that bar for YEARS afterwards, and I cannot TELL you the number of times that my entire family headed off to "The Ranch". (I was 4, my sister 8, and my brother 14...and I recall still going there in high school!)
Anyway, that Saturday night, I remember Dad getting on-stage at the end of the night--after the band had finished playing--and announcing: "Well, I've got some 'bad news', and some 'good news'."
...And expectant hush fell-over the crowd...
"The 'bad news' is: 'We are closing the El Rancho'!"
...The startled crowd "boo-ed" and "hiss-ed"!
"The 'good news' is: 'We are going to remodel it and and re-open in a month'!"
..."Cheers" and "shouts" abounded!
For the next month, the club was a swirling site of construction and massive renovations. The Ranch was always kind of a border-line "Road House", and now it was transforming into a REALLY nicely-appointed nightclub.
Dad let my sister and I select the lighting-fixtures for the club (from a catalogue)...and being the consistent-"Glitter Girl" that I am, we chose RED-blown-glass chandeliers with long crystal-droplets dangling about the perimeter!
We were there almost every day, watching the metamorphoses within the bar. At the end of the month, there was a MASSIVE "Grand Opening" party, with the radio station there, our house-band,"Firechild"; and-it seemed like--EVERYONE in the St. Louis area trying to get in the doors.
I practically "grew-up" in that bar, dancing with the cocktail waitress at night-- all-decked-out in my ruffly, pink-and-white sun-dresses!-- and crawling-up onto a bar-stool in the near-empty day-time hours--primly ordering myself a "Shirley Temple"! :)
I would play the electronic "shuffle-board/bowling game", the pin-ball machine, and the juke-box FOR FREE! :) --Because my Daddy would "flip the little switch" underneath the games that allowed "open-play". I occupied myself for HOURS with those games.
And, often, I would fall asleep, stretched-out in one of the red-leather booths, a wet bar-towel pressed to my eyes, to keep the MASSIVE AMOUNTS of cigarette smoke at bay. (Oh, I vividly recall my eyes STREAMING tears from the amounts of smoke which continually hung in that low-ceilinged room...even WITH the "smoke-eaters"! Ughhh!!!)
I had no idea that at the time, my sister and brother BOTH were sneaking drinks from the bartender and waitress!
Like I said, it was a waaayyy different "time". I mean, no parent in their RIGHT MIND would bring their kids into that environment these days...much less let the littlest girl--ME!--associate with a bunch of drunks in a bar, and fall asleep "SOMEWHERE" in a booth! I could have been abducted at ANY TIME...but that was not the "scene" back then. Well, not as predominately, anyway.
Irregardless, we all stayed "safe", and turned out RELATIVELY "normal"...well...KINDA!
With one GLARING EXCEPTION...that same little pink-cheeked, ruffly-dressed girl eventually grew-up to WORK in a bar...and then manage night-clubs..."Drink -Slinger-Extraordinaire!" ;) ...HRMMMPPPHHHHH!!!!!
Now, to RETURN to the original idea behind this diatribe: "NEW YEAR'S EVE!!!"
(...*WHEW!*...That had to have been the LONGEST "TANGENT", ever!...However, a necessary one!..)
"Back-in-the-day"...(SEE!...Now, with the help of the "tangent", you actually know what that "day" was like!)
Anyway..."New Year's Eve" was totally cool back then, at least in my little-girl's eyes. All of the adults would get all glitzed-up and head off to The Ranch, and all of the kids would be shuffled-off to one house where we would be baby-sat by the older kids...and we would spend our New Year's Eve together there.
We would have tons of frozen "Jeno's Pizza" to munch on, as well as chips, pretzels, and soda of every flavor imaginable. We would play games like "Twister" and "Monopoly", and then tune-into "DICK CLARK'S-NEW YEAR'S ROCKIN' EVE!" :)
The sights and sounds of "Times Square" coming out of the TV was the "feel" of New Year's...especially the sound of Dick Clark's voice, as he introduced the bands, and counted-down to the New Year.
Watching that high-wattage, multi-lit "BALL" drop down to have the digits of the "NEW" year illuminate in a fiery glow--with the shouts and sounds of "bells, whistles, and horns" from the crowd in "Times Square" in the backround--was what it was "all about" to me!
I STRUGGLED to stay-awake until Midnight when I was younger, drastically disappointed if I "missed" the "BIG EVENT"...but I could count on my sister to awaken me for the count-down...and I would groggily watch the Ball descend...then fall right-back asleep amidst the revelry!
The adults would return either that night, or the next morning to collect their own brood of kids...finding us all stretched-out on the living-room floor in front of a TV that had already gone to broadcasting the "TEST PATTERN"! :)
However, I have GOT to say that the BEST and most MAGICAL part of New Year's Eve was ALWAYS the FABULOUS: Crowns, Tiaras, Frilly Leis, and AWESOME "noise-makers" which "Mommy" would ALWAYS be sure to bring home for me! These souvenirs of that fabulous night always represented that MYSTICAL transformation from the "OLD" year into the "NEW"!
Even though times have surely changed (some for the "better", some for the "worse")...the New Year will ALWAYS ring-in with a *BANG*!, the dropping of the "BALL" in "Times Square", and with parents all across the globe bringing those party-souvenirs home to their kids. :)
"HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE!...MAY IT BE SAFE, FABULOUS, AND FULL OF FESTIVE-FAVORS!"
"BEST WISHES FOR A REMARKABLE AND WONDERFUL 2008!" :)
*STAY-TUNED FOR MORE "SNOW* DAYS" IN THE "NEW YEAR"! ;)
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