yilbasi nisantasi 2014 olstqyuof83 A New Year’s Fantasy by Prof. Gerald August
I was raised in Wilmington, Delaware. In the mid-to late 1950s, every New Year’s Eve was celebrated exactly the same way. I might review to my cousin’s home with my cousin and three other cousins. We ranged in ages from 13 to 8. This is a large night, because we were permitted to stay up till midnight. We partied by watching television and eating hors d’oeuvres. The most popular hors d’oeuvre was little hot dogs.
In the 50s, there were only four tv stations in Delaware. The station most people watched on New Year’s Eve showed the grand ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New york. Most people across the country also watched this show. The star was a person named Guy Lombardo, who had been a famous orchestra leader. And at midnight, the band played "Auld Lang Syne". The Waldorf! A fantasy for Americans. Ah, to be in the Waldorf on New Year’s Eve.
We flash forward to 1986. I had a buddy who was an entertainment reporter for a newspaper. She called me up at first of December and asked me what I was doing for New Year’s Eve. I replied, nothing. She asked me basically wished to go directly to the Waldorf-Astoria on New Year’s Eve. I was stunned. The Waldorf on New Year’s Eve! I readily agreed.
I rented a tux. She rented a gown. We rented a town car. I went over to her apartment building on the West Side and our chauffeured town car took us to the Waldorf Astoria.
We were escorted into the grand ballroom. We had reservations at a table. We got there at 10: 30. It show started at 11: 30.
Then reality took over.
Directly after we were seated, we realized we knew no-one else at the table. Looking at the woman to her left, she introduced herself. And the girl ended up being an actress. When she unearthed that my pal was an entertainment reporter, and something she had heard of, she didn’t leave my buddy alone. I was left staring in to space and wanting to make small communicate with the lady to my right, who had been more interested, rightly, in her boyfriend. I sat there feeling miserable. My pal tried to extricate herself from her newfound admirer, but it was difficult.
At 11 o’clock, the director of the television show came on the stage and gave us our instructions. What? Instructions? I realized I was merely a prop for television. Stand here! Dance there! Do not relocate front of the! And after the show started, with each commercial break, he would come back on the stage and exhort us to accomplish what that he wanted.
At 12: 02, we left the Waldorf.
At home later that night, I thought back once again to the 1950s and my fun filled, warm and wonderful New Year’s Eve parties inside my aunt’s house. And of those little hot dogs. I realized that those evenings were much better than the evening I had just spent living the fantasy at the Waldorf.
When i thought back once again to this story this week, I found still another realization. Even if I had had a much better experience at the Waldorf, that by no means diminished the great times I had in Wilmington Delaware in the 50s on New Year’s Eve.
You see, there is no limitation on feelings of joy and gratitude for something which happened, however sometime ago.