ball of hope
quick-ish summary of what happened at midnight in the tiny town of st. johnsville…
there was a bonfire on main st, near the one traffic light in our town (see, tiny!)
my dad had organized the ‘last night’ celebration, which he started 3 years ago for the town’s sesquicentennial, had rotated through the other two tiny towns nearby, and was back in st. j for the second time.
year 1, a piano [replication, of a peerless player piano, which was built (??) in my town long ago] was dropped into the fire. raised up with the fire department giant ladder, and dropped, and burned. happy new year!
this year, my dad came up with something called the ‘ball of hope.’ it had a circular wooden frame, with chicken wire making up the rest of the ball shell. the ball was brought to places around town, and people were supposed to write down their hopes/dreams/resolutions/etc for 2011, and these were crumpled up and put into the ball.
at midnight, the ball was lowered into the fire and all the ‘hopes’ were ablaze, and quickly burned up and disappeared.
i don’t know if this sounds as hilarious/ridiculous as i think it does, but if it doesn’t, maybe you’re not from a primarily deadbeat town.
anyway, there was a great turnout because of the ‘warm’ weather, people seemed to have a nice time, and earlier in the night i tried my hand at waitressing at the meatloaf dinner. there were a lot of music groups playing around town, and i caught my favorites, this brother and sister who play rock/pop covers primarily. but when they played three years ago they were like… 11 or 12 or something, but awesome. now they’re, well, 3 years older i guess, and still awesome. the girl has this totally amazing, soulful voice, and something about seeing them perform just gives me hope. i picture them playing at middle east downstairs, haha. i want them to get out of here and make something of themselves… and it makes me want to learn an instrument. maybe this year!
happy new year!
