As my parents got ready for their New Year's Eve outing, my mother first had to finish some very important tasks around our house. My younger sister and I first had to promise that we would not team up and make our older sisters' life hell. Only on Pre-New Year’s Eve, as my parents really wanted to leave our house and have fun, both parents would say separately, “There Can Be No Hell In This House Tonight, your sister is the boss, and she is babysitting for you!
This was not just a nod kind of acknowledgment but involved a spoken word of a promise from my sister Francie and me, with no crossed fingers behind our backs. AND, as we spoke, we both had to say we would behave, by looking my mother in the eye. It was my Grandmother, my mother's mother, who told us that truth only becomes truth if you actually add eye contact. (This was very hard because as New Year's Eve approached, Francie and I made a pact to make my older sister, Bonnie’s life miserable.)
Another task implemented by my mother was to make us a New Year’s Eve dinner, with homemade Corned Beef, all the pickles and olives we could eat, mashed potatoes, and for dessert homemade Chocolate Cake, with the most delicious coconut icing. Plus, we could actually have Coca-Cola. (I had no idea how wonderful Coca-Cola tasted, as we usually had the Pop Man (Soda for anyone not from Pittsburgh) deliver Regent Pop, a local grade B brand.) And we had named brand Potato Chips, instead of the generic brand from our Grocery Store, Star market. It was difficult to have to listen to Bonnie, but the rewards made the effort worthwhile.
My parents would get ready to leave the house. My Dad was in his dapper hat, New Year's Tie, with party hats and confetti as part of the print, and my mother looked like a movie star, in her very green dress wearing her favorite pair of earrings made from ruby and emeralds. I can still smell the aroma of Old Spice After Shave from my father, and the precious and soothing aroma of my mother's Chanel No 5, which my mother told us was Marilyn Monroe’s favorite.
We never managed to stay up until Midnight, but when we awoke the next day, there would be some very special surprises awaiting us on the dining room table. Francie and Bonnie would have a paper-made tiara with the newest of years on the front, and I would have a paper top hat. There would be three noise makers, three bundles of ready-to-throw confetti, and the best thing ever, three pieces of New Years' Eve cake wrapped in paper towels.
I hope, MEMORIES will continue to be made, as we move forward in time, holding dear, the past year, and approaching the horizons of 2023!
