Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

By Gene Gallelli

Millions with champagne in hand waited anxiously for the ball to drop in Times Square, while just as many had a cup of coffee and went to bed at the usual time. Millions made New Year resolutions and an equal number or more broke them a minute after the sparkling geodesic sphere hit the ground.

The first ball drop took place in 1907, and, except for 1942 and 1943, during the Second World War, the tradition has continued every year on December 31st.

The specific-time drop had a maritime origin that was intended to help sailors set their chronometers. The tradition in Times Square is also used as an alternative to fireworks that has been banned by city officials in New York City.

Growing up, my large, extended family had a New Year’s Eve ritual that never changed: Go to Midnight Mass, listen for the car shop horn to blare in the New Year, uncork the bottles and celebrate, and finally, feast on Italian sausage wrapped in pitta frittata (fried dough). It wasn’t unusual for dancing (the tarantella) to thump the floor, and for old Italian ballads to fill the air, totally out-of-tune. I will always consider this memory a metaphor for our once close and loving family.

Shore patrol duty on New Year’s Eve in Naples, Italy was a totally different experience. While stationed aboard the USS Spiegel Grove LSD32, I was the petty officer in charge of the personnel office and had never been assigned shore patrol duty until a new gunner’s mate was put in charge of the ship’s jail (brig). Unfortunately, my first shore patrol assignment was in Naples, Italy on New Year’s Eve.

As you might imagine alcohol in any form or shape flowed through every bar like water from a fire hose at a five-alarm blaze. After successfully or unsuccessfully breaking up several bar fights between Marines and sailors – carrying only a badge and nightstick that I didn’t dare use – sirens and fireworks welcomed in the New Year. The bars and streets went wild with fireworks being set off everywhere. What I didn’t expect was an apparent tradition of people welcoming the New Year by throwing “old” items out of windows and into the street. It was more dangerous being outside than it was being inside a bar gulping adult beverages. I was never as happy getting back to the ship as I was that night.

Fortunately, my only other shore patrol assignment was a week-long, wonderful experience in Patras, Greece staying and eating at the Majestic Hotel – it’s still there – and working out of the Patras police station. The food was marvelous and the camaraderie was even better.

You will be pleased to know that Raleigh residents don’t throw “old stuff” out of windows at the stroke of 12, but since 1992, they do drop a 10-foot-tall, 1,250-pound copper and steel acorn to welcome in the New Year. If you find that unusual, the town of Eastover, NC, which was infested with fleas in the 1800s, rings in the New Year by dropping a 10-pound ceramic flea in memory of the invasion.

Another year has slipped on by and the sun and moon behave as we expect. However, let us never forget to celebrate every success, however small, and move forward as we do on New Year’s Eve in Times Square.

Life goes on, but we need to never ignore the magic moments that arrive daily and too often go overlooked and too often trivialized. Daily life is a sparkling globe that should be dropped every day, everywhere and every time the clock strikes 12.

Gene Gallelli was associate superintendent of the Dare County Schools for eight years. He received his doctor of education degree from East Carolina University, where he taught and supervised students studying to become school administrators.

READ ABOUT MORE NEWS HERE.

SUBSCRIBE TO THE COASTLAND TIMES TODAY!