Wishes
©2009, George J. Irwin. All rights reserved.

December 28, 2008-- If I had been in Times Square any closer to New Year’s Eve, it would have been while I was still in college, or perhaps on business. Certainly I’d never been here this close to the end of the year with the family. It was busy by the standards of what we had become used to, but not by the standards of a typical day in Manhattan. Even so, it was a challenge to keep together as a unit, especially at street corners and entrances to stores.

It was an unusually warm day for the end of December. The temperature was forecast to reach sixty-five degrees Fahrenheit, which would tie the record "from way back in 1982"—I was bristling a bit about any year in which I was alive being "way back". Kieran and Thalia were loving it, though; no need to bundle up, no need for even a jacket in this weather. Thalia shed her sweater and rejoiced that she could walk around New York City in December in just a short sleeve shirt.

As always in Times Square, lights and color were everywhere, mostly trying to sell you something, but on a grand scale—fifty foot tall signs, hundred foot wide advertisements. This time, I was looking for a particular set of lights and color.

It was hard for me to believe that it had already been eight years since the world’s attention was focused on this small piece of land on New Year’s Eve of 1999. The changing of the calendar to 2000 had already happened in more than three-quarters of the world, but New York likes to insist that January 1 wasn’t official until the ball had dropped here to mark the start of the next twelve months, and until a million or more people huddled together to see it in with cheers, confetti, and plenty of kissing and hugging.

The end of the year 2008 would mark the one hundred and first anniversary of the lowering of the first ball in Times Square. It was in 1907 that an iron and wood ball with one hundred light bulbs—amazing technology for the time—descended a flagpole at One Times Square. Except for the war years of 1942 and 1943, a ball (or for seven years in the 1980’s, an "apple" representing New York, the "Big Apple") made the same descent to mark the coming of the year at the stroke of midnight. The "ordinary" ball became a masterpiece of crystal and electronics for New Year’s Eve 1999, a mix of classic and modern that represents not only New York, but in some ways, the world.

As if to punctuate the acceleration of progress, the ball used to usher in 2000 had already been retired, replaced with an even more spectacular example for the end of 2007 and the start of 2008. And that was the primary reason for our stop in Times Square on this warm and windy Sunday morning; I had heard on the radio that this ball was actually going to be on display. I could not ever imagine actually being in Times Square for that Big Event, but if the ball that was dropped on the previous New Year’s Eve could be viewed beforehand, well, that would be just fine—and, I wagered, available for inspection at a much closer distance than anything that would be available on any December 31.

Just one question: where was it? We started looking right at One Times Square, the junction of Forty-Second Street, Seventh Avenue and Broadway. There was no indication of it being there, or any sense of where it might be either. We criss-crossed the square as we headed northbound from there, stopping for a few minutes at a mega-store selling toys of various types and pausing to take digital photos here and there. By the time we reached Forty-Seventh Street, which was technically Duffy Square, not Times Square, but still part of the district, Kieran announced he was tired and wanted to sit down somewhere.

Amazingly, in a place where you usually have to pay to have a seat, there was a red and aluminum set of what I could best describe as very fancy bleachers. I had no doubt that three days later, these would be reserved for Very Important People, as there was a perfect view of where the crystal ball would drop. Three days before the big night, though, they were free and available, and over we went for a few minutes rest.

Diagonally across the street from Duffy Square was an information center that I didn’t recall from our last trip into the city. "Hey, I’ll bet they know where the ball is," I said to Rosemary. "Watch the kids and I’ll be right back."

I made my way across the street, walked into the lobby of the building and realized that I had my answer. It was right in front of me, actually.

Rushing back to the stands, I waved to Rosemary, Kieran and Thalia to catch their attention and motioned for them to come down.

"What?" Rosemary questioned.

"It’s here!" I led us back into the building. There was no need to point out where it was.

As best as I could under the available light—a flash would have washed it out—I captured images as quickly as my digital camera would allow. This was the One Hundredth Anniversary ball, a geodesic sphere, lowered to mark the New Year 2008. Triangles edged with white dots of light outlined crystals that transformed every few seconds. White, then purple, then blue, then blue and red, then all red, then back to violet, then stripes of violet and white, then patterns of white and red. And then shimmering electric blue, white and red, from top to bottom all at the same time. And then a bright, rich, iridescent green. A few moments later, the triangles were picked out individually in the traditional red and green of the holiday season. It seemed that one could sit for hours and not see all the patterns. Chairs were provided in front of the display, perhaps just for that purpose.

I took a few photos of Kieran and Thalia in those chairs, although I’d find out later that they didn’t come out all that well given the darkness of the room against the brightness of the New Year’s Eve ball. I noticed a poster explaining the history of the tradition, describing the ball in front of me and also noting that an even more spectacular edition would debut for the coming of 2009—twelve feet across, nearly twelve thousand pounds of crystal and light. I took a photo of that as well for future reference. Next to me was a woman from Adelaide and I told her how much I loved their Millennium Celebration, which I had seen on the day that was the still the last of 1999 for us and the first of 2000 for them. I couldn’t help but be brought back to the feelings of hope and optimism of that day. She seemed surprised that I remembered that Adelaide was in one of those uncommon on the half-hour time zones, and remarked that she had a longtime ambition to be in The City for the season. I smiled at a connection having been made. It was certainly great to be in New York.

But all of that was upstaged by a simple large bulletin board.

Rosemary noticed it first.

Off to the side of the large room where the ball was on display in all its glory, a lone employee of the information center staffed a small cylindrical podium. Behind him was the bulletin board and in front of him was a large sized goldfish bowl with slips of paper in many different colors. A placard explained the reason for the display.

Share your hopes, dreams and resolutions for 2009 then watch them flutter down as confetti in the heart of Times Square on New Year’s Eve!