Archive | January, 2015

Part 4: New Year’s Eve in Brooklyn 2014/2015

11 Jan

January 11, 2014

Saarah and I got out of the car. Our reason? Somebody had to get the party started. Oh no, not me. I’m never that person. But I figured someone had to be and maybe we’d find him. We went over to the only brightly lit area, which was between the parachute jump and the carousel and wonder of wonders, there were people there!

About 15 of them, all very, very visibly cold. There were some little kids wrapped in blankets, looking around with big glassy eyes, wondering why they were being punished. Most of the people were gathered around the entrance to the carousel building, which although barricaded and locked, was lit up so maybe, just maybe, they’d be let in and could thaw out.

A few people were standing around an area between the jump and carousel which was barricaded off and inside was a lone man setting up some DJ equipment. The ad had promised “the best local music artists” but none were to be seen. Laid out on the ground a few feet away were some tent poles. Why all the prep was left to the last minute was beyond me, but then again, it isn’t like there were overwhelming crowds to deal with.

It was still a few minutes before nine and, satisfied that we were in the right place (and that this was not some population control measure to do away with idiots who show up and freeze to death) we ran back to the car to wait for the “party,” and at this point I really have to put that in quotation marks, to start.

As we rushed back to the parking lot, we almost knocked over a man in his 50’s who had stopped to photograph a little sneaker laying on the pavement that some little child had lost.

Or maybe he just put it there himself. Lots of odd people in Coney Island.

 

To Be Continued

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New Year’s Eve in Brooklyn 2014/2015 (Part 3)

10 Jan

January 10, 2015

There were a few other people in the parking lot, all of them much less drunk than the guy on the steps. Notably, there was family of 5 or 6, with a couple of kids who couldn’t be older than 8,  just standing around their SUV, all of them dressed in party hats, blinking glasses, and all the usual New Year’s Eve bling you can only wear one night in your lifetime. They were slightly confused, all looking around, seeing nothing but the darkened boardwalk, and it didn’t take a mind reader to know what they were thinking: “This is it?”

The parachute jump was lit up, its neon colors throwing reflections on the scarce windshields in the parking lot, there were two police cars parked on the boardwalk, and a few random people walking around, in vain, to find the party. There were more people sitting in their cars and avoiding the freezing wind, hoping that at 9 o’clock something, anything, would begin.

As much as I’d like to say that there was more, much more, the truth is that well yeah, that was pretty much it.

But I went looking for more.

And I almost found it.

 

To Be Continued

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