everyone
told us we were crazy
Just before 1pm on December 31, 1999, Lisa and I arrived at Penn Station in New York City. We stopped at a little kiosk to pick up glittering "Happy 2000" headbands and glow-in-the-dark "2000" glasses and made our way to the infamous Times Square celebration. The sidewalks were brimming with shoppers and tourists, but it did not look like an unusual NYC day. The closer we got to Times Square, the more blue NYPD barriers lined the streets. Finally, the sidewalk traffic stopped. The police were diverting people around the area. We went by blockade after blockade until finally we reached one of the streets where the public was allowed to enter the square. All the other side streets were empty and required special permission to pass through. We went down what I believe was 46th street and could see some festivities going on in the square. Once we reached the square, we hit more barriers and were told to keep moving. At this point, people were jumping over and ducking under barricades despite what the Police were saying. We found a fence like barrier with some bars missing so you could squeeze through. The police office nearby said that he wasn't going to stop us, so we squeezed into the viewing area right next to the Marriott Marquis Hotel. It was the perfect spot as we could see the countdown ball and various TV screens as well as having a great view of the little stage set up for the performers. Our neighbors included a group of about 10 from Tennessee, a couple Belgians, Austrians, Italians, a Brit and his southern girlfriend, lots of college kids, etc. I would estimate the percentage of actual New Yorkers being in the single digits. Lisa and began to settle in for the 11 hour wait. Luckily, there was some entertainment going on throughout the day. Fifteen minutes before the hour, the celebration would begin for the next time zone to cross into the Year 2000. It typically involved music, some sort of parade, dancing and, of course, the countdown and confetti. The highlights were the GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) New Year where they threw down sparkly silver confetti and played "All you need is love" by the Beatles, and the GMT-2 where they put on a big Brazilian showcase and threw down butterfly confetti. The confetti was half the show - we had streamers, paper curly Qs, round paper, silver foil, snowflakes, butterflies and giant globe balloons which got bounced around like beach balls. On the screens, they showed the fireworks from Moscow, Athens, Paris, Rio. The most boring time zone was GMT-1 which was for 2 sets of Atlantic islands and they had people dancing around Macintosh raincoats pretending to be in a boat. Each celebration lasted 25-30 minutes, so we had to find something to do the rest of time. Believe it or not, I brought a book to read. I can't say that I saw anyone else reading a book. Boy did I look cool. There was occasional entertainment provided by the crowd as well. One of the college kids, a guy with a shaved head named Joe, started off with a Canadian baseball cap and sucking down a bottle of eggnog. After a few more drinks, the head attire turned into two Scooby Doo party hats over his ears and a bright yellow plastic Happy New Year hat. Every 10 minutes or so, he would cry out, "Yippee!". Around 8 or 9pm, he tried crowd surfing but didn't get very far. Some other guy kept pushing threw the crowd with a small entourage claming to be Tom Green (from the MTV show which I have never seen so I'm not even sure if that's the right name). One of the Tennessee ladies would also occasionally shout out something in a southern drawl and then cackle. Other than these few characters, the crowd was fairly tame. There was an occasional push and shove from people trying to go to the PortaPotties, and there was one pickpocket type guy who was quickly extracted by the police (only to return 20 minutes later). Other than that, the rowdiest behavior occurred during the fierce competition for cool confetti and free stuff that was being thrown out into the crowd. The police were being pretty strict about turning people away, so the crowd never got much bigger than it was when we arrived at 1pm. Many people returning from the toilets gave reports of arguments with the police trying to get back into the viewing area. The realization hit us that we would not be able to get food without risking a border crossing. The possibility of getting lost or not being able to return was too great a fear for Lisa and I, so we made it through the night with just 2 apples and 3 drink boxes between us. As the hour of truth approached, helicopters started flying overhead probably to check for those snipers that Jeanne had described. People were calling loved ones on their cell phone perhaps for the last time. There was no big build up to the GMT-5 New Year. No dancers and no parade. Just a 15 minute and 5 minute warning from the Discover Card screen. And then the big countdown started on the screen - 59...58...57......3...2...1... - the crowd exploded into one big roar, champagne was rocketing out of hundreds of bottles, and there was so much confetti swirling around that I could hardly make out the big "2000" which had lit up where the ball had disappeared. Everyone was hugging, shaking hands, and sharing the champagne. And then it was over. Now we had to get out. The barricades on the side streets were still up so the crowd going out of the square bottle necked into the two spaces left open at the sidewalk. Plus we had to battle against the people standing at the barricade who were watching or wanting to get in. There was one other incident where the police had stopped people from crossing the street so that they could move along their buses full of trouble makers. There was more squishing and pushing on that corner than there ever was in the square. Lisa and I got squashed against a newspaper stand, but once that was cleared, it was smoothly sailing all the way to Penn Station. We caught the 12:50am train back to NJ. The traffic out of NY the next day was very light.
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