Reflections on New Years Eve (31/12/2015)
As I was driving home tonight after dropping off some guests we had over to celebrate New Year’s Eve I started thinking about the significant New Year’s Eves in my life.
The first one that came to mind was December 31st 1979. Mel and I had a brand new son, Paul. We went to a party in North Balwyn with Paul in his bassinet. He was a little more than 3 months old. Mel was eating a healthy diet but she was eating a lot of dried pineapple. Paul had terrible croup. We used to pump his little legs to try to relieve the pain. We spent most of the night driving around North Balwyn trying to get him to go to sleep. For some reason driving calmed him down and when you are young and unexperienced any solution that seems to work is better than none.
I then opened myself up to the next New Year’s Eve that I could recall and there I was in December 31st 1973 in Rosemary Lodge at Healesville. Flora and I had lived there foe almost a year and some of our friends from a share house in Bank St, South Melbourne had moved to a farm house across on the other side of Don Rd. There were three distinct groups of people at our New Years Eve party. Our friends from across the road, Annie, Leah and other people who I can’t recall tonight. My sister Nettie and her new love David, David’s sister Dianne and her Danish husband Bart who lived up the mountain in Toolangai on a biodynamic farm and last but not least my new friends Peter Davies, Bruce Bowers a.k.a Trinidad James, Graham Batterberry, a friend of Peters and their ladies Tracey, Liz and an unknown girl. Looking back in retrospect I feel a bit embarrassed because I thought that I wasn’t quite up to hosting a party with the latter mentioned. They sat very quietly for most of the night and I was convinced that they were far wiser that I.
Then the cascade of memories began, one New Year after another. 1965/66 the first time I got drunk. 1983/84 the first year we lived at Tecoma. I recall coming home from the org event and watching MTV until the early hours. 1998/99 when I convinced Georgie to go to Flag, the party was at a church hall in Punt Rd and I played in the band with Rob Meister singing. 1999/2000, our road trip to Byron Bay, Georgie pregnant with Finn. Sometime in the 80’s at Russell St when I played in the band at “The Org” and Toorak Rd was flooded. We went in separate cars. 2000/2001 at Reeves Court in Kew when we hosted a New Years Eve party. Finn was only 9 months old. 2012/13, the first New Year after Paul had passed. We had it on our deck in our new house at Mooroolbark. My first year of disaffection. 2005/06 Georgie and Finn were living in Sydney. I went up on Boxing Day and stayed until after the New Year. We wondered the streets of Sydney trying to find a spot to see the fireworks.
I still have to complete this blog so please be patient, there is more to come………..
