Art Lovers discussion

Speaking of New Year's Eve...

Does Anyone Remember what they did on New Year's Eve in the year 1999?

Obviously the world did not end!

What did you think would happen?
Where you ready for it?
Were you a bit scared?
Did you think all technology would go haywire?
Did you think the world would implode?
Did you think Christ would come again?

What were your thoughts?

Oh, yes, it was so special for me ! It arrived after a period of intense cold in Kansas City. It had been years since ponds had frozen really solidly. My 12 year-old son and his friend and I drove to a remote pond in the dark, shoveled off an inch of snow, and played pond hockey ! I had not done that in over 25 years, when I was a teen. I cherish the memory of that evening.

My wife and I went to London. We figured that if the tech apocalypse was going to happen, we'd rather be stranded in London than in the U.S. Plus, it was as good an excuse as any to go.

That was when we discovered that Britain closes on 25 December -- everything closes, even the Tube. Our most memorable experience was going to the north bank of the Thames with several million of our closest friends to watch the New Year's Eve fireworks extravaganza. We ended up walking from Temple to our hotel in Earl's Court (~four miles) because the Tube was packed solid with celebrators and getting into a station looked life-threatening. The streets were plenty busy even at one in the morning.

Imagine our disappointment when civilization didn't collapse. Oh, well, back to work...

Brian wrote: "Oh, yes, it was so special for me ! It arrived after a period of intense cold in Kansas City. It had been years since ponds had frozen really solidly. My 12 year-old son and his friend and I drove ..."

That is an awesome story, Brian! What a memory, especially with your son! That's incredible, and since you hadn't done that in so long you did it on the day in history!
Thank you for sharing that!

Lance wrote: "My wife and I went to London. We figured that if the tech apocalypse was going to happen, we'd rather be stranded in London than in the U.S. Plus, it was as good an excuse as any to go.

That was w..."

Yes! Great excuse to go to London! If the technical States, or world was going to collapse, go where you want to go to celebrate it? lol That's a cool story!

I'm curious, you said "Our most memorable experience was going to the north bank of the Thames with several million of our closest friends to watch the New Year's Eve fireworks extravaganza.
You have a lot of closest friends! How do you do that? And get them all in one place? So cool to celebrate with all of them! lol
I'm sure you mean all of the people there watching the fireworks. They all become friends with one thing in common. And what a way to celebrate the new Millennium!
Great story, thanks for sharing!

We had plans to go with friends to stay at a boutique hotel in Santa Monica and have dinner at a trendy restaurant. If the world ended at least we would have been in good company and had a memorable last meal. Alas. One of us came down with the stomach flu. So plans were canceled.

Ruth wrote: "We had plans to go with friends to stay at a boutique hotel in Santa Monica and have dinner at a trendy restaurant. If the world ended at least we would have been in good company and had a memorabl..."

What a horrible way to go if the world were to end that night! Instead of dining in style, you vomit in bed. Not the way to leave this life! I'm sorry to hear that, Ruth!

I honestly don't remember what we did on New Years Eve in 1999.
The kids were only five so we probably stayed at home put them to bed on their usual hour and watched the fireworks and shows on the telly.
I do remember the IT guys at work going crazy about the Millenium Bug. And I was relieved when my Mac got a Y2K-OK sticker ;-)

I spent my life savings buying cans of Spaghetti-Os for my underground bunker to prepare for the end of the world. Anyone know how long past the use-by date they last?

Jimmy wrote: "I spent my life savings buying cans of Spaghetti-Os for my underground bunker to prepare for the end of the world. Anyone know how long past the use-by date they last?"

Are you serious, Jimmy? Spaghetti-Os? Cool you have an underground bunker!
I was wondering if someone would mention anything about preparing for the end of the world.
I remember hearing about a group of people who were going to jump off a cliff at midnight 2000? Does anyone remember that? I don't remember anything else about that.

So cool you said that, Jimmy! haha

Dirk wrote: "I honestly don't remember what we did on New Years Eve in 1999.
The kids were only five so we probably stayed at home put them to bed on their usual hour and watched the fireworks and shows on the ..."

Y2K! I had forgotten about that, Oh yes! Right, the millennial techno bug! Well, it wasn't as bad as we thought thank goodness!

I never believed the world would end because of a Y2K glitch which could have been fixed easily if anyone wanted. I was in Taiwan (not part of China) chatting with a friend in Hong Kong (maybe part of China) about our jobs teaching English to Chinese speakers. We had met two years earlier teaching English to Korean students in Seoul. on the whole, teaching Chinese speakers was a lot safer than teaching South Koreans where a student once brought six pack of Molotov Cocktails to class that he planned to throw at the riot police later.

I don't remember what we did that New Year's Eve, but I know I wasn't worried about anything happening in the world, because of Y2K. I had a friend who stocked up big time on food and water.

I do remember my father wanting to live in the next century. He was born in 1915 and was a history buff. He made it and made it 5 years beyond 2000.

These are great stories! All of them different and each so interesting! I’m even getting to know each of you a bit better as people other than just art lovers members of a group and I love it!

Barb, quite a story there… I don’t think I would want to teach English to either of the two countries IN their countries, not because I have any sort of qualms with the people, I’m not prejudiced, but I do fear being in certain places. Now teaching ESL online to anyone who wishes to learn it, I’m happy to do so. Or if they meet me somewhere here in the states near where I live…

Well, I have to put in here: if a member of ISIS contacted me and wanted me to teach him how to explain in English how to put together a self-made bomb, I probably would decline. But other than that…
And it’s fun to learn about other country’s customs and cultures and other things different than my own!

I remember my mom used to teach a couple of Japanese college students English and they would come to our house for their lessons. At the time we had a full-size ping pong table in our basement. There is nobody better to teach you how to play ping pong! And ever since I learned from the one male student, even to this day nobody has ever beaten me at a game of ping pong. :)

Susan, I’m really glad that your father got to see the millennium and even beyond! That’s an accomplishment and something that makes family history.