Chris' Christian Blog

New Years Traditions

"New Years Traditions" 



I am definitely a big one for new years traditions. My mom always made sure that each of had a serving of pork spare ribs and sauerkraut, whether we liked it or not. She would absolutely insist that we eat at least a bite or two of it. I didn't care much for cooked sauerkraut but liked it the way she made it. She always sweetened it to take the overpowering sourness out of it. Then of course you always knew that if you had sauerkraut at her house it wasn't going to be the garbage you find in stores! Every fall we would buy two or three bushels of cabbage to go along with whatever we had managed to raise. So out would come three or more stone crocks and the kraut cutter and we'd make our own kraut. I always insisted that at least half of it be made with hot peppers cut up in it. The hot peppers gave the kraut an irresistibly hot flavor that made my mouth water. In fact, I wish I had some now. I will never have it again though because Mom is making her sauerkraut for God now.

Another new years tradition I've taken part in many times is the Polar Bear Club. In the Polar Bear Club members go to the river or a deep creek, and plunge into the water for a swim either on new years eve or new years day. Often the swimming can go on for long periods of time despite the frigid temperatures of the water. I remember literally taking a sledge hammer and breaking the ice at the junction of the three rivers in Pittsburgh PA one year to go for a swim. Of course many people were so plastered that they didn't feel the cold anyway!

My favorite tradition of all time was going out into the yard at 11: 59 and beginning a count down. When the one counting started from ten, 21 guns, and I mean literally 21 high powered rifles and shotguns, usually 30-30 and 30.06 caliber deer rifles, along with a smattering of .357, .44 magnum hand guns, and various shotguns were pointed skyward. At the stroke of midnight it sounded like a war was going on! Over the next five minutes or so we would do the best we could to nearly melt down the barrels as we spent close to 2,000 rounds or more of ammunition! We didn't have to be concerned about most of the neighbors getting upset because they were standing shoulder to shoulder with us as we shot into the sky. I honestly don't know if we even considered the possibility of low flying aircraft though. Many of the rifles we were using could easily reach one and one/half to two miles into the sky! We never gave that a thought. It was also seldom an issue with law enforcement either. If they weren't actually involved, they at least condoned our behavior as harmless. Usually they were in the fray with us! When we opened up we were usually joined by an equal number of guns on the Ohio side of the river, as the citizens of the neighboring town answered us. Everybody keep their heads down now, y'all hear me?

However if I were to come up with a tradition that I could perform and since fantasy is allowed here I'm going to go for the gusto and say I'd like to bring new years in with a real bang. I'd set off a crate of grenades, a keg of black powder, or a case of TNT! What the heck, how about launching an ICBM with a 100 megaton payload 100,000 feet into the sky and detonating it? That would make one Heck of bang, and put half the country back to the stone ages from electromagnetic pulse at the same time!