AROUND THE PARK by Sharon Lee Tegler
Normally a time for celebration, New Year’s Eve has been spent in many different ways over the years.
The first “Ball Drop” in front of the New York Times offices at One Times Square caused great excitement in 1907 as it ushered in 1908. That excitement continues more than a century later though the Times Square festivities will be limited, subdued and partially virtual this year.
The New Year’s Eve following the end of Prohibition in 1933 saw tremendous celebrating in night clubs, hotel ballrooms, restaurants, saloons and at private parties throughout the country where alcohol flowed freely. From the 1940’s through the 70’s Big Band dinner dances and appearances by headline entertainers dominated New Year’s Eves and provided “holiday gigs” for generations of musicians. From 1975 onward, “First Night” celebrations featuring local artists and musicians and concerts with fireworks took place in cities throughout the nation…. including Annapolis.
Though more family oriented in the past decade, this New Year’s Eve’s celebrations will be different yet with fireworks and other events cancelled because of COVID-19. They may be more isolated….or will they?
Chatting with people around the community, we’re finding that New Year’s Eve will still be celebratory….. but in varied ways. Some families may revive family traditions while others will create new ones.
For Atalie Day Payne, seen here with her husband Jared and youngest children at Kinder Farm Park early this year, the celebration will definitely be a family affair.
She’ll make a special meal for Jared, teenage son Ezra, 4-year-old daughter Elise, toddler Jasper, her mother Brenda Justice and possibly others. They’ll likely play games afterwards. Payne is also thinking of bringing back an old family custom.
“I grew up in Cumberland and I remember that our family would join other families in going outside on New Year’s Eve and banging pots and pans as loudly as we could at midnight,” she said. “It was a shock to me to discover, after moving here, that people shot off fireworks instead.”
Though Payne doesn’t make any New Year’s resolutions or predictions, the former columnist is hopeful for 2021. She bucked the trend and started a new business, Atalie Day Photography, in October which took off like a rocket ship thanks to her popular holiday photo sessions. She said she feels very humbled by the good reception her business has gotten when so many others are struggling.
Karen and Bob Royer will spend New Year’s Eve at home Zooming with their grandson in Scotland who just turned one year old. Then they’ll bid 2020 goodbye.
Woods Garden Team members Peggy Newman and Karen Royer caring for popular “parking lot gardens”. 
Bob Royer, 3rd from left, and REHABbers replanting forest between Woods and Sunrise Assisted Living.
“We’ll be happy to see the dawn of 2021 as we have lots of exciting plans in the works,” Karen said. “Bob and the men in Woods Memorial Presbyterian Church’s REHAB group (REtired HAndypersons and Breakfast Society) are continuing energy-saving projects at the church and working with the Severna Park Community Center on a project to replace the windows in the Historic Holy Grounds building – the building that once housed St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church.” (The church owns the building while the community center manages it.)
“Our gardening group is looking forward to seeing our new native plants and shrubs bloom in the spring to welcome back our pollinators,” she added. “Our grounds at Woods are becoming part of larger pollinator pathways in our community.”
Though always up for an adventure or glamorous event, Petra Ligmond Roche and husband Dan are taking a different approach to New Year’s Eve this year.
“We’re keeping it very low key here,” she said. “Our adult children will be celebrating at our home with us. It will be a fun family evening filled with Disney +, good wine, and cheap champagne!”
Tammi Molavi isn’t preparing any special “good luck for the New Year” foods or hosting a party. Nevertheless, she’ll be busy.
“We’ll be helping our daughter Josee move into a new apartment in Washington, D.C. during the early part of the day,” Molavi said. “Then, we’re planning to stay at home so I’ve ordered a “grazing box” from April’s Table in Olde Severna Park and I’ve also ordered some take-out from Sizzle Shack, a new business with great crab cakes that was started during the pandemic by Shipley’s Choice residents Cliff and Liz Jones. Our son will be working at Park Tavern so we’ll just be here chillin’.”
Molavi added that, like Payne, she’s grateful that j.lolly, the new business she launched this autumn with partner Michelle Hickman to create beautifully themed table settings people can “rent”, has done well…..especially during the holidays. They’re hopeful they’ll be even busier come spring.
Amber Kaltz, who is communications director for St. Martin’s-in-the-Field Church, really likes family traditions.
“As kids, my sister and I rang in many a Happy New Year eating pizza and staying up late watching musicals from my grandma’s VHS collection,” Kaltz said. “Now my family likes to play board games with friends on New Year’s Eve.”
She added that she doesn’t prepare any special good luck foods for the New Year but loves to read about other’s dishes. She’s an avid reader and is pleased to have received a “new haul of books ” over the holidays and looks forward to sharing them with the family.
Amy Badger Laque has a fondness for tradition too, never missing an opportunity to celebrate “back-to-school” day with ice cream or any one of her four kids’ birthdays.
“We, like Atalie, love to celebrate New Year’s Eve by banging on on pots and pans at midnight,” Laque says. “My kids enjoy the license to make a ruckus.”
She’s not sure if the food has any good luck powers but her family typically has shrimp on either New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day along with other appetizers and party foods.
“A family favorite is crab dip, a recipe passed down from my late aunt, Jan Roland, who was well known for creating the fabulous dish,” she said.
The Laque family usually takes a “first day hike”, often in Patapsco Valley State Park. While no one’s resolutions last much past January, Laque does have a serious New Year’s prediction to make,
She’s really missed seeing family and friends and the ability to move about freely but,she’s loved having more time to spend with her children. She predicts that, after the initial effort to make up for lost time with visiting and activity restrictions, many people will spend more time doing the simple things they once took for granted.
As for me, I delight in celebrating New Year’s Eve. There will be a family dinner with candlelight, wine, special foods and lots of jazz playing in the background this year. There are several special dishes that are said to bring good luck in the New Year and I’ve tried most of them.
A dish called Hoppin’ John is widely served across the south and is believed to have originated in the Carolina’s – possibly as a rice and bean subsistence dish made by slaves. When served on New Year’s Eve, Hoppin’ John is said to bring posterity. It consists of black-eyed peas – to symbolize coins – that are served over rice along with mustard greens or collards to represent greenbacks,
There are hundreds of versions of Hoppin’ John but I found the most basic recipe in a book called “The Welcome Table” by African American author Jessica B. Harris It follows:
- 1 pound black eyed peas (dried)
- 1/2 pound salt pork
- 1 quart water
- 1 sprig fresh thyme
- Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
- 1-1/2 cups long-grain rice
- 3 cups hot water
Soak the peas overnight, then drain. Fry the salt pork in a heavy pan to render the fat and, when crisp, add the peas, water, thyme, salt and pepper. Cook forty minutes till the peas are tender and then add rice with 3 cups of hot water and simmer till the rice is tender.
Variations include flavoring with bacon or ham in place of salt pork….. or adding onions, leeks, red or green peppers, chilies, or other aromatic vegetables and/or a dash of hot sauce.
Pork is another good luck food served at New Year’s dinners. The tradition is based on the fact that “the pig roots forward and moves ahead”. There are many variations, from chops to roasts to hams. A particularly easy pork recipe I like to use is featured as a Sharon Lee’s Table recipe: Company coming and pinched for time? Pork’s the answer – sharonleestable.com. Feel free to click and give it a try.
Around The Park Again and www.sharonleestable wish everyone prosperity, a return to normalcy, and a very happy and healthy 2021.
