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# Remember the good old days
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/remember-the-good-old-days-editor/
- Published: 2008-01-03T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-24T17:50:45.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*By Carlos Pineiro Santa Monica*

Remembering the real New Year’s Eve party … My East Coast friend wrote me and asked if I missed Times Square on New Year’s Eve (I lived three blocks from there for most of my life). He wrote that the people right there on Broadway must be miserable in that crowd. This is what I wrote back: Times Square and be miserable? Have you ever been to Times Square on New Year’s Eve?

There’s nothing miserable about being right in Times Square for many, many of us. I’ve done Times Square several times over the years, and they were the coolest parties ever. I would get there about 8:30 p.m. to get a great spot on the curb where you can lean against the police line and get a little breathing room. By 9:30 p.m., it’s so crowded that it isn’t cold.

I was interviewed more than once by Dick Clark, who used to walk the crowd at 7th and 44th/43rd streets, where the best view is. When the annual two to three people would pass out, we would pass them over our heads to the paramedics that would be on the sidewalk. No big whoop. Foot cops would stand in front of the storefronts, and do nothing all night but line up the countless bottles that would hit the curb. Basically, when a bottle was emptied, people would drop it, then kick it towards the curb. Empty bottles would dance over your shoe tops all night. After a few minutes, you didn’t even notice them.

The people around us were always great, and it only took seconds before it seemed like we knew each other for years. If you simply put a cup out in the air near a group, someone you didn’t know would pour champagne in it. Hysterical, and very cool.

At the 10-second countdown when everyone is looking at the ball, I would take a couple of seconds to scan over the crowd behind me and see something amazing: So many champagne corks are popping, it looks like it’s raining upside-down. Freaky. There’s hundreds and hundreds of corks.

Then at midnight, something truly magical would happen, an undeniable aura around all around us that is overwhelming beautiful: 100,000+ people all kiss at the same time. It may not last long, but for a few moments there’s a relaxed feeling of love and harmony that I will never be able to truly describe in words.

This year I will be in a restaurant on Wilshire Boulevard on New Year’s Eve watching a re-run of the ball dropping which actually happens at 9 p.m. my time. Not being in Times Square is one thing, but not being on the East Coast takes a lot away from that special moment. I will always cherish the memories of being right there in my beloved Times Square on New Year’s Eve.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 3, 2008.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/010308.pdf?ref=smdp.com)