Up in smoke

— Photo by Tomasz Sienicki

Adapted from Robert Whitcomb’s “Digital Diary,’’ in GoLocal24.com.

I remember with some distaste the adult New Year’s Eve parties of the ‘50’s and ‘60’s in my rather John Cheeverish Boston suburb.

My siblings and I and other young people were deputized to pass canapes to folks, some of whom were getting wasted on whiskey and gin drinks (hardly anyone drank wine then) as the ashtrays filled up (most adults smoked), and somebody played a piano, occasionally accompanied by off-key and sometimes funny, sometimes maudlin, singing. Or they just put on an LP record.

But I don’t remember seeing people wearing lampshades on their heads – the classic idiotic figures at a too-long Christmas party as presented in the movies and on TV back then.

The next morning, the bitter smell of cigarette smoke still hung in the living room. No matter how cold a New Year’s Day morning was, it was good to get outside and hope that the new year would be cleaner than the last.

The parties faded as the 60’s deepened and AA recruited more than a few of the celebrants.