The New Year, Old and New

It's Thursday, and yes, I worked at Logos, but I'll save "Today at Logos" until tomorrow to make this a more New Years-y kind of entry.  I will say, though, that Peter and Susan decided to close the store early, so came to relieve me at 5:30.  I walked down to the pub to meet Walt, but he wasn't there and by the time I returned to Logos, the shop was already closed and locked, so I sat outside, on a cold brick bench in 40 degree weather waiting for Walt to show up (my phone was dead, so I couldn't call him).  Thank God I brought a jacket...I almost didn't!

This morning I was looking for a "Throw Back Thursday" photo appropriate to post on Facebook for New Year's Eve and found this one:

This was our third New Year's Day Pinata Group party, 1967, when Father Joe Quinn came and we forced him to sit under a pile of babies.  He was responsible for most of them, after all.  Quinn was the pastor of the Newman Center at UC Berkeley during the years we were all dating and mating and marrying...and he married many of us.  He had left by the time Walt and I got married, but he did do an engagement solemnization for us a year before.  We were married by a guy who had been at Newman while Quinn was there and had just been ordained a couple of days before our wedding.  

Quinn also baptized a lot of these babies.  Jeri is the one rubbing her eye next to him and Ned is the one in his left arm, grabbing at his chin.  Paul would not be born for another year yet.  These parties continued...forever.  In fact, we will have yet another one this year, when all the babies who were born in 1966 (5 of them) turn 50.

Tonight, however, there were no Pinata People, we went to the annual New Year's Eve party of The Psychiatrist (remember him?) and his wife, who have been hosting this party for 42 years (skipping the year of their 50th anniversary, when they went to Hawaii instead).  This is a wonderful party, full of food, conversation and lots of music.

(The Psychiatrist is a member of the Putah Creek Crawdads)
Photo by County Supervisor Don Saylor

Some of my favorite people in Davis (and one from Ireland) attend this party--the kids' nursery school teacher, their high school principal, a couple of former mayors, Davis Comic Opera Company members, former head of the School Board, doctors I know, people I knew from PTA and other groups. I got to talk with most of those I wanted to talk to...and probably won't see most of them again until next year.  We are all getting older. Two wheel chairs this year and lots of canes. The invitation always says that the party will go until the last voice gives out, but the musicians tired early and didn't play again, some of them heading home.  There weren't all that many people left when we finally came home at 11:30.  We saw the new year in with the dogs, which isn't a bad way to see it in.

Now to go to sleep with an NCIS marathon, which goes until 6 a.m.  2016 is starting out well.