New Year's Eve, 1999. The "last" day of the millennium. Definitely, my last New Year's as a "kid." So, for the first time, I went out for New Year's with my friends to the Martinez New Year's Celebration. What follows are a few highlights captured on film and some anecdotes about the weird night preceding the year the shouldn't exist.
Double stuffed oreos were the official food of the night. As you should know, these marvels of modern confectionary science are delicious treats: two chocolaty cookies snadwiching a thick layer of cream. Yummy. Now you may ask, what was the official drink of the evening? Being a non-alcoholic affair, we opted for Martinelli's sparkling cider. For those familiar with basic writing structure, stories dovetail from facts, so, of course, this is leading to an anecdote...
The explosive plot thread: a bottle of Martinelli's that was dropped while in line at Safeway. It did not break and was placed on the checkout counter with the other three bottles. With a mad swarm of bubbles surfacing to the top, it was placed with the plastic bag with the other, harmless bottles of cider. We had accidentally placed a wolf in the hen house... (I'm sure you can guess what is going to happen)
As we await the arrival of the bus that will take us into downtown Martinez, we sit in Julia's car (a hilarious story unto itself), windows rolled up as a slight protection against the vicious January cold. Radio blaring nameless tunes, we open the Oreos and indulge in what I have already told you is one of the finest snack foods you can enjoy. However, being cookies, oreos beg for a beverage to follow them up, preferrably milk, but having none, we decided we could open one of the bottles of apple cider and pass it around (we're too primitive to have cups). Julia, with her Acalanes bottle cap opener (yet another story for another day), asks Devon (also in the front seat) to pass her a bottle of apple cider. Reaching into the darkness, Devon grasps the green glass neck of a bottle and passes it to Julia. Neither of them notice the hihg concentration of carbon dioxide fizzing like boiling water right under the cap. It's dark, remember?
Julia unwraps the foil covering the lid, pops off the plastic cap, and prepares to open the Pandora's box of carbonation and cider. With a shocking hiss, followed by an explosive pop! the liquid that once stewed with the bottle spewed out of the top, spraying the front-seat victims in sticky sweet cider. A mixture of surprise and fright, Julia yells at Devon to roll down the window, and, once down, she hurls the bottle out into the parking lot like a hot potato. Of course, being the cursed bottle that it is, it does not shatter. It rolls under the car.
After about five seconds of breathless surprise, we survey the damage. Julia and Devon are soaked. I am slightly covered in cider as well. Freezing air is pouring in through the open window. The silence is broken only by the radio, blaring another forgotten-one-month-later pop hit. Suddenly and without warning, the inhabitants of the car erupt in unceasing laughter. Barrage after barrage of unadulterated happiness echoes inside the rapidly-cooling car like the finale of a fireworks spectacular on the fourth.
............
Two and a half months later, I am attempting to translate the
incredible experience to words, so that I might never forget it, the
evning, or my friends. While I pale in comparison to Shakespeare, some
of his words seem apt to describe this attempt:
Where breath most breathes, even in the mouths of men."