Most of what I recall from New Years was staying up playing Monopoly until time to welcome in the new year. It was always pretty hard to stay up though since we were up early each morning to milk the cows and new years day was no different, the cows didn't observe our holidays too well.
I remember one year however that was really a different experience. Dad and Mom decided to travel to New Orleans to see Alma and Loyle. It is real easy to remember how old I was for that trip too since I had just received my driver's license and this would be a chance to use it. Stan and I were invited to go along so the four of us went. I had a couple of stints driving but not too much since Stan and Dad pretty much traded off. It was a long trip that took two full days of driving for both going and coming. I had a chance to drive from the state line of Louisiana to almost Baton Rouge. There was a huge football game being played in New Orleans and I happened to be driving when we got into a huge traffic jam just before Baton Rouge. When we had a chance Stan took over at the wheel, I was quite OK with that as well too. We stayed for a few days and spent New Year's Eve there with Alma. I still remember the new year's activities pretty well. We went for a drive into the French Quarter's of New Orleans. We went once during the day and saw all of the shops and things that were really quite neat and then Loyle took us back that night and we had to keep the windows up and the doors locked as it had turned into the Devil's playground and there were men trying to get you out of the car and into the topless, and sometime much worse, bars. Mom was really glad when we got out of there. We had a huge Monopoly game that night but I was somehow let out of it early and couldn't keep my eyes opened so i went to bed and then was awakened by the huge display of fireworks> There were all kinds and there were no laws against the types either as there was in Utah. It seemed everyone had a huge portion of them and I couldn't sleep through it had I wanted too.
We went across the 20 mile bridge that spans Lake Pontcatrain and visited part of Florida. We saw where damage had been done by the last hurricane earlier that season and where a tornado had wiped out parts of Metarie where Alma and Loyle lived. It was a fun vacation and little did I know that while traveling to and from I would go through parts of what were to be in my mission filed just three short years later in Texas. I often thought about that trip when in Texas too.
On the way home I was once again driving when we hit the eye of a snow storm near the four corners area in Colorado. Once again to ease mother's back seat driving I was relieved of the post and it was again given to Stan. By that time though we had almost passed through the worst of the storm, however once again I was quite OK with the switch from being the driver as it was pretty darn scary.
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