New Year and New Neighborhood

One of my most vivid New Years memories is staying up until midnight then going out on the front porch to bang pot lids together and make as much noise as possible. This dates back to a Chinese belief that you must scare away the evil spirits so that the new year will be lucky, but I think it was just a way of giving little kids one chance to do what they do best (with approval)...make noise! Lee Frizzell tells me that her family did not celebrate that way....I KNOW it was not just a Quinn tradition because there were other kids on THEIR porches making just as much noise up and down the street.
Two other memories I have of New Year's: The year my father gave our dog Skippy champagne and got him so drunk he could not stand and the year my grandmother was doing my hair in curlers (those old metal kind that left a definite kink in the ends of your curls...why at midnite? goodness knows). I had laryngitis and no voice and nothing came out when I tried to tell her I didn't want curly hair...I remember thinking that my voice was gone for good (I was about five) and when we went out on the porch to yell and scream...I could not make a sound!
I recently talked to some current Woodsdale folks who complained of the guys who pull up in the middle of the night, check to see which cars are unlocked, and when they find one steal everything inside. In the "good old days" my father would have been sitting on the front porch all night with his shotgun.
Since most women did not work outside the home and only one car was needed, and most people parked their cars in the garage, the streets seemed much wider. Now when I drive down a street in Woodsdale I wonder how anyone finds a parking space! Playing in the street was one of our favorite pastimes...especially Indian ball. For some strange reason these games always took place in front of Jim Squibb's house on Poplar. This game HAD to be played in the street because it involved rolling a softball at a bat and they just don't roll that well on grass. The lot next to the Law's house at the corner of Woodlawn and Poplar was a popular spot for most sports and was especially good for snowman building contests.
It must be strange growing up in Woodsdale now...with ghosts of children past still roaming the streets.