Other New Years Eve Droppings

There are a lot of ways to ring in the new year in South Jersey. You can always find attractions and fireworks in Atlantic City, while Haddonfield will again hold its annual First Night celebration. This is one of the most family-friendly events in the area, as it is nothing but a six-hour, alcohol-free party.

But for some people New Years Eve is not complete without watching something drop, aside from everyone’s morals at Times Square in New York. There are more midnight countdowns across the US than you probably realize, and a few of them are within driving distance in Pennsylvania.

Lebanon, Pennsylvania will welcome in the new year with its thirteenth annual dropping of, what else, the big bologna. Last year a twelve-foot long 150 pound bologna was suspended in the air by a ladder truck and dropped at midnight.

This real, edible piece of meat was Lebanon’s biggest bologna dropping ever.

Not to be outdone, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania is not resting on the laurels it receives for its more well-known Christmas attractions. The town is expecting up to thirty thousand people this year for its fifth annual peep drop.

During their own First Night celebration, a crane will drop a twenty-five pound fiberglass illuminated peep at midnight. Bethlehem’s own Peep Show has plenty of family-friendly entertainment, which begins early in the afternoon.

Meanwhile, Port Clinton, Ohio is not known as the “Walleye Capital of the World” for nothing. For fourteen years and counting thousands of people have been gathering there to witness the “Madness at Midnight,” the dropping of a twenty foot, six hundred pound walleye from the sky at midnight.

Adventurous tourists can try Walleye Chowder, Walleye Cinnamon Chips, Walleye Sandwiches, and even a “Walleye White” wine. The event is sponsored again this year by Wal-Mart. No, unfortunately I’m not kidding.

Those people who are on a schedule and need to get going right away on January 1st might want to travel to Mt. Olive, North Carolina. Seven o’clock Eastern Standard Time is actually midnight Greenwich Mean Time. So as a local organization representative says, ”We are official, we can shout “Happy New Year”, sing Auld Lang Syne, and still be home in bed before midnight.”

That will come after he and the others in attendance watch a glowing, three-foot pickle drop forty-five feet down a flagpole and into a redwood pickle tank at the stroke of seven.

Some year I will achieve my goal of sleeping straight through midnight purely to spite the system. But no matter how you choose to celebrate this New Years Eve, let’s all be grateful that we can finally drop 2009 into the recycle bin.

Happy New Year.