New Years Eve 2019 At Old Ranch

Did You Know? - The ball drop is over 100 years old. Before Times Square was the home of M&Ms, naked cowboys, and hard-haggling middle-aged men in Elmo costumes, it was a classy little bit of town, called One Times Square. Its first New Year’s ball dropping took place December 31, 1907. Since then, it’s tumbled down every year (save for a couple during World War II). Over a million people flock to watch every December.

Did You Know? - "In the Mood" is a popular big band-era No. 1 hit recorded by American bandleader Glenn Miller. It topped the charts for 13 straight weeks in 1940 in the U.S. and one year later was featured in the movie Sun Valley Serenade. "In the Mood" is based on the composition "Tar Paper Stomp" by Wingy Manone. The first recording under the name "In the Mood" was released by Edgar Hayes & His Orchestra in 1938.

In 1983, the Glenn Miller recording from 1939 was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. In 2004, the recording was inducted into the Library of Congress National Recording Registry which consists of recordings that are "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

In 1999, National Public Radio (NPR) included the 1939 Glenn Miller recording in its list of "The 100 most important American musical works of the 20th century".

Did You Know? - The dance was created by dance studios including the Arthur Murray dance studios in the 1940s, based on the Lindy Hop.

Lindy Hop was felt by dance studios to be both too difficult and too unstructured to teach to beginning dancers, but there was market demand for training in Swing Dance. The dance studios had initially dismissed Lindy Hop in particular as a fad.

East Coast Swing can be referred to by many different names in different regions of the United States and the World. It has alternatively been called Eastern Swing, Jitterbug, American Swing, East Coast Lindy, Lindy (not to be confused with Lindy Hop), and Triple Swing.

Other variants of East Coast Swing that use altered footwork forms are known as Single Swing or "Single-step Swing" (where the triple step is replaced by a single step forming a slow, slow, quick, quick rhythm common to Foxtrot), and Double Swing (using a tap-step footwork pattern).

East Coast Swing is a Rhythm Dance that has both 6 and 8 beat patterns. The name East Coast Swing was coined initially to distinguish the dance from the street form and the new variant used in the competitive ballroom arena (as well as separating the dance from West Coast Swing, which was developed in California).

Did You Know? - Traditions in the UK

Black rabbits - The tradition in Yorkshire is to say “black rabbits, black rabbits, black rabbits” just as the clock is about to chime midnight on New Year’s Eve. Then, as the clock strikes twelve, say “white rabbits, white rabbits, white rabbits” as your first utterance of the new year. Good luck will ensue. Or at least, the good fortune not to have to say anything about rabbits for another twelve months.

Cake on a cow - This one dates back to medieval times, and as far as I’m aware, doesn’t happen any more. But once upon a time, every January 1st, farmers would put a flat cake onto a cow’s horns and then commence a ceremonial song and dance around it. Should the cake fall forwards, the farmer will have good luck for the rest of the year. If it falls backwards… well he’d better have said his white rabbitses.

The Burning Bush - Another discontinued rural tradition that concerns fire and good fortune: In the farming county of Herefordshire, a young farmer would rise before dawn, and take a hawthorn bush to a wheatfield, where it would be set on fire to ensure a good harvest and general prosperity.

Egg White Rom-lette - And my personal favorite New Year’s Day tradition (again, sadly no longer with us), is the one where girls would drop egg whites into water on New Year’s Day. It was widely believed that the first letter of the man they would one day marry would appear in the swirling guck. Which is fine if you want to marry a man whose name begins with an S, but distinctly unfair to anyone called Quentin, Arthur or Frederick.

Did You Know? - The only other people who still sing "Auld Lang Syne" are Boy Scouts! The lyrics of Auld Lang Syne (which we can't abbreviate because ice buckets) are from a 1788 poem by an old Scot called Robert Burns. Well, Burns attributed the lyrics to unwritten remarks by an unnamed old man. But a few graphs of it very closely (near verbatim) resemble a poem called "Old Long Syne" written in 1711 by a man called James Watson.

It's assumed Burns at least wrote the rest of it. Things like: Is thy sweet Heart now grown so cold, that loving Breast on thine. Catchy. Apparently, the Boy Scouts of America sing it at the end of their jamborees. Now you want a "Things you didn't know about Boy Scouts", right!?