2010 New Year Audible Celebration

Staten Island's New Year's celebration was announced by the muffled sounds of fireworks set off from somewhere else, with a cottony "thrump-thrump-thrumpety-thrump" sound. Then a smattering of hoots and hollers could be heard up and down Hamilton Avenue. I imagined bottles of sparkling drinks being popped, though I heard none. Bob and I clinked plastic glasses of water and white wine. On TV, the black-and-white sounds of the French Resistance, caught in the rough staccato of French actors performing in a 1960's film. The motors of WWII autos and Red Cross trucks spoke of axle grease and oil changes; grinding gears in shifting and dangerous times, far from the sound of 21st Century tires rolling on the wet pavement of Academy Place on this muted, overcast New Year's Eve.