Happy New Year Times Two

I recently started another blog called NewYearsDrop.com where I follow what kinds of things drop, and this year I was lucky enough to attend 2 drop celebrations in one night. First I drove the hour and a half to Mt Olive for the Pickle Drop.

When I stepped out of the car, there was a smell of brine in the air. I had arranged to meet and interview Lynn Williams, Community Relations Representative of the Mt Olive Pickle Company. We did the interview in the gift shop because it was too windy outside. Every time someone opened the door, a loud doorbell rang, which you can hear in the background. I held a giant pickle in my hand during the whole interview. We referred to it several times, but completely accepted that I was holding a three and half foot pickle.

The drop itself was a lot of fun. It certainly had a small town feel and it started at 7:00. After the pickle dropped, balloons were released and the crowd sang Auld Lang Sync accompanied by bagpipes. Then a flag rose up the pole and the crowd sang God Bless America. Once the event was over, they raised the pickle just over the edge of the pickle barrel for pictures, like the one above. Here’s a link to more photos from Flickr.

I left Mt Olive and drove back to Raleigh for the First Night celebration and the Acorn Drop. Since it was such a cold night people were inside many of the music venues. The Smithereens began playing around 10:15 and played until nearly 12:00. The crowd was not that into it, because the band was big about 20 years ago. That was the last time I saw them. The crowd was very excited when the Acorn went up, and they were more excited when it came down. It marked the beginning of 2009. And my 2nd New Year. Here are some photos from Raleigh on Flickr.

New Year’s Drop Blog

Each year I write a post about what drops on New Year’s around the country. I gathered those posts on a new blog called NewYearsDrop.com, and will add more to it this year. Check it out and let me know what you think.

What Drops on New Years Eve

For the past two years, I have compiled posts (2006, 2007) with a list of interesting or stupid things that towns and cities across the US “drop” (or lower) from downtown buildings. These civic celebrations are based on the ball that drops in Times Square in New York. My reasons for compiling this list is because I am also influenced by Raleigh’s acorn and Mt. Olive, NC’s pickle.

Last year I discovered this Wikipedia article which greatly simplified my search. The following list of items comes from this article and previous searches:

acorn, anchor, antique trunk, apple, bag of potato chips, ball, beach ball, bologna, bottle of Yuengling beer, broasted chicken, canal boat, carp, cigar, cigar held by a lion, coal, conch shell, cow, crab, drag queen, Ford Edge, frog, goat, gumbo pot, hard hat, Hershey Kiss, hog, huckleberry, Indy car, lollipop, M&M, Moravian star, mossbunker fish, nugget, orange, peach, pear, Peep, pickle, pine cone, ping pong balls, pirate wench, planet earth, possum, pretzel, red rose, sardine, sausage, shoe, sled, sphoctogon, spring, star, steamroller, strawberry, sunburst, ukulele, walleye, white rose, wildcat, wooden duck, wrench

Out of 61 things listed, 30% are food, while 15% are animals. The only live animal I know about is the possum in Brasstown, NC. Many of the items are related to the town’s name (Shippensburg, PA: anchor) or a town’s best-known product (Hershey, PA: Hershey Kiss, Pottsville, PA: Yuengling).

Geographically, the following 19 states are represented in the article, and Pennsylvania has the most drops with 36 cities and towns listed.

Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Wisconsin

There are many states not included. I would like your help, and your friends’ help, in expanding this list. Please comment below if you know of anything else that drops, or a state not listed that has a drop. Please include a link if possible, and I can update Wikipedia.

Thanks for your help and have a Happy New Year.

What else drops update

In my continuing search for things that drop on New Year’s Eve, I have found:
A possum (Brasstown, NC)
A lighted beach ball (Carolina Beach, NC)
An orange (Orange County, CA)
A new Ford Edge (Buffalo, NY)
A carp (St. Feriole Island, WI)
Bologna (Lebanon, PA)

and a long list of things from a giant red shoe carrying a drag queen (Key West, FL) to a wrench (Mechanicsburg, PA) on Wikipedia.

What Else Drops in Other Places?

New York:
The Ball Drop in Times Square stems from an even older ritual in England when a descending Time Ball was a popular method of signaling noon to allow pocket watches and nearby at sea ships chronometer’s to be reset daily. This tradition continues onward today in Washington D.C. at the United States Naval Observatory where it still drops a Time Ball down a flag pole every day at noon.

The latest ball measures 6 feet in diameter. The lighted Ball descends 77 feet in sixty seconds. The Ball is a geodesic sphere, six feet in diameter, weighing approximately 1,070 pounds. The Ball is covered with 504 Waterford crystal triangles, 696 multicolored Philips light bulbs, 96 high intensity strobe lights, and 90 rotating pyramid mirrors.

Atlanta: Giant Peach
New Orleans: Gumbo Pot
Mt. Olive, NC: Giant Pickle
Port Clinton, Ohio: 600-pound fiberglass walleye

Let me know if you know of anything else.