Residents ring in New Year

The new year is days away and residents are reflecting on the year that was and looking forward to the one coming up. Some are celebrating New Year?s with a bang while others are content to leave the celebrating to someone else. Jan Hazelett said that one of her favorite things to do for New Year?s parties in her youth was to play cribbage.

Hazelett?s friend Patty Franke said they once had cabins in the town of Clayton on the Mississippi River. It is a small town between McGregor and Guttenberg.

?All of us did everything we could in the winter to get warmed up and go to Clayton for a party on New Year?s,? Franke said.

Franke is from Hudson, a small town near Waterloo. She said that she made many good friends from Washington while at the cabins in Clayton. Whenever she thinks of New Year?s, she thinks of her friends from Washington, so she has taken to visiting them in town for the holiday. She is able to make the trip a couple of times per year. Hazelett is not from Washington, either, but decided to move here because of the friends she made here and because of the hospital.

Hazelett said that cribbage can be played with as few as two people or as many as can fit around a table. Franke said that a common way for her group to play was to put the women on one team and the men on the other. She said the men had more practice so they won most of the early contests.

?They beat our bottoms all the time,? Franke said. ?As we learned the game we were able to hold our own.?

Franke and Hazelett said that they also like to play a dice-game called ?Farkle.? Ray Martin said he likes to play a game called ?Chase the Aces? when he gets together with his friends.

Faye Scott said that she used to go out on New Year?s Eve but said those days are behind her. She said most of her New Year?s Eves nowadays are spent babysitting so that her friends and relatives can go out.

In her youth, Scott went to dances at the VFW or ?The Moose? on New Year?s Eve.

Martin said he plans to go to bed well before midnight Saturday. He said he?s not interested in seeing the ball drop at Times Square in New York City.

?That will happen at 11 p.m. our time but that?s still too late,? he said. ?I might watch the ball drop in Sydney, Australia.?

Martin?s wife, Rita Martin, said she won?t stay up Saturday because she has to work the next day. She said it?s not difficult to work on a holiday and that it feels just like any other day.

Franke said that 2011 was a good year for her because she welcomed two great-grandchildren to the world. She said she has gone to visit them and that they have come to visit her. Franke said that one part of 2011 that she is glad to put behind her is the political ads on television.

Ray said he doesn?t have any big plans for 2012, other than to live through it. Ray said he no longer makes resolutions.

?I try to do something different now,? he said. ?I think of ways I can help people rather than ways of helping myself. Rather than giving up something, I?m trying to give to someone.?

?And it makes you feel better,? Hazelett said.

?It makes you feel a lot better than when you make a resolution and you break it,? Ray said.

Ferd Marie said he doesn?t usually do anything special on New Year?s Eve. Marie said he likes to dance but he doesn?t go to dances on New Year?s Eve.

Marie said that the most notable change he noticed in 2011 was the United States? departure from Iraq. He said the year was a good one for him personally.

?Every year you?re alive is a good year,? he said.

Marie said that he has big plans in 2012. He said there will be a celebration at Conger House on July 4, 2012 and that the late John Jackson Sr. will be honored. Jackson will be honored because it is the 100

^th

anniversary of him winning the Olympic gold medal in the military rifle competition at the 1912 Olympic games in Stockholm, Sweden.