Pennsylvania New Year

1. The Peep On Bethlehem's north side, the Just Born candy factory makes all of the world's marshmallow Peeps. And so, to honor that accomplishment, our fine city drops a giant, illuminated Peep at midnight on New Year's Eve. We, the residents of the Christmas City, swell with pride. That's the plan anyway. What happens is, they pry the yellow peep off the top of the Just Born Peepmobile (one of those new Volkswagon Bugs), stick some lights in it, and dangle it off a crane about 80 feet above the city center plaza. At 11:59:30 the countdown begins, and someone tries to let the Peep down as smoothly as possible, but we are talking about a big construction crane here. It's a lot like the special effects in a high school play. Despite the goofiness of the actual experience, my companions and I were sufficiently moved (I believe I heard one of them sniffle, but I'm not sure). The flask of whiskey was passed, we watched the fireworks display with the rest of the crowd, Colleen got a close-up of the glowing Peep, and I tried to get as many New Year's kisses as possible from the people assembled (final score: 0). And then, a New Year's miracle happened. As we were walking back to Liz's place, we saw something lying on the sidewalk in the glow of a streetlight, which turned out to be a box full of give-away Peep smores (a sandwich baggy with a tiny square of chocolate, two pieces of graham cracker, and a frozen Peep) that someone apparently decided to leave on the ground rather than give away. Well, our mammas didn't raise no fools, so we snatched that box up off the soggy ground and had a little lovefeast. When we brushed the crumbs from our chins, it was 2006. [Part 2, regarding my trip to the Mummer's Parade, is forthcoming.]