What’s in the cards for you on New Year’s Eve? Bert Stratton

CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio – I had nowhere to go last year on New Year’s Eve. No parties, no concerts. Nothing.

For about 20 years, my klezmer band, Yiddishe Cup, played First Night Akron every year on New Year’s Eve. Then First Night Akron “shrinked its footprint.”

Then there was no print.

“First Night” – the concept – started in Boston in 1976. It was a non-alcoholic, family-oriented movement.

Many cities across the country had First Nights. Some still do. My band played for First Night in Warren, Ohio in 1993 and rose through the ranks. In Akron, we usually had about a thousand people packed into the John S. Knight Convention Center to hear us, plus a blues band and a Beatles tribute band.

It’s over.

My friend Jimmy is having a New Year’s Eve party. He likes me, but I didn’t make it to his party, maybe because I didn’t go to the same high school as him. In Cleveland, where you went to high school is a big deal.

It’s who you know — K to 12th.

Last year, Michigan faced Georgia in the college football playoff semifinals on New Year’s Eve. That televised game was going to be my safety net if I didn’t land better. I’m a Michigan elder. (We are some of the traitors in Cleveland. Come on Buckeyes too! No hate.)

One catch: on December 31, 2021, in the morning, I learned that the Michigan football game would be on ESPN, which I don’t understand.

I texted my friend, Carl, who has cable. Carl’s full name is Carl With Cable. He said I could watch the game at his place, sit on his “comfy couch, have a few beers and enjoy the game”.

He wouldn’t be there. He would be at Jimmy’s party. Ouch.

Was I going to watch a football game on TV in Carl’s empty house on New Year’s Eve? I convinced my wife, Alice, to go with me, which was not easy. Alice doesn’t know what a kick in play is. I told her we’d only stay a quarter or two.

Carl’s house was a bit like an Airbnb. He had notes taped for us all over the house: how to operate the TV remote, how to lock the door, and in the kitchen there was a note: “Remember, grab a piece of fresh apple pie .”

I dug through Carl’s record collection and counted how many COVID-19 test kits he had stored. I did not go up. I have a little modesty.

The game was a bust. Michigan trailed 27-3 at halftime. Alice and I came home, played gin rummy until 10 p.m., and went to bed.

Michigan is in the playoffs again this year, facing Texas Christian at 4 p.m. Saturday. Six o’clock is not New Year’s Eve.

Ohio State plays Georgia at 8 p.m. It would work – if I had gone to the state of Ohio.

Is gin rummy on the cards for me this year? I hope not. Scrabble? PERHAPS.

Bert Stratton lives in Cleveland Heights and is the leader of the Yiddishe Cup band. He writes the blogKlezmer Guy: real music and real estate.”

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