Friday, December 28, 2012

Dropping in the New Year

Most of us have watched the glittering ball in Times Square take the plunge into the new year.
There is a town in North Carolina that has its' own unique tradition.  The tradition has come under fire this year as being cruel to animals.

Brasstown, North Carolina celebrates the new year with an opossum drop at mid-night. I can see it now on Hillbilly Holiday.  It reminds me of a Thanksgiving episode on "WKRP In Cincinnati" when Les dropped turkeys from a helicopter as a promotional gimmick.  What Les didn't know, turkeys don't fly, so the birds landed, non too gently, onto the parking lot below.  At least the opossum has a fighting chance in his clear box that is gently lowered to the ground. 

The organizers have decided to use a stuffed (toy) opossum to appease the protests from animal rights groups.  It was also suggested that they use road-kill in place of a live opossum.  I vote for the stuffed version, that way no matter which way the wind blows spectators won't have to hold their noses. 

Take a few minutes to think about your New Years traditions.  I'm making my new years resolutions as I do every year.  I'm big on recycling so I'll be using the ones I had last year and the year before and the year before that...you get the picture.  Make sure no critters are hurt in your tradition and don't be afraid to try new things.  Until next time beware of falling opossum's, turkeys and anything else that drops out of the sky at mid-night New Year's Eve.