New Year's on the Plaza

In Arcata (my hometown), New Year's revolves around the center of town: the plaza. It's just a square with stores and a statue, but it's like the heart of the town from 11:30 to 2 in the morning. Drunk people climb the statue of McKinley and count down to the new year, stoners wander around a bit confused. When the new year has been claimed, a samba band begins to play the same rhythm for the next several hours but people don't mind the repetition, the people who have chosen the Humboldt-lifestyle dance until the band is exhausted. Teenagers take off, worried about being picked up by the cops for being out past curfew among other possibly illegal activities.... On to the next party which is often busted soon after it's beginning. It's an interesting place to be, I saw old friends who had graduated years ago but continue to find their way there, as if they can't even conceive being anywhere else but on that plaza, in that town, on the first day of every new year. It's our own little Times Square, except the ball that drops is something more like a confused and very wasted person falling from the statue. But it seems more appropriate; after all, Humboldt is not known for it's glamour.