I can remember when there were only three or four TV channels one could watch. We were kids growing up in New Jersey and on New Year's Eve, the only night we were allowed to stay up past midnight, Guy Lombardo filled our living room. My dad had decorated with colorful streamers hung from everywhere in the room and friends of my folks milled about drinking dad's famous brandy and champagne punch. Life was much easier then and more predictable.

We were immigrants from Germany and brought a lot of our traditions with us. But we all toasted at midnight and hoped for a better year to come. Today, we toast to the normality of those past years.  And often wish those times were still the norm.