THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, January 1, 1996 TAG: 9601010045
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE STONE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Long : 125 lines
Blending the silly and the reflective, Norfolk bid an artistic adieu to 1995 on Sunday - and a hopeful welcome to the New Year.
``I just want to lose weight,'' said Pamela Ingram - echoing untold thousands - and laughing as she considered her New Year's resolution. ``But I guess my wish would be that every child, everywhere, has peace,'' she said as a half-dozen children circled her outside Norfolk's Wells Theatre. ``If they do, we all do.''
Ingram was one of hundreds of area residents who made New Year's Eve more than an excuse to party. They joined ``First Night Norfolk,'' a wide-ranging festival focusing on area arts and stretching from Nauticus and Waterside to the Chrysler Museum, the Harrison Opera House, the Virginia Ballet Theater and MacArthur Theater.
It began with a boisterous parade through Ghent.
Nature seemed misty-eyed about the year's end, but Sunday's occasional drizzle didn't dampen the spirits of about 50 people who gathered at Blair Middle School for the start of the procession.
Mayor Paul Fraim led the walk down Colley Avenue, along Princess Anne Road and through Stockley Gardens to The Hague.
Flavored with New Orleans-style touches - colorful costumes and banners and an upbeat band - the parade included a giant orange-and-black butterfly to represent the new year's opportunity for renewal.
People left their seats in restaurants, gravitating to windows to watch the parade. Residents stepped onto balconies with signs wishing a happy New Year, while others joined the procession.
``I'm having a great time!'' said Christy Nimmo, 21, who joined cooks, waiters and other staff members from Elliot's at curbside to cheer on the parade, blowing horns and waving decorations as it passed.
Tanya Kaish, 31, and a group of friends toasted the march with champagne as it passed her apartment. ``That's why I had all my friends over today so we could come down and see this,'' she said.
``Oh, it's wonderful!'' said Kathleen Falls, who described her age as ``80-plus,'' as she watched the parade from the porch of her home on West Princess Anne Road. ``We have a reviewing stand right here.''
``I've lived here 65 years and this is the first time I've seen a parade on this street,'' Falls said.
By the time the parade reached The Hague, the number of marchers topped 200.
Local folk musician Bob Zentz and his wife, Kay, led the group in singing a number of songs, including one written that morning for the occasion, ``The End of Another Year'':
Come all good friends and gather 'round
It's the end of another year
We pray for peace, we paint the town. . .
There is a feeling in your heart,
A mighty flame grows from a spark
That warms the cold and fills the dark
At the end of another year.
Fraim told the audience he hoped First Night would become a holiday tradition. And he praised the event for ``celebrating the special role the arts play in our community.''
Then he called forth a ``dragon boat,'' propelled by a dozen oarsmen and women, paddling in cadence to a drummer's beat as the boat plied the waters of The Hague. It pulled up to the shore and the Grim Reaper boarded with a cargo of 1995 regrets written by parade participants.
That bag of ill thoughts joined others filled by people who wrote their regrets at the many First Night sites around the city. The community's regrets were tossed into a bonfire at d'ART Center. And with bad feelings symbolically burned, people could turn their attention to the year ahead.
One of the burning regrets came from Joe Bauer, 19, of Portsmouth, who was ready to cast off 1995 as one giant regret: ``The whole year,'' he said. ``I've had problems with my family.'' And his resolution? ``To mend things with my mother and make the family whole once again.''
Richard Hess, 42, also of Portsmouth, gathered his family at the foot of Nauticus, where they filled out ``regret'' and ``resolution'' slips.
His regret: ``I didn't spend more time with my family.'' And his resolution, of course: ``To spend more time with my family.''
The rest of the Hess clan was more reticent. Jonathan, 12, and Kristen, 15, declined to reveal their regrets, though Kristen hinted that her resolution was to tame her temper. Mom was even more intent on protecting what she had penned, wadding the paper in her clenched fist before inquisitive children could snatch it.
``I'm not saying I haven't done anything wrong,'' Susan Hess, 40, said. But writing down a regret, ``does make you think about the past year.''
Each of their slips was deposited in a regret box - dozens of large, brightly-decorated holders fashioned of plastic foam, paint and glitter by artist Martin Ball and scattered throughout downtown.
Nearby, a more public display was taking place as families and friends took chalk in hand to transform the concrete flood wall in front of Nauticus into a colorful mural.
``Feliz Ano Nuevo'' declared one colorful message next to a standard ``Happy 1996!'' Down the street, someone had posted this resolution: ``John will marry Linda in 1996'' on one side, and next to it, ``And fish together forever and a day!''
There was a decidedly partisan ``Go VaTech!'' and a more traditional ``Happy New Year from the Dizon family.''
``I'd like to see downtown alive like this every day, every night,'' said Mark Huffman as he and his family rode a trolley from Stockley Gardens to the waterfront where they planned to watch a lighted ball drop at midnight and see the fireworks.
``It's a great way to start a year.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photos by MARTIN SMITH-RODDEN, The Virginian-Pilot
Fred Finley of Norfolk sports a bizarre mask as marchers prepare
festival heads, banners and signs outside Blair Middle School.
Masks, puppets, signs and banners helped herald the First Night
festivities in Norfolk's Stockley Gardens as marchers began the New
Year's Eve event. As the marchers headed down Colley Avenue, people
left their seats in restaurants, gravitating toward windows to
watch.
KEYWORDS: NEW YEAR'S EVE by CNB