...It had come together at the last minute.We had tickets for a musical on Broadway and were invited backstage after the theatre. Somebody had an invitation to a party held in the building where the ball drops. So we walked down 8th Avenue to 42nd street. There were lots of police barricades but the street was completely deserted. When we got to Times Square we had to make our way through the New Year's Eve crowds on the street. We showed our invitation and they escorted us into the building. Once at the party we found it to be a dud...it was a disco kind of thing with business men in leisure suits.

Looking out the windows, we could see Dick Clark doing his broadcast on the lighted stage with a great crowd below. None of the windows opened, but we really wanted to hear what was happening. There was an empy bar area and we went behind it into this little storage closet. Back there was a tiny window that opened. We listened as the countdown started...it counted down to six and the noise started to turn into a cheer which changed and grew into a wave of deep, dark primeval sound of humanity. It was an amazing moment...as the crowd roared, the ball dropped, midnight came and went and the energy shifted from an outward burst to the attentions of those close by.

story by: Tim Fisher