Old Year’s Night … back in the day

Ushering in the New Year at a party has been the trend with many over the years, though quite a few things have changed about how this is done. Stabroek News caught up with a few mature folk and asked them to reminisce on what Old Year’s Night was like for them back in the day.

Gloria Croft and Vernon Lynch had memories of the many ‘house parties’ which sometimes saw everyone taking a dish or two, while always very well attired. For Leila Too-Kong the memories of all the sugar estate balls and a few at other locations are still vivid.

The 59-year-old Croft said while she remembers that the Old Year’s Night parties were always a big thing, for some reason they always ended on a sad note for her.

“I have not been to an Old Year’s Night [party] in decades because for some reason I always ended up in an argument with my date. It was as if I was jinxed or something, so for that reason I have not gone to a ball in a while; I cannot accurately compare what it is now to what it was back then,” she said.

However, she recalled that the balls and parties were very formal occasions. Everyone went with a partner. “The ladies were well dressed in their dresses and the gentlemen in their suits.” She said on many occasions persons organised ‘house parties’ and while there were some who actually charged a fee, others were organised in such a way that those attending took a dish with them and there would be dinner followed by the dancing. “It was never over until around six or seven in the morning…” she said.

Lynch, 75, said it was the ‘house parties’ that he mostly attended but he recalled a club in Charlotte Street as well as the Carib Hotel (no longer in existence) that held Old Year’s Night balls. “At all times, the men had to be well suited. It was a black and white tie affair even when we were going to house parties and the ladies were also well dressed in their gowns.”

He recalled that the gowns were patterned off the European styles. He said that the popular drinks of the time were the Houston and Russian beers. “The major difference now is that there are many more places where one can break the New Year and as such there would hardly be any young people holding house parties now on Old Year’s Night.”

Another difference now, he said, is that money is circulating more freely and young people can afford to go to the more expensive places.

For Too-Kong there were two eras – before and after independence. She recalled that before independence all of the ethnic groups had their own clubs where their balls were held: there was the Georgetown Club which catered mainly for the Europeans; the Georgetown Cricket Club, which also catered for persons in the upper echelons in life; the Everest Cricket Club that catered for the Indians; there were the clubs for the Portuguese and the Chinese; the Maltenoes Club was for the coloured people; while the blacks had the Demerara Cricket Club. “Everyone planned a ball for that night, none of which finished before six or seven in the morning.”

She recalled that the Pegasus had just been built and it held balls also, along with two highly sophisticated clubs, the names of which she can no longer remember. “But Guyana was really a sophisticated place at that time. I can remember the clubs had lights beneath their dance floors. They were pricy and those who could have afforded it had a good time.”

Also, she said, every single sugar estate held an Old Year’s Night ball at that time. Too-Kong, recalled never spending the entire night at one ball and most times day would catch her at one of the estates because they had the best breakfasts.

She recalled animatedly that the gowns they wore at that time were exquisite; some had “low backs and everything” and were completed with gloves at the time. She opined nowadays while young people dress up, they don’t know “what are real styles”.

She said after independence a lot of people migrated and gradually the clubs changed; people intermingled a lot more, but the balls were still held to very high standards.

She also could not forget the steel pan parades that were also held throughout the Christmas seasons including on Old Year’s Night and which they were allowed to join in as teenagers.

All three interviewees remember those days very fondly and for them it’s just not the same anymore.