Happy New Year 2022

                                              Happy New Year 2022

                                                              By

                                                      Mike Capron

I sold this painting on New Years Day, its title was “What a Ride”. So I just titled the past year 2021 “What a Ride”. Sure a good way to start the new year, selling a painting……!!!!    2021 was a little broncy and I was glad we made that ride and can move on to 2022.

 I am not superstitious but there are some pretty strong feelings about how you start the new year off. I didn’t get to kiss my honey at midnight, but we are sharing a pot of black eyed peas for dinner. I have been told this tradition for years, but never understood why it was good luck to have a bowl of black eyed peas on New Years Day. You can bet my wife is superstitious, her Grandaddy told her to always put her right shoe on first. It took her a long time before she asked why. Grandaddy told her, because your other one is always left. She still puts her right shoe on first. So we always have Black-eyed peas for New Years Dinner. I couldn’t imagine why it was good luck to eat a bowl of black-eyed peas.  I was told by an Old Southerner that the Confederate Soldiers returning home to the south after the Civil War were glad to hit some fields of Black-eyed Peas, it made them feel like they were home and they were glad the war was over and could have some good southern home cooking. It just made them feel good, so we have a bowl on New Years Day.  It may be the last bowl I have all year. They are plenty good if they are fresh brewed, ……… But our habits and traditions lean towards pinto beans. I think the black-eyed peas are east of me, it doesn’t rain enough in West Texas for Black-eyed peas. Another old tradition is to eat pork on new years day, it will make you forge ahead all year long. But never eat chicken on new years day, they scratch backwards and it will make you run in reverse too much, lobster is the same way, they scratch backwards.  Grapes are popular New Years day food in Spain and many latin countries.  Supposed to eat 12 of them, one for every stroke of midnight. Pickled Herring or just plain herring is good new years day food somewhere…?  Some say it is bad luck to ear any winged foul because it may cause your good luck to fly away. Anything that forms a circle such as —donuts and bagels— leads to good fortune in the coming year.  A polish tradition states that if you wake up early on New Year’s Day, you will wake up early for the rest of the year. And if you touch the floor with the right foot when getting up from bed, you could expect a lot of good luck for the whole new year.  Babies born on New Year’s Day are said to have the best luck through out their lives. Open all doors and windows at midnight lets the old year escape. The first person to enter your home after midnight foretells the kind of luck you’ll have in the coming year. A tall, dark, handsome male bearing small gifts is said to bring the best luck. According to this same tradition, no one should leave the house until someone first enters from outside, and nothing should be removed from the house on New Year’s Day. Empty cupboards at the turn of the year foretell a year of poverty. Never begin the New Year with unpaid debts.  One of the more popular beliefs is that kissing your beloved at the stroke of midnight ensures twelve months of continuing affection. Failing to do so is said to produce the opposite effect.  Plenty of reasons to get stirred up if you are looking for something to get upset about.  Me ……..I got plenty to worry about, tryin’ to learn how to paint and make a few bucks doin’ it.  Not sure how I am going to spend much time painting and keeping up with all these New Years Resolutions.  

 “What a Ride” is kinda how I felt about the past year, lots of ups and downs.  I had several good buddies make the cross over to the Big Outfit, but I know they are making a hand for the big Boss. I plan to make the best hand possible here until I get to go join them, me and mamma got lots of raisin to do with all these grandgirls not to mention a bunch of painting left to do.  Certainly 2021 was a good year in some ways.  I had some ambitions to accomplish in my art, and I can see some steps made in those directions. Art in always pushing on you to do better, I never heard of an artist that was satisfied with his latest painting.  Life is always a challenge and we need to pay attention to some earthly details………….Anne just came in and said I needed to learn a little about some domestic skills because she may be the first to go and I need to learn how to do a few things on my own. 

 I  started expounding on my abilities and she said, “ I just ask you to put the washing from your studio in my dryer at the house,……..and you brought it over to the house and put it back in my washer…….You can’t tell a washer from a dryer.

                                       So Life goes on in 2022.