6 Other Things Dropped on New Year's Eve

The most famous New Year's Eve “drop” is the 11,875-pound icosahedral geodesic sphere that descends the flag pole at One Times Square in Manhattan. But New York isn’t the only place where objects are dropped on New Year’s Eve (and no, we’re not counting your drunken uncle’s trousers in this list). Here’s what folks elsewhere around these United States will be watching as they count down the remaining seconds of 2010:

1. Georgia’s Peach

Atlanta’s Peach Drop draws about 100,000 people downtown every year, while several million more watch it from the comfort of home via the America One television network. The 800 lb. peach, which is repainted and refurbished every year, is made from Fiberglas and foam, the same materials used to manufacture most commercial surfboards.

2. The Buffalo Ball

Buffalo, New York, has been dropping its own ball since 1988. Accompanied by a massive fireworks display, the ball falls from the top of the Iskalo Electric Tower on Washington Street in downtown Buffalo. Last year’s event was almost canceled due to the economy and the ethics of a cash-strapped city spending the $40,000 necessary for security and sanitation crews, but local businesses opened their wallets and the show went on as scheduled. Unlike its sister in Times Square, the Buffalo Ball takes a full 58 seconds to descend, which helps to build the crowd tension to fever pitch once the final 10 second countdown begins.

3. Marsupial Moment

To some of us, they are pointy-nosed sharp-toothed nuisances who nest in our garages and are a step-cousin once removed from a rat. But to the residents of Brasstown, North Carolina, the opossum is a New Year’s Eve icon. The tradition started in 1990 when Clay Logan, owner of the Citgo station on Greasy Creek Road (honest!) in this small Appalachian town said (in that true “can-do” American spirit), “If New York City can drop a big ball on New Year’s Eve, why can’t we drop a ‘possum?”

So each year around November 30, Mr. Logan captures a live opossum in a DNR-approved trap and feeds it top-quality cat food until New Year’s Eve, when he transfers the ‘possum to a Plexiglas box, which he lowers via rope from the roof of his gas station just seconds prior to midnight. The last seconds of the year are counted down with appropriate ceremony by Logan and the assembled crowd of hundreds as the opossum descends to the ground. He is then released back into the wild, perhaps a bit confused by his brush with celebrity.

Of course, any occasion involving a live animal is bound to get noticed by PETA sooner or later, so in recent years Mr. Logan has obtained both state and federal permits for his ‘possum drop, and all concerned authorities have observed, inspected and agreed that the little varmint was treated humanely.

4. Peep Show

5. Reelin’ in the Year

There is always something fishy going on in Port Clinton, Ohio, the Walleye Capital of the World. And the town has been packed to the gills every New Year’s Eve since 1996, when Wylie the 20-foot, 600-pound Fiberglas walleye (constructed by a local taxidermist) was first lowered at the stroke of midnight. The festival includes everything from walleye sandwiches to walleye wine to walleye popcorn on sale for those willing to shell out a fin or less.