Noe Valley Voice April 1999
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Remembering Y1K

Editor:

There's been such a flap about all the machines going haywire in 2000, that, as an oldtimer in Noe Valley, I thought I'd better remind everybody about what we went through here in 999.

First of all, we didn't have computers then, so mostly we worried that the beads on abacuses would stick or the markings we made on stone tablets would suddenly erase themselves.

Somebody even started a rumor that all the wheels would be infected with some sort of plague and stop turning! This certainly would have thrown a monkey wrench into our commutes. Plus, we wouldn't have been able to grind wheat for our nine-grain breads, or operate most of our torture devices.

On the fateful New Year's Eve most of us nervously sat at home or went down the street to Finnegan's Bar (now defunct). By torchlight we watched Dick Clark count down the seconds as the Times Square mirror ball descended -- and nothing bad happened! Then Guy Lombardo's grandfather played Auld Lang Syne, and the new millennium started.

So you see, it turned out to be no big deal. The year 1000 rolled around, and life went on as usual, except of course the Dark Ages ended soon after.

Charlemagne Barske

Longtime Sanchez Street Resident