USA: Out with the old... People gather in Times Square to say "Good Riddance" to their bad memories of 2011

Record ID: 862688

  • Title: USA: Out with the old... People gather in Times Square to say "Good Riddance" to their bad memories of 2011
  • Date: 1st January 2012
  • Summary: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (DECEMBER 28, 2011) (REUTERS) WOMAN DUMPING PILES OF PAPER IN GARBAGE BIN
  • Embargoed: 16th January 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Usa, Usa
  • City:
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Quirky,Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
  • Reuters ID: LVAAOHN3TWEU9DWH4Y81TRVCB8AP
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: Out with the old and in with the new. Dozens of people gathered in Times Square to say "Good Riddance" to their miserable memories from 2011.
    Health battles, lost loves, and money problems were among the memories shredded or smashed to bits on Wednesday (December 28).
    One woman tossed out paperwork from her bronchitis treatments.
    A little girl tore up paper representing her former home.
    And Robert Santoriella used a sledgehammer to destroy his son's "puke bucket".
    Santoriella said his now-healthy 10-year-old son needed the bucket after his chemotherapy treatments at a hospital in New York City.
    Santoriella said the bucket was often used in the car as they drove home via the Major Deegan Expressway.
    "That was the puke bucket that we used to have to use when we were heading home on the Deegan. We don't need it anymore," he told a group of journalists.
    Dawn Demeo of Connecticut said she was ready to make some changes in 2012. "I shredded being hopeless. It was just something holding me back in 2011, and in 2012, I choose hope."
    Britawnya Craft from Los Angeles has a lot to leave behind in 2011.
    "Today I shredded all setbacks, all insecurities, and also all past loves... I don't want anything to hold me back. I'm young and I'm ready to go out and have a good time. This is my first time in New York and I'm just ready to let loose and enjoy life," she said.
    A sentiment likely shared by a woman leaving behind her former boyfriend "Mike".
    Katie Selman from Tampa, Florida was the grand prize winner of the Good Riddance Day online contest. Selman and her husband traveled to New York to shred some military deployment papers.
    "I am shredding military orders for my brother who returned from Iraq in April and also for my husband who was deployed in the Middle East as well," she said.
    Selman added, "It's going to be shredding all of those kind of sleepless nights, all of those e-mails I had to send, all those boxes I had to mail over to Iraq. Just all those worrisome nights and all those fears I had. It's going to be a straight shredding of all of those, down the drain."
    Husband and father of five, Army Major Steve Selman said he is just glad to be home.
    "I consider myself one of the lucky ones. I'm coming home. Coming home to a great family, a great wife, great kids, and not all of them (U.S. military) that got sent over there are coming back to all of that," he said.
    After the papers were tossed into a garbage bin, the containers were lifted into a mobile shredding truck, and the papers were torn apart... opening the way for a fresh start to 2012.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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