Times Square is the place for countdown to zero hour

By Alex Abraham

JAKARTA (JP): Half an hour to midnight on New Year's Eve.

This is the center of the world right now. London has its Trafalgar Square, Tokyo its Ginza, Paris its Pigalle and Jakarta its Sudirman, but Times Square in New York is the place to be.

Within a mile of this hallowed square are 125 hotels, 55,000 hotel rooms, 36 legitimate theaters and some illegitimate ones, and right now 150,000 gathered to celebrate, cheer, scream, eat, drink, shout, kiss and be merry bringing in the new year.

It's 20 minutes to midnight.

The Big Apple is up there, at the highest point over number one Times Square. It will descend slowly over the last 60 seconds of the year, and hit the pavement at the moment the new year begins.

The rich and poor, young and old, have flocked together to be a part of this scintillating event.

Salso up there is Dick Clarke and the ABC television crew, broadcasting the event live, coast to coast on television.

It's 10 minutes to midnight.

Nearby, on Park Avenue at the Waldorf Astoria, are the Cadillac and Rolls Royce crowd. In the Grand Ballroom, beneath glistening chandeliers and decorations topped with half a ton of glitter and 100,000 balloons, 15,000 bottles of champagne, they swing to the music of top-notch rock and punk bands, emceed by Donny Osmond and his sister Marie.

Alabama, Barry Manilow, Rick Springfield are all there.

It's five minutes to midnight.

Superfreak -- Love is All Right Tonight, Feels So Right -- belting out one hit song after another, guitars strumming like kalashnikov's, clad in skintight gleaming leather, hips moving like pistons, creating eclectic electricity. And beautiful people move to the music in gay abandon.

It's now one minute to midnight.

But the real party is out there in Times Square. There no big name band, but a great crowd, intensely uninhibited, spirited and enthusiastic, joining hands and hearts in joyous song and dance.

They await the fall of the Big Apple, bringing in the new year with horns, trumpets, bongos, bells and oodles of good cheer.

There is something special in the chill air tonight, like in a world where all people are suddenly closer together, a spirit of camaraderie and great fellow feeling.

You can see the Big Apple now, beginning its descent. Thirty seconds to go.

Goodbye old year, you've been a great, great year with all your joys and all your sorrows.

"Ten - nine - eight - seven and now you are but history."

They chant in thundering unison: "six - five - four - three - two - one - HAPPY NEW YEAR!"