MARK MY WORD: NEIGHBORHOOD FIREWORKS KICK OFF MILLENNIUM WITH A BANG

There's nothing like the start of a new millennium to get people excited about the future.

Never mind that the real millennium doesn't begin until next January. It's tough not to be excited about a year that has three zeroes.

Let me be clear, I'm not talking about anyone's relatives or any Washington politician. I'm talking about the new year, the year 2000.

Having survived the most talked about disease in the history of mankind the dreaded Y2K bug we can all look forward to another 1,000 years of "I Love Lucy" and other assorted TV reruns.

As it turned out, Y2K was the biggest bust since the New Madrid earthquake that didn't quake several years ago. There wasn't anything for reporters to report.

The lights didn't go out. Aircraft didn't fall from the skies. Computers computed just fine.

At our house, we didn't even turn off the computer. The kids were too busy playing children's games to let anything like a little bug bother them.

We ushered in the new year like a lot of people we set off fireworks.

At midnight, our neighborhood resembled a mini-war zone with bombs bursting in air. Some Third World countries would have been hard pressed to match the arsenal in our neighborhood.

One of our neighbors fired off numerous aerial displays, showering our homes in bright lights. Our children managed to stay awake through midnight, thanks in part to all those party snacks and the promise of setting off fireworks.

Earlier in the evening, we watched the televised party at Times Square with friends. But our friends' children and our children were more interested in playing computer games and contemplating our own pyrotechnic celebration.

When you're young, time seems to move at a slower pace. There isn't that urgency that hits you at middle age.

For 7-year-old Becca and 4-year-old Bailey, the highlight of the evening was painting the night air with burning sparklers as we stood on our driveway as fireworks exploded overhead.

We enjoyed ourselves and more importantly we didn't burn down the neighborhood.

We all slept late on the first day of the new year. A few hours at the start of a thousand years isn't going to be missed, we reasoned.

Besides, I had to get my rest. I had work to do on the first day of the new year. I took down our outside Christmas lights, a process that is only a little less exhausting than putting up all those lights.

Each year, the process seems to take a little longer. By the end of the next millennium, it could take a month for the average American to put up and take down his or her Christmas lights.

Clearly, the future rests with a healthy supply of extension cords and boxes properly marked Christmas decorations. You don't want to spend the next millennium stuck in the attic in search of those elusive Christmas lights.

No doubt, our future will run on batteries. Without them, we wouldn't have all those talking dolls and games crowding our homes.

The brave new world still will look a lot like our past. There will be Barbie dolls on the floor and children's shoes scattered across the carpet. Chicken fingers will remain the food of choice for many youngsters.

And at least at our house, the kids will find "Scooby-Doo" as entertaining as ever.

Even in a new millennium, it's hard to ignore a talking dog.

Mark Bliss is a staff writer for the Southeast Missourian.