After our last meal of the year - Blue Point oysters and filet mignon - we stood on the balcony of 32 East - which I hadn't realized had a balcony - and watched the people flowing up and down a carless Atlantic Avenue: couples, families, seniors, young women in short black party dresses. A lot of women in short black party dresses. Most people seemed, from our perspective, to be in a good mood; nobody looked drunk. Noise increased just before midnight, when we toasted the new year with flutes of champagne and fireworks ascended from the tennis center.
