It’s the last day of 2024. We stand on the edge of being as close to 2050 as we are far from the year 2000. Some will be making out their New Year’s resolutions. I will not. Well, not exactly. Mine are less about setting goals for what I will do and more for setting boundaries about what I will not.

An old tradition (maybe Irish, maybe not) is to open the door at the stroke of midnight to let the old year out and the new year in. This, I do. One tradition I am leaving behind (as it has yet to work) is fixing black-eyed peas. Sorry, they taste like dirt. And I do not abide cooked greens of any sort. Revoke my southern card and cancel me now.

My years of heading out for New Year’s revelry are long since gone. If you’re going out this evening, make good choices. Have a good time, but get home safely. I’ll be celebrating from my couch.

Looking back at Knoxville 100 years ago, there was quite a bit of partying going on. Though we were in the Prohibition era, that didn’t stop anyone from getting their hands on alcohol if that’s what they wanted. New Year’s Eve 1924 fell on a Wednesday. Reports at the time were that the previous Saturday night created more arrests for illicit adult beverages than partying on the holiday. There were 17 alcohol related arrests mad that NYE night, but only five for just flat-out drunkenness, well below the 20-30 usually arrested on an average Saturday night.

One man, however, a Mr. Fields of Woodland Avenue, had quite a story for the officers who picked him up not far from his home. Seems he’d gone to get a half-pint of whiskey for his sick wife, but found the need to consume half of said whiskey before he got it back to her. Though they judge felt for sure he wasn’t actually a bootlegger and only fined him $25 for the booze, Fields earned himself a hefty $50 fine for the loaded pistol he was carrying around in his pocket.

However, then as now, fireworks were illegal. And, then as now, that didn’t do much to stop anyone from blasting them off anyway. The big difference is, back then, those who were caught were actually arrested for it. Downtown was awash in shouting, fireworks, horn blasts and gunfire as the clocked ticked down to zero. The bedlam continued on Gay Street and thereabouts until about 1 a.m., the bootleg fire crackers having been exhausted.

While most of the streets began to clear, a post-show (the Peruchi Players in Strange Bedfellows) dance rolled on at the Bijou Theatre till well past 2 a.m. There was dancing at the Masonic Temple as well as further out west at Cherokee Country Club (still in the original clubhouse), and the Shriners were having a party north of town at the Whittle Springs Hotel.

A Happy New Year to all, and to all a good night.

Beth Kinnane writes a history feature for KnoxTNToday.com. It’s published each Tuesday and is one of our best-read features.

Sources: McClung digital collection-Knox County Library, Knoxville Journal digital archives