If you don’t have plans for Dec. 31, try downtown Nashua

Do you have plans for Dec. 31 yet?
Aldermanic president-turned-party-planner Brian McCarthy does.
He wants people to party at the Main Street Bridge, like thousands of city residents did less than two weeks ago to ring in 2004.
McCarthy made the suggestion last Sunday during his remarks at the 102nd inauguration ceremony for city government.
He suggested people get together every year for festivities and fireworks at the bridge. The recent event – which closed the city’s yearlong sesquicentennial celebration – was pulled together late in the year after a fireworks display scheduled for November’s Downtown Holiday Stroll was postponed because of high winds.
Every year should be the greatest year in the city’s history, McCarthy said.
Say what?
Everyone can be thankful the city’s sesquicentennial celebration is over – if for no other reason than people won’t have to mangle the word anymore.
Like former Alderman George Pressly Jr.
Pressly, the master of ceremonies at Sunday’s inauguration, twice got his tongue twisted by the six-syllable word.
But a cheerless consequence is that Mayor Josephus Baldwin, a.k.a. Michael Glenn, had to catch his creaking time travel machine and depart back to 1853.
Baldwin, who made several appearances during the celebrations of Nashua’s 150th birthday, made a farewell speech at the inauguration. Lest we forget, Baldwin was the city’s first mayor.
Life is preciously short, he said.
“We must make of it what we can,” Baldwin mused.
One difference he noted was the celebration after the oath-taking. Baldwin recalled retreating to a drinking hole for “honest whiskey.”
Modern sensitivities being what they are, the newly sworn-in city leaders, along with their families and friends, stood in a line at the Nashua High School north campus cafeteria for finger food.
Sing a few bars
And then, there were the Four Tenors.
As is his wont, Mayor Bernie Streeter appears to think folks active in city politics can carry a tune.
He often invites supporters, generally men, to stand in front of a crowd, with a podium or microphone if necessary, and sing a tune.
Typically, it’s an American patriotic hymn for which most people forget the words after the first verse.
On Sunday, Streeter invited McCarthy, Alderman-at-Large David Rootovich and Griffin Dalianis, chairman of the sesquicentennial organizing committee and a Streeter campaign leader, to gather around and sing.
Blessedly, they could not be heard over the sound of the Birch Hill Score, the musical troupe from Birch Hill Elementary School, which provided the entertainment during the inauguration.
In through the out door
Since idle hands are the devil’s work, a couple of former aldermen could find themselves back on city boards once again.
Streeter intends to nominate former Ward 1 Alderman Kevin McAfee to the Planning Board. McAfee was the aldermanic liaison to the board at least during the last term and previously served on the Planning Board for a time.
And former Alderman-at-Large Fred Britton could be sitting on the Nashua Airport Authority.
Former colleagues will interview the nominees in upcoming weeks.
McAfee and Britton were reliable supporters of Streeter when it came to voting.
Nashua . . . From the Inside was compiled by staff reporter Andrew Nelson.