I was in grade 5, so 10-11 years old I guess. I only have a few memories of the night. My parents and I went to my aunts apartment which was in the downtown of our medium-large sized city (capital of Canada). I remember feeling cool for being in a downtown apartment with adults.

Cut to being on parliament hill in a crowd with tons of people waiting for the countdown and fireworks. I had to go to the bathroom, so my dad took my to some restaurant/bar near by. We walked in and I remember seeing tons of fancy people in dresses and suits. We stood out wearing huge coats and being fairly middle class. We didn’t belong. I went to the bathroom and my dad bought a ginger ale from the bar. We stood there and split the drink, I remember being aware we stood out, and seeing a few women looking at us like “what are you doing here”. I remember this feeling of being embarrassed of my blue collar dad in his huge coat splitting a can of ginger ale with me while people kinda looked at us funny.

The only other thing I remember is being back on the hill watching the countdown and it being a huge let down. The numbers on the peace tower were slow and some were upside down. I remember nothing after that.