Happy New Year to all (well, most)!
I’m sure you’ve all been wondering where I decided to celebrate our passage into 2009. Unlike my jeune (or perhaps I should use the word jejune) ami Bernard, who is freezing his little butt off in Paris, I chose to remain at the epicenter of the worldwide celebrations, Palm Beach. Of course, the first New Year’s Eve celebrations begin in Australia due to the vagaries of International Date Line placement (who was in charge of that decision anyway?), but they merely serve as a prelude to our own revelries by providing us with reasonably entertaining live video streams to motivate us as we don our finery.
This year, despite the unfortunate and ridiculous Madoff scandal, there were still a few parties to be found on the island, although I would have to guess that the atmosphere at the Palm Beach Country Club was a bit subdued. My own decision had not been made until December 30th, when, as if by magic, an invitation to the Coconuts party showed up in my mailbox. The fact that it had been addressed to an entirely different person and delayed in its delivery due to an apparent routing error by our United States Postal Service did nothing to dissuade me from my entirely appropriate decision to accept the well-deserved opportunity to attend.
As I’m sure you know, the Coconuts are an almost century-old group of similarly aged old boys who gather to usher in the New Year in Palm Beach. On this occasion, our celebration (well, perhaps I shouldn’t use the word “our” because I’ve not yet been asked to join the Coconuts, but one can dream) was held at the Flagler Museum, an old-world outpost that drips with the entirely legitimately earned wealth of Henry Flagler, a pillar of a bygone era. Each of the Coconuts wore a white dinner jacket and a red carnation, and each received Stubbs & Wootton slippers as a gift from my good friend Percy Steinhart. As you can see in this photo, they truly looked like a bunch of sharps and the height of Palm Beach masculinity.
The Coconuts, truly a group of dapper dandies
A wonderful time was had by all, and I’m pleased to say that, unlike the previous New Year’s Eve when I was jostled into the pool at the Morningwood Club by an unstable and disoriented elder, this evening concluded uneventfully. Even better, since I was graciously delivered home in a police cruiser, I saved on the cost of a taxi! Truly the perfect way to begin a new year!
Oliver Booth
