Happy Good Riddance Day!
Say bye to ’08 bank statements
Updated 10:34 AM EST, Wed, Jul 22, 2009
Should auld acquaintance be forgot? Or maybe shredded?
In an event that organizers hope will become a New Year's tradition, New Yorkers and tourists were invited to bring bad memories from 2008 to Times Square on Sunday and feed them to an industrial-strengh shredder.
Yankees fan Kate Anello of New York City shredded a poster of the Boston Red Sox.
"I hate them," she said. "It felt good."
Kathryn Bonn, another New Yorker, shredded a printout of her boyfriend's e-mail breaking up with her.
"This is the perfect way to move on from a bad year, from a bad experience," Bonn said.
The event, the second annual "Good Riddance Day," was sponsored by the Times Square Alliance, organizers of the New Year's Eve ball-dropping celebration.
"There's funny and silly stuff, and there's heavy-duty stuff being shredded," said alliance President Tim Tompkins.
The line snaked around Father Duffy Square at the north end of Times Square as people waited to destroy bad grades, bad health and bad financial news.
Some wrote "the stock market" or "cancer" on a piece of paper and shredded it, while others shredded bags of actual bank statements and check stubs.
A Times Square Alliance worker with a sledgehammer and protective glasses destroyed cell phones and DVD players like the one belonging to Justin Kelter of East Stroudsberg, Penn.
"It's a piece of junk," Kelter said. "It doesn't work."
Copyright Associated Press
First Published: Dec 28, 2008 9:04 AM EST
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