For nearly half a century, Yellow Springs has rung in most every new year with the same characteristic quirk.

A raggedy disco ball wrapped in Christmas lights slung over a wire dangles over the intersection of Xenia Avenue and Short Street. As the clock nears midnight, a chilly red-nosed crowd of hundreds amasses in the village’s ad hoc Times Square. People have brought their babies and bottles, silly string and extra scarves, and everyone’s smiling year to year.

“Three ... two ... one ...” The bedazzled ball falls. Downtown erupts in cheers and confetti. Kids go wild and couples kiss under champagne spray. 

That’s how it’s been since 1980, when Yellow Springs’ first New Year’s Eve ball dropped. And for more than half that time — 28 years to be precise — villager Lance Rudegeair has manned the ropes. 

(News archive photo by Reilly Dixon)

It’s been a good run, Rudegeair told the News earlier this week, but it’s in with the new and out with the old. This was Rudegeair’s last year dropping the ball; picking it up — only to drop it again on Dec. 31 — is Dan Badger, longtime villager and former owner of Yellow Springs Hardware.

“With great power comes great responsibility,” Rudegeair told Badger with a laugh.

Some of that responsibility entails expecting the unexpected. This last ball drop, for example, didn’t go quite as planned.

Fifteen minutes until showtime, Rudegeair’s rope attached to the disco ball snapped. (Badger admitted that rope had come from the old hardware store.) The clock was ticking and hundreds of folks surrounded Rudegeair on his ladder as he held the ball, desperately thinking of a solution.

“Luckily Dan was there,” Rudegeair said. “Without him, I would have just held the thing over my head at midnight.”

The pair jerry-rigged a last-minute contraption that raised the ball a few feet. And with the extra lift provided by Elliot Cromer’s crutch, the ball managed to get 10 feet aloft.

“But then we weren’t able to get it down,” Rudegeair said. “I don’t know. I’ve never had that happen before.”

Rudegeair said it wasn’t this year’s mishap that spurred him to pass the baton, but rather a desire to spend future New Year’s Eves with his family without all the pressure and coordination of putting on Yellow Springs’ last/first show of the year.

At the 2017/2018 celebration in downtown Yellow Springs, then 21-month-old Jack Rudegeair, grandson of ball-drop master Lance Rudegair, got the opportunity to touch the enchanting New Year’s sphere. (Photo by Matt Minde)

The ball, Rudegeair expects, will be in good hands with Badger.

“So, I sat down and thought about what improvements to make,” Badger said. “The only one I’ve come up with so far is getting a better rope. Otherwise, I think we’re good.”

He added: “But really, what Lance has done perfectly over the years has been keeping the event small, keeping it simple and keeping it independent of other things going on.”

As Badger sees it, Yellow Springs needs more chances to gather and make merry without having to spend a buck — the kinds of events where “the only cost of admission is just showing up,” as he put it.

Longtime Yellow Springs ball-drop impresario Lance Rudegeair is shown as he prepared to raise the official new year’s ball for its traditional midnight journey. (YS News archive photo by Gary McBride)

“It’s always something to look forward to,” Badger said. “You’re going to see everyone you know, and everyone you know is going to be in a good mood, and everyone you know is going to be happy to see you — at least for 20 minutes or so.”

Just so auld acquaintances not be forgot: a little local history. The Yellow Springs annual ball drop began in 1980 with the late Prentice Tomas as the master of ceremonies.

As previously reported in the News, Tomas pulled together friends and fellow villagers to form the “Times Square Yellow Springs” committee. Past reporting indicated the first ball to be “dropped” at midnight was a beach ball, which Tomas is said to have thrown or kicked off the roof of the bank or Little Art Theatre’s marquee. About 25 people were there to witness the spectacle.

By year two, hundreds made their way downtown for the New Year’s spectacle, and Yellow Springs got itself a new tradition.

New Year’s Eves that followed included appearances of Father Time, played at least one year by the late Ron Siemer, and Baby New Year, played by Larry “Electric” Gerthoffer, clad in a diaper and mustache.

It’s unclear when the current ball came into play, but Rudegeair hinted that one of his predecessors might have nicked it from a student gathering space at Antioch decades ago. He admitted it could use a little work should Badger not retire its services — a sizable panel came off during Rudegeair’s last drop.

For now, though, the New Year’s sphere is safely boxed up in an undisclosed location, Badger said. He may make some aesthetic improvements to the ball, he may not.

Only time will tell.