Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/85959
FEATURE A Special "Auld Lang Syne" Thanks To Transport America Stevensons have ultimate New Year's Eve experience in New York City By Brad Bentley Crowds gather to celebrate New Year's Eve in Times Square on December 31, 2011. Among the revelers were Mary and Mark Stevenson, who won the trip in Transport America's Big Fat Sweepstakes. The traditional song for ringing in the New Year in almost every English-speaking country in the world is Auld Lang Syne. Written by Robert Burns, who combined a common Scottish folk song with his own lyrics to arrive a tune about old friends who have parted and meet again. The basic message is that we should not forget our old friends and should celebrate a reunion with them, and this year two truck drivers made it a literal experience. Mary and Mark Stevenson, Texas- based spouses with separate truck- ing careers, enjoyed the ultimate New Year's Eve party – the famous "ball drop" in New York City's Times Square – as winners in Transport America's Big Fat Sweepstakes. The Stevensons both said it was a "bucket list" item, but for Mary it was 22 CHANGING LANES // MARCH '12 also a homecoming and a chance to reconnect with relatives she had not seen in decades. Mary was born in Westchester County, New York as a third genera- tion Italian-American from a large Catholic family. "My father met my mother, a German-American with deep roots in Texas going back to before the Civil War, while on leave when he was in the Air Force in Texas," Mary explained. "This greatly disturbed my grandparents as they wanted my dad to marry an Italian." The result was a fractured relation- ship, although her parents rented the upper part of a multi-story home in New York during her early years. However, Mary's parents saved their money and moved unexpect- edly when she was six, leaving her entire family in New York stunned. www.changinglanesdigital.com