Revelers gather in the Times Square area of New York City near the intersection of Broadway and 48th St. during New Year’s Eve celebrations, Wednesday, December 31, 2012.

Some four hours after the ball dropped on Times Square (officially bringing in 2013), the feeling has finally returned in totality to my lower extremities. Even though the jumbo-tron thermometer called out what should have been a balmy 38 degrees for this Chicago boy, a stiff breeze brought with it some discomfort to my first Times Square New Year’s Eve experience. I can’t tell if more pain came from the cold, standing for over ten hours with a near-capacity bladder, or being in more than a few packs of people pushing so hard and fast that my feet were nearly swept from under me.

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Paris Jackson, daughter of the late pop singer Michael Jackson, signs autographs for fans gathered outside the singer’s boyhood home at 2300 Jackson Street in Gary, Ind.,. Wednesday, August 29, 2012. Michael Jackson would have turned 54 on Wednesday.

Since the evening of June 25, 2009, the day pop singer Michael Jackson passed away, I have lost count of the number of times I’ve journeyed to 2300 Jackson Street in Gary, Indiana, to document events at the singer’s boyhood home. Some of them were held to commemorate the day of his passing, while others (as with today’s) celebrated the day of his birth.

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(From left) Entrepreneurs Brian Miller of St. John, Ind., Adam Paulson of Crown Point, Ind., and Kevin Wool, also of Crown Point, pose in a pile of sweaters destined for sale on the partners’ web site, uglychristmassweaterparty.com.

Through all of my visual disciplines, it’s not often that I’m encouraged to make things look ugly. So, when my email inbox dinged with a photo assignment all about ugly Christmas sweaters, I knew I was in for a nice change of pace.

Henry Colquitt of Chicago, Ill., consoles his daughter Jackie Colquitt, 13, outside the late singer Michael Jackson’s childhood home at 2300 Jackson St. in Gary, Ind., Friday, June 25, 2010. A ceremony unveiling a monument took place at the home Friday, commemorating the first anniversary of the singer’s death.

There’s a select few events in our country’s history that have created defining, indelible memories in the minds of those who lived through them. People can tell you exactly where they were and what they were doing when the news of these events broke. When I was a child, these events were often ones relegated to our parents’ memories, and passed along like cherished, historic heirlooms. They told of being curled up in front of black and white TV sets watching Neil Armstrong take his first steps on the moon, or of school teachers running into classrooms in tears with the news that John F. Kennedy had been assassinated.

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