Home Away From Home : An Early Midnight

Just before 4 p.m. on New Year’s Eve, Linda Hall of Santa Monica will join many of her fellow Britons in ringing in 1990.

Noisemakers in mouths, colorful hats on heads, they will count down the seconds to the magic hour, and will join in singing Auld Lang Syne.

Because that is when it will be midnight in the land of their roots. They will be at Ye Olde King’s Head in Santa Monica, a pub that for 16 years has served as a reunion center for many of the estimated 60,000 British passport holders and 300,000 to 500,000 Britons who live in the Los Angeles area.

“In England, everybody goes to a local pub, not just for eating and drinking, but to catch up on the gossip and to socialize,” said Hall, an executive secretary and British citizen who has lived here with her husband, John, for six years.

“If you want a plumber to fix your place, you can either find one at the pub, or else somebody will be there who knows of a good one.”

Such typical British gathering places, Hall said, aren’t at all like the usual American counterparts: “Here (bars) are usually dark. A man goes there and sits in a dark corner, slugs a few martinis, and goes home to face his wife.”

She said she and the others at the King’s Head like to spend time perusing the newspapers brought in by British flight crews, and left around for anyone to scan. Some throw darts, some browse the overseas soccer scores that are posted and some drink British beer and eat bangers (sausages) for a taste of home.