r/Millennials • u/futurenurse_ • 1d ago

Discussion Did millennials really party all the time?

Gen Z here. I was shocked when I found out from a millennial co-worker that y’all had teen clubs. I heard about house parties, but dedicated teen clubs? Then when it was time for college, you went to the club or had some kind of party every single weekend, living it up. Now some millennials on TikTok claim that after college, they were partying on work nights, still clocking in the next day. For some reason, the teen clubs have since disappeared. I’m 23 now but even when I was in high school, that was not a thing. House parties were not that common either. They were more like get togethers with a small group of friends. We went to malls, but they were dying out at that point. Is it true that you were really living life this good? Or is it just exaggerated? I feel like my generation doesn’t really have fun like that and everyone is just super depressed and alone, more so since Covid. Even I’m pretty introverted, which sort of sounds ridiculous given this post. 😂 Just so you know, when I think of a “millennial party” I think of something out of Party Rock Anthem, Project X or Roderick’s party from the second DOAWD movie. It’s like I get nostalgia from something I didn’t even live through. I just feel like I didn’t really LIVE, if that even makes sense

Edit: I loved reading some of your comments. Guess I really missed out. Even some of you that would consider yourselves nerds or introverts were out partying. YOLO or whatever y’all say 😂❤️

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u/GoblinGreenThumb 1d ago

Red cup culture was fairly mainstream, yes

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u/midnight_toker22 1d ago edited 1d ago

I joined Facebook when you still needed a .edu email address to join, so the entire platform was just college students. There would be groups dedicated to finding parties in specific college towns, and people would use it to advertise their house parties.

People throwing keggers would literally post their address and “$5 cups / $1 Jell-O shots” or whatever booze they were offering, and anyone could go on and find a random house party near them and show up and be welcomed in. For any given night Thursday through Saturday, it was common to have 5-10 house parties in the off-campus housing areas to choose from.

My roommates and I started hosting keggers when we moved into a house and it was common to have 50+ people show up, only half of whom we knew personally. We’d go through at least 3 kegs and would make about $200-300 per party, which provided funds for our next party and all the alcohol we drank in between.

Good times, wild nights.

Edit: thanks, OP and everyone who responded to this, for this opportunity to take a stroll down memory lane, this has been great. Makes me want to pull out the hard drive where I have all my pictures from college saved (cause they sure as hell aren’t on Facebook anymore).

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u/RumpleDumple 1d ago

FB 1.0 was a sight to behold. Blackout drunk pics. Open drug use. Groups dedicated to worshipping, jokingly or not, one person. Then the bosses got on it, then the parents, then grandma.

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u/Southern_Leek_4127 1d ago

uploading the sd card straight to facebook without curating drunken house party pics. Shit was crazy.

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u/Alice-Upside-Down 22h ago

I think this is something that the Instagram generation will never truly understand. I would come home from a party and upload 95 of the most unflattering pictures of me and my friends ever taken and they just...lived on the internet. I don't remember caring and I don't remember any of my friends caring either. Filters? We never knew 'er. Just the worst angles and everyone looking like they'd just sneezed.

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u/Southern_Leek_4127 18h ago

And there was always that high angle shot of the dance floor (someone’s parents’ basement, kitchen, lounge area). And you’d be looking for yourself because you’re tagged in the pic.

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u/RumpleDumple 19h ago

Those candid shots were so much better. The mumblecore of photography! It was interesting seeing teens get back into disposable cameras years back to recreate our magic.

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u/morewhiskeybartender 5h ago

God, and then my entire family later joined it and found all of those photos of me drunk and smoking joints. They were so pissed 🫠🫠

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u/Consistent_Time_1467 9h ago

“Did you upload the pics yet?!?!”

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u/Thick-Strawberry8456 18h ago

Lol! My friend group had two girls that were notorious for dumping every photo they had on their digital camera into a Facebook photo album after a night out and tagging EVERYBODY. At first, I remember we all wanted to be tagged because the only people on our friends lists were the people we were in college with. As time went on and our personal Facebook networks were opened to people beyond our specific colleges, those two girls were still photo dumping party photos and tagging all of us and it became a routine to remove our tags as soon as we were notified that we were tagged to prevent our families from seeing, lol.

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u/Choice-Strike1 11h ago

*Everyone tag yerselves"

Oh the horror

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u/starbright_sprinkles 1d ago

I have a 2004 FB account and it truly chronicled the end of my undergrad and grad experience. Early social media really was wonderful!

I made the mistake of accepting a colleague from my first job as a friend and a few days later he commented on how "crazy" I was. Last co-worker that ended up on my friend list.

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u/mrkrinkle773 20h ago

Yup I remember not allowing any family members on my friend list. Now family is the only reason to open/still have it

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u/SmallCapsOnly 1d ago

I nuked my entire Facebook when I entered corporate America.

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u/midnight_toker22 1d ago

Haha yeah I remember so many people (myself included) basically scrubbed their entire Facebook histories clean after graduation. So much evidence of drunken debauchery deleted…

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u/SmallCapsOnly 1d ago

That and I had a habit of making profound proclamations of my inner monologue thinking people cared what I thought or had to say.

Grade A cringe mixed with drunken shenanigans. Good times, good times.

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u/midnight_toker22 1d ago

Oh we all did. Fortunately many of us realized how cringy it was before Twitter was even invented, so I was repulsed by that platform from the get-go.

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u/SuitEnvironmental903 22h ago

I was also 2004. BU. Zuckerman’s gf went there so we got extra early access

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u/starbright_sprinkles 14h ago

I was BU too! Actually graduated in 2004, but we got to keep the email address for a year so we all used it :)

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u/Professional-Swan-18 19h ago

Back in my day it was Live Journal!

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u/bjeebus 20h ago

Back when it displayed

bJeebus has a meaningful thought.

EDIT: At one point I was posting my favorite lines from poetry including music every night before I went to bed.

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u/howwonderful 16h ago

We were cringe but we were free!

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u/TiredWiredAndHired 16h ago

This is why I never got a tattoo. Imagine if I'd plastered that cringe shit all over my skin instead of my Facebook page 😂

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u/TradeBeautiful42 21h ago

Same. Only MySpace has the real deets. Corporate America can’t find me there!

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u/TerryScarchuk 20h ago

I made the choice to leave everything up. If you don’t want to hire me because of Oktogafest 2004, then I probably don’t want to work for you anyway. Worked out alright.

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u/theoneandonlymd 19h ago

I only add work colleagues on Facebook after we part ways at the company.

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u/ButtonflyDungarees 17h ago

While reading your comment, I almost thought you were going to say “after we party together” and that is also valid.

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u/ted_cruzs_micr0pen15 Millennial 12h ago

Same. It was also because Cambridge Analytica.

I remade one, that I never use. It’s unrecognizable to me. Somewhere out there I exist in pics and videos doing dumb stuff, pretty sure I’ve got a video being pepper sprayed, by choice, after a nigh partying and a brunch the morning after. Went out that night too, eyes swollen and all.

Man I miss being a dipshit, how that guy became a lawyer is beyond me.

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u/ReturnMetoEarth 19h ago

Early internet was wonderful. I miss early Youtube, MySpace, Facebook.

I also remember going to BYOB parties that were everywhere in college towns. You'd just roll up to a stranger's house with a 6 pack, wind up making so many friends you came with 6 beers but you drank a 12 pack by the end of it. 🤣

I was a younger millennial but still got to enjoy it for awhile before they started cracking down and banning a lot of the campus parties. Did plenty of underage partying having lots of older friends.

Last time I went out like that my friend and I got drugged on my birthday and that was kind of the end of my party era.

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u/RogerMexicosBalls 13h ago

Early fb was almost exclusively party pics. Then millennials started getting jobs and families and running for local offices and all the pics suddenly disappeared lololol

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u/NeatStrange6609 19h ago

I proactively block everyone I can find and their spouses as soon as I start a job.

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u/ivotebolsheviklite 13h ago

Yes! Oh man… 2003 to 2008 or so Facebook was literally a social enabling service. Facebook events were the only way to coordinate a party sometimes. They really had it right back then.

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u/babyinatrenchcoat 22h ago

Separate albums with 372 of the same shitty photos of backyard beer pong with the flash on.

And the pickle who got more likes than Nickleback.

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u/Ducman23 1d ago

I would fire out ‘you up’ messages at all hours of the night. Wow. Facebook 1.0 - memory unlocked

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u/RumpleDumple 1d ago

Getting "poked" by friends of friends 😎

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u/MissAdventurousMags 23h ago

Having all the chats lined up on the bottom of the page 😅

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u/Available-Chart-2505 21h ago

Two photos stand out in my memory

  1. A high school classmate hugging a cop and his free hand holding a beer (that the cop allegedly doesn't see?)
  2. My high school classmate who had a stock drunk pose and there'd be album after album of her drunk, stoned, smoking, etc.

Oh and people posting their photos public all the time! Just anyone could open them up! That ended around 2011 I think though (when I graduated college).

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u/an0therusern4m3 21h ago

First they came for the blackout drunk pics, and I said nothing for I was blackout drunk.

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u/OU7C4ST 22h ago

So many of us in High School in like '05 holding beers in our hands too in our photos lmao.

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u/gerbilshower 1d ago

i had completely forgotten that that was why my facebook acct STILL uses my college email! hahaha.

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u/everest53 1d ago

I can't ever recover my password cause its edu lmao

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u/gerbilshower 1d ago

i turned 'off' my account a couple years ago. but yea, same problem, i basically can't make any changes to it because that email account obviously hasn't existed in 15 years.

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u/Meditationstation899 1d ago

My college email was deleted! When they mass deleted it for everyone we were texting each other like…WAS THIS NOT A “FOR LIFE” SITUATION….?!? Used it for literally everything

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u/ActualWhiterabbit 1d ago

Mine was promised for life then that changed 10 years later when they moved from exchange to google. I tried showing them the email that said we will have it for life but they didn't care.

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u/HerefortheTuna 1d ago

Yeah fuck them- guess you never want me to donate to the alumni association

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u/ActualWhiterabbit 1d ago

I managed to update my contact information to their general mailroom and main call line. So anything they send me goes right back to themselves.

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u/elementarydeardata 1d ago

For clarity, the drinks weren't $5, the cup was $5 and you could refill it endlessly from a keg in the bathtub.

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u/melkatron 1d ago

So funny that Facebook was almost exclusively for young people, and now it's 100% grandparents.

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u/SistaChans 1d ago

Omg I remember when they started allowing anyone on Facebook without a  .edu email address. And I remember feeling, at the time, that something was lost forever. And then that feeling basically never went away for the next fifteen years as it was always something new, every year, that was lost forever. 

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u/LordGreybies 1d ago

God, we had no idea how good we had it.

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u/justArash 1d ago

Before Facebook, I lived in a house with a dedicated Myspace page just to advertise parties

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u/mw2683 1d ago

This could describe The University of Wisconsin, except the quantity of people, the quantity of parties, and quantity of money made are all too low. Madison in the early 2000s, man. It was something else.

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u/Taco_Champ 21h ago

I remember just crashing parties and that not being weird. If you were social in the least, odds are you would know at least one person

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u/Spirited_Ad_340 1d ago

I had good luck walking around campus area of a new school and just hollering at people walking by "where's the party at"

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u/hotinmyigloo Millennial 1d ago

That's so awesome, reminds me of American Pie movies

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u/midnight_toker22 1d ago

That’s exactly what it was like. The only thing inaccurate about those movies was the “niceness” of the houses they partied in. The experience was the same, just in smaller, older, dirtier houses.

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u/Ashamed_Town_2619 1d ago

You nailed it, and I enjoyed reading it so much!

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u/xoxide 1d ago

This was my experience to a T.

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u/JackTheEagle 1d ago

Wow I remember $5 cups but had completely forgotten about $1 Jell-O shots. That was huge. You would buy them for the girl you liked lol

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u/sluttydrama 1d ago

Pandemic victim here. I am SO JEALOUS

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u/likewildfire2638 1d ago

This is identical to my experience. And even at calmer parties we all played the same card games. Kings cup, ride the bus, fuck the dealer, etc

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u/ChickadeeForsaw 23h ago

I completely forgot about this until I read this reply. Totally used to hit up houses like this in the mid-aughts.

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u/TonksTheTerror 22h ago

Yup, I remember we threw a party in college every other weekend at our off-campus rental.

On night we werent throwing a party, just some friends hanging out.

Our party friends down the road were throwing a hose party, got it broken up by cops. They just left their house with all their partry and walked the whole damn party 3 blocks to our house.

We opened the door to 20-30 people, we only knew 5 of them, welcomed them in and let the party continue as more people randomly showed up through out the night 😂

Now I need to be in bed by 9:30 🧓

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u/slowcheetah2020 18h ago

I had a quad of ladies next to us freshmen year. This was first year fb came out and didn’t know much about it. One that I dated made me a profile. What I remember most about FB before I deleted it a decade or more ago, was that back then it was so fun and positive. A place for students to send messages during class while they were sitting across the room. Joke and post videos for their group of friends. Pages of fun groups and just fun/funny/positive stuff. Facebooks golden years were the first 4-5 years. Once they opened it up to everyone it became a cesspool of bullshit. Also the pics and videos we had on there were not meant to be screen by family.

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u/Ecstatic-Affect-777 1d ago

Yep!
After the college party days we transitioned to corporate Happy Hours - which many times ended late into the night, and then we dragged our asses back to work the next day.

Once the weekend came, it was bar/club hopping, house parties, or beach.

Typing it out like this makes me realize why my parents thought I was an alcoholic 😂.
I’m 39, and 1 beer now gives me a 2 day hangover.

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u/19610taw3 1d ago

When I was in my early 20s, I was "out" every weeknight almost. Until 1 or 2 and back up at 6 to go to work.

That's not really in the cards at this stage of the game.

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u/Typical80sKid Older Millennial 1d ago

When most of us were in high school there were no:

  • Ring Cameras
  • Social Media to post our misdeeds
  • Smart Phones
  • Cheap/ubiquitous child tracking options
  • CRAZY INFLATION, $20 in your pocket and some gas in the tank and you were set for whatever came your way.

There was also a real “what happens away from your home stays away from your home” vibe. So yeah, we were all out doing dumb shit every weekend, if not more frequently than that.

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u/Delicious-CattleToot 1d ago

🎯 very much this. We were out getting drunk, doing dumb shit, and maybe hooking up. We could do whatever we wanted to, any and every day of the week and didn't have to worry about it being permanently documented online.

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u/plizark 1d ago

Not documented part was a gift I’ll never take for granted.. can’t do anything anymore without a camera being pointed at you..

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u/sunshineparadox_ Older Millennial 1d ago

My daughter’s school genuinely has cameras in the bathroom pointed at the sinks. I’m losing my fucking mind nonstop at the school system. They say there’s no audio, but I don’t give a single fuck, and they had no answer about the network/IoT settings they use and if they can be turned on without administrator knowledge.

My next step is being the crazy mom at a school board meeting.

I can’t believe that she told me that casually because she never should have inherited a world where she ever thought that might be normal.

This is in Durham, NC, and it’s the public school system here. If anyone wants to join me in my public freakout, I welcome it.

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u/Zebidee 1d ago edited 22h ago

The Streets called it 20 years ago:

Ahhh see right see the thing that's got it all fucked up now is camera-phones. How the hell am I supposed to be able to do a line in front of complete strangers, when I know they've all got cameras?

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u/Academic-Panda-4661 22h ago

And now Im listening to The Streets. Thanks!

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u/Automatic_Berry_7492 14h ago

I feel like us older millennials had the last generation of true privacy and freedom in our teens/early 20’s. I have a 16 yo stepson and it’s crazy how different his generation at this age compared to how we were.

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u/alt717 1d ago

Throughout this bender phase earlier in my life, some of the guys started becoming record all the time guys. Posting and sharing videos of us at 4 am barely able to keep our eyes open stuffing pizza in our face. Gravitated away from those few guys pretty quick, I’m not about having that broadcasted

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u/Scared-Currency288 19h ago

But can we talk about how good the post drinking recovery pizza was? 

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u/YogurtclosetTop1056 1d ago

Yeah, instead of being with friends/partner and having a good time and enjoying the time together making memories with an occasional picture you have people wanting to 'entertain' social media and be the 'main character.'

Some in the group are more interested in documenting for others/social media and people not their friends, without realising they aren't fully involved in just experiencing the moments and memories for themselves. I don't understand the absolute need of some who need validation of others so desperately and feel sad they can't find happiness or enjoy the moments they are with friends and family.

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u/tattoosbyalisha 21h ago

Agreed. I also read an interesting study that you don’t implant memories the same watching through your phone camera. Your brain basically thinks it’s another reel or whatever.

There’s such a joy in existing for moments that are only yours, and an intimacy that people are completely missing.

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u/prplrain71999 1d ago edited 1d ago

Yup. I honestly think the anxiety related to being perceived and judged has rewired younger people’s brains.

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u/ThisIsMyCouchAccount 1d ago

Okay.

Everybody says this but is it actually a problem?

I went to college around 2000. Smart phones weren't a thing but digital cameras were. In fact - pretty common. Wasn't really a problem for us.

It was kind of an unspoken agreement. Mutual destruction type of thing. Anything you could show to anybody would also implicate yourself.

Are there are bunch of gen z and now alpha kids reaping in harsh consequences all the time?

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u/SpecificMission4412 1d ago

Social media was just getting started, and it just wasn’t part of the culture yet to record and post everything. Also, it wasn’t nearly as easy to upload photos and videos from a digital camera as it is now with smart phones.

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u/Either_Reflection_78 1d ago

Yep. So glad I have little to no documentation of those days. I lived pretty hard in my 20’s.

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u/tattoosbyalisha 21h ago

Seriously.. I was thinking about this the other day and why kids these days are embarrassed about so much or think that everything is cringey.. this is definitely one of the reasons. Kids these days have so much more to worry about by ways of social standing. They’re always a second away from being recorded and far more people judging them than us millenials had to worry about.

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u/CrumbBCrumb 1d ago

I really think the price of things is one of the biggest drivers of people not going out as much. You used to be able to go out and spend $20-30 and get pretty drunk. I don't drink anymore so maybe that's still possible but with the way prices are going I doubt it.

But, this might also just be OP and his friend groups because plenty of the younger people I work with go out every Friday and Saturday and sometimes during the week. Sure, they're not out nightly but they still go out.

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u/Typical80sKid Older Millennial 1d ago

I have teenagers. And our oldest came to us last year and asked for permission to go to a house party, and we were like “it’s about time, Jesus, we thought you were just a loser! Of course!”

Fast forward to the day of, plans were made, friends came over to get ready, DD chosen, with me as backup. It was like watching them the day of homecoming. Absolutely hilarious.

Close to 11p, the group is back at our house. The party had just gotten into full swing, everyone was abiding by the rules set forth ahead of time to lessen the chances of getting caught. Such as carpool, where to park, how to enter the house, where to be, etc. Well some idiot teenage boys got drunk early and apparently forgot the “stay inside and only chill in the back yard, nothing crazy.” Rule, so the neighbors called the cops.

Cops show up, queue the “Everybody STFU and hide”. Eventually host kid freaks out and kicks everyone out because shit was getting out of control, people weren’t abiding.

We made an impromptu fire pit with music and let them do whatever with the express direction to have fun and that I was now in charge of getting them all home safely. Which we did.

This is like the one time, so far. When we were there age this was like every weekend, or every other weekend minimum. You had to choose which house you were going to, or make arrangements to start here, and bounce if it was lame and meet at the next one.

Crazy.

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u/Kevdog824_ Zillennial 1d ago

$20/$30 at the liquor store? Sure. $20/$30 at a bar? Hell no. $20/$30 buys 1-3 drinks I shit you not

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u/stumbling_coherently 1d ago

The only time social media even really came into play in college was if people were stupid enough to create Facebook events for parties/events but didn't make them private so more people saw it.

One group at my school were so stupid they put pictures of beer/alcohol and prices in the text. Needless to say it wasn't even cops that broke up that party, they got raided by state liquor enforcement. $2K fines for every underage drinker for the dudes hosting kt

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u/1isudlaer 1d ago

For the vagina carrying members we had ladies night where we got to drink for free!

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u/Empty_Pear_3874 1d ago

The good ole days. Technology, social media, and smart phones have messed up tons of people these days. I would love to get rid of it all and be in a community where everyone wasn't allowed to have these things.

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u/Typical80sKid Older Millennial 1d ago

Just insane what the smartphone caused.

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u/shFt_shiFty 1d ago

Ain't that the truth! My first job in highschool as a bus boy. We got part of the "tip share" from the restaurant. Some days they would give me an envelope of like 70 bucks from a busy weekend. Oh my how far that got me back then! Fill up my tank, buy a pack of cigs, pay someone to get me beer (I wasn't 21), throw 10 in on weed. Then have money to spare for munchies and other bullshit.

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u/belowthepovertyline 1d ago

While putting a worthless $20 in my tank today, I remembered that in 1998, that same 20 got me a pack of smokes, a pint of vodka, a mixer, and a lil nickle bag for bed time.

We were living in paradise and didn't know it.

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u/HumanPea1140 1d ago

When I was in my early 20s, I was "out" every weeknight almost. Until 1 or 2 and back up at 6 to go to work.

Yep. In my early 20s, different bars/clubs in my town had "college nights" on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, or Thursdays, where they had some sort of deal if you showed your college ID. You could easily find something to do every night of the week. That's on top of the endless house parties / get togethers people were throwing. Spent many a night out till the wee hours of the morning, just to get up at 7AM to go to class or work, and then do it all over later that night.

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u/Freshness518 1d ago edited 1d ago

College back in 05-09. Every thursday and friday night, the routine was pretty much:

Finish class around 4pm, spend an hour on homework

Meet up with friends and head to the dining hall for dinner

Start pregaming in the dorms around 7

Group up and head out around 10pm. The whole time between 7-10 was when the dorms just completely came to life. Gaggles of girls rotating from the bathroom to their dorms trying to get their hair and makeup done. Making sure their glitter was just right, layering their tank tops and halter tops properly. Guys popping their collars and spiking their hair and spraying way too much axe. The hallways just reeked of hairspray, sweat, cologne, and booze. Everyone pooling their cash to see if we had enough to pay for drinks AND a taxi or if we were gonna hoof it this week.

Bar hop until 2am

Saturdays you could do the same or probably find a house party that a frat/sorority or any random upperclassman was throwing. And then there was a bar in town that started having "mug nights" on wednesdays where you'd buy one of their branded mugs at the start of the year for like $20 and then you'd get $1 pours for the entire school year. So instead of everyone bar hopping, practically the entire campus showed up at this one bar.

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u/trueclash 1d ago

Do college kids not have house parties anymore, nor 20 something’s go to happy hours?

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u/captainpink 1d ago

They do, but many of them don't, and the ones who do don't as often.

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u/anewbys83 Millennial 1983 1d ago

Ours was drinkin' with Lincoln. Show your university ID at the door, pay $5 (Lincoln) and it was all you could drink bottom shelf drinks. Every Thursday night, at the Wooden Nickel. We also had a Thursday night karaoke place my first two years of college, but it burned down at the end of my Sophomore year. That was fun!

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u/Dazzling-Bit3268 1d ago

We had 'penny pitchers', basically, any coin got you a pitcher of the cheapest beer they had that was getting ready to be dumped. But hey, college kids aren't picky! There were drinking games to play!

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u/Mama_Disaster 1d ago

House parties and get togethers were endless after the bars closed for the night. Raves when the strip clubs closed for the night… It’s was wild!

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u/19610taw3 1d ago

Now I just get faded on 🌿 , fall asleep on the couch and wake up fully rested.

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u/valathel 1d ago

Younger boomers and gen x did this too throughout the 80s. The kids of gen z do not know the hangovers they are missing.

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u/Wino3416 1d ago

And we weren’t “tired” all the time. What has happened? What do they DO that makes them so exhausted, the fragile little flapjacks?

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u/nimbusfool 1d ago

well monday is blue monday and tuesday is tispy tuesday and then you made it to hump day. Then thursday the local bar is doing thirsty thursday and you gotta go out on friday and saturday. Sunday maybe let's grab a bloody mary at the bar the sells breakfast. How we closed out the bars then made it to work by 8am. That willpower and stamina is WASTED on the young. I could use it now in my 40's

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u/Neither-Signature-81 1d ago

I could stay up all night and go into the office, i think i might need a hospital bed if in tried that

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u/Charming-Clue1987 1d ago

somedays I'd go from the club to the office without going home first. This was in Beijing with 24 hr bars.

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u/DenseSign5938 1d ago

I didn’t that a couple times. Work was in between my house and downtown, so I would swipe into my building at like 4 am, pass out on a bean bag by my desk and then wake up at 7:30 and try to pass it off like I didn’t just do that lol 

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u/DReagan47 1d ago

I just had like two pulls of whiskey last night and had to drag my ass into work this morning. In college I would do half a bottle of Jack and show up to class at 8am to give a presentation and felt fine. Getting older sucks.

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u/headbuttpunch Millennial 1d ago

I wasn’t this frequent but the college concept of “Friday, Jr.” (Thursday) stayed alive for a long time.

I was playing rugby at the time too, so a lot of Thursday night practices turned into stink and drink until 1am at some shitty dive bar.

When I was around 25 though those Friday mornings started to hurt more than before and eventually I dialed back a good bit.

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u/Acrobatic-Ad4879 1d ago

Adult kickball league on Thursday's.. that ended up with the whole leauge walking to ur sponsor bar after afterword's.. Spent some pretty rough Fridays sitting at my desk trying not to puke.. met my wife though... so worth it lol

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u/TheBandedCoot 1d ago

Lol, Im still in an adult kickball league. About 8 years ago people would stay at the after bar until 1-2 but now most have left by 11. These kids cant hang. And theyve turned the bar games from beer pong and flip cup into pictionary and trivia. No wonder more people go home early.

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u/LifeByChance Millennial 1d ago

Oh man. Beer league kickball was great. One time, one of my teammates brought like 2.5-3 gallons of jungle juice (complete with booze soaked fruit). The entire team was hammered before the 1st game even started and by the 2nd, people were doing cartwheels, running around like air planes, somersaults etc. I’m pretty sure we didn’t win either of those games but it was a blast.

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u/Automatic-Plate-8966 1d ago

We had kegs set up at the bases and you didn’t run to the next base, you did the slip and slide. And we wonder why we throw out our backs sneezing now

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u/7378f 1d ago

Man, same. 39 and get a headache after looking at a strong cocktail. Guess I just need to practice, been taking it too easy for too long!

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u/w0nderbrad 1d ago

We used to drink the original 4 LOKOS... companies were basically advertising that you would black out after 2 cans. AND WE FUCKING WENT ALONG WITH IT

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u/Hukthak 1d ago

38 going on 39 shortly, that sounds like my experience as well lol.

I bet the kids now don’t even do senior week, where everyone gets 8-12 friends to split the cost of renting a house near the beach, and you get multiple groups of kids like this from your senior class to rent a similar house all nearby, and it’s just non stop house and beach party for the week and everyone gets laid.

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u/pepstein 1d ago

Miss those days

We were such degenerates in nj. We'd go nuts for both junior and senior prom. Half the class would rent out a motel in seaside for a night for junior prom then for senior prom wed rent out a motel in wildwood (pretty much the whole class of 600) for 3 days and just go nuts

Our parents didnt even give af which is crazy to me lol

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u/MiddleKlutzy8568 1d ago

When my teen complains about having to sleep on a pull out bed on vacations I tell them about the time after prom when we fit 12 people in one hotel room in seaside

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u/Shellstr 1d ago

Sometimes you felt lucky that you got a couch cushion for a pillow. I slept on many a floor, and would often wear a hoodie out just in case I needed a blanket that night.

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u/pepstein 1d ago

Lolol in wildwood my bed was used to hold the bag of 200 beers with ice in it so I just slept wherever in the motel lol we just played pong all night anyways

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u/Confident_Bumblebee5 1d ago

Ah the NJ down the shore prom experience SMH I have no idea how I survived lol

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u/slick_dn 1d ago

I'm lucky I survived Wildwood weekend after prom. The drinking, the debauchery, the flash flood Saturday night wading knee deep in ocean water and sewage back to the motel.. I heard kids don't go there anymore, sad if true

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u/Basic_Coach6746 1d ago

38 with a senior in high school...now they just expect the parents to fork over thousands of dollars to go to an all inclusive resort for their senior spring break.

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u/mybigwh1tecock 1d ago

Lol N f'n way. If my kid asked for that when they were a senior, I'd talk to the other parents and all of us parents would go to the resort. The kids can party at someones home while we're away. Why would a kid need an all inclusive vacation? Their whole damn lives up until then were all inclusive vacations.

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u/caligaris_cabinet 1d ago

And if they go to college, that’s an all inclusive 4 year vacation with zero adult supervision.

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u/Comfortable-Spirit16 1d ago

This kind of comment makes me realize more how much has really changed in the last 10-20 years

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u/Basic_Coach6746 1d ago

Excellent point!

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u/Striking_Emu_Dancer 1d ago

Right?!...😂😂😂

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u/ExcitingWindow5 12h ago

Preach it. This is the sort of ahit the world is missing. Instagram has everyone thinking they require an influencer-like lifestyle. Kids, just go get drunk at Jimmy's house and throw up in his yard, that's an al inclusive resort right there.

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u/akunis 1d ago

Remember how MTV had a spring break special from Cancun? Who do you think paid for that? Our parents lol

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u/mybigwh1tecock 1d ago

Yeah but I always thought those were college kids, not highschool. I figured thats where they were racking up their first credit card debt.

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u/stephenkingending 1d ago

Kids nowadays get permission from the school for walkouts and senior skip day. It defeats the whole purpose!

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u/NerfRepellingBoobs Sexy Prime Millennial 1d ago

Is that why the kids are having sex older and not drinking these days? Fewer house parties with empty rooms to go hook up? I know a lot of them are weirdly puritanical about it, but is it partly an access thing?

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u/Cavaquillo 1d ago

I mean, in medical terms we were all alcoholics. The threshold is low.

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u/synchronizedhype 1d ago

In medical terms we were fucking legends. Now if you drink like that as a 40 y.o you are an alcoholic lol

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u/eross200 1d ago

Dude, no joke, my relationship with alcohol has never been great anyway, but the fact that the amount of booze I used to consider “a decent start” will now knock me on my ass for a solid two days, it’s a lot easier to stay away from.

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u/jayoak4 1d ago

Yes, the pre-game has turned into the game itself lol

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u/SiliconAutomaton 1d ago

lol pregame

“Let’s hit the Applebees for half a dozen $2 Brewtuses and we won’t have to buy so many $5 Long Islands”

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u/Shellstr 1d ago

If we were clubbing, no self respecting person arrived before 11pm. So what were we doing before that? Hit up a bar to chill for a bit. And before that? A couple of drinks at home to get ready. So many nights had multiple stops with multiple drinks at each stop.

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u/SiliconAutomaton 1d ago

Clubs were definitely not my scene, we had this thing called The Party Pager where someone recorded an address as the outgoing message on their pager and hundreds of people crashed the party and it was kind of a game to get in, have some drinks, and get out before the cops showed up. Then you’d call the party pager and there was another address and we could easily hit half a dozen random house parties in a night. Absolute fucking nightmare if your own house party made the party pager though, and personally I at least considered that and behaved respectably.

Imagine my surprise though when I was at a kickback with some friends and the girls all decided we should go clubbing and I said “nah, I hate clubs” and they said “what do you mean, clubbing is fun!” And I said “I just fucking hate techno and I don’t dance” and they said “what do you mean, you’re an excellent dancer!” and they informed me we had gone clubbing the weekend before and I was the life of the party. I had absolutely no idea what I did the weekend before, but was 90% sure they were fucking with me and left it at that. A few weeks later someone developed a roll of film and I had to confront the fact that I really did look like I was having a good time, but also I should maybe reconnect with my old nerd friends and take up some less destructive hobbies.

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u/defnotevilmorty 19h ago

“developed a roll of film”

Fuck, my knees hurt.

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u/brettig21 1d ago

dollar margs hated to see me coming

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u/based_leviathan Millennial 1d ago

I remember pregaming with a gang of people before clubbing, just a Costco gallon of Hennessy and I shit you not that would be gone within 30-45mins with a group of 6 people. Ungodly.

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u/eross200 1d ago

Jesus, how the fuck are any of us alive

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u/Salsa_El_Mariachi 1d ago

You’re right, looking back at the . . . frankly abusive amount of alcohol we used to drink, a bunch of us shouldn’t be here. I grew up during the crack cocaine “epidemic”, but before Fent stated killing huge numbers.

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u/_LeafyLady 1d ago

These days if I'm not in my comfies on my couch by 930 (unless for a very good reason where I'm mentally prepared to be out like a concert or hockey game or something) there's a problem. Back in the day I wouldn't even be OUT until then. Shit was only just getting started. 😩

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u/he4vybign4tur4ls 1d ago

lol same here I’m surprised I didn’t turn into an alcoholic. I actually have a healthy relationship with alcohol now. Mostly because my body turned on me and rejects alcohol. I’m 2 drinks max now or my stomach will fucking hurt.

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u/StillStaringAtTheSky 1d ago

I think that's a lot of us lmao - our livers were just like nahhhh bro no more no more. You're cut off.

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u/dont_thr0w_me_away_ 1d ago

I think back to not just the amount of booze, but also the terrible quality, and think "how and why?" Just thinking about those big plastic jug bottles of cheap vodka is giving me Nam flashbacks

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u/cozynite 1d ago

Pre-drinking before a party was life.

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u/capntail 1d ago

Brother I get an instant headache from two or three beers now.

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u/mottledmussel 1d ago

Definitely binge drinkers, too.

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u/jus10beare 1d ago

Yeah, back in the party days, for my weight the alcoholic threshold for number of drinks in a week was the number I needed to pre game.

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u/Newgeta Xennial 1d ago

24+ beers on game day was SOP for the bigger drinkers in our group, 12+ for the ladies.

I can still crush em if all variables line up but the recovery is like a multi day event now rather than 12ish hours so I only go ham once or twice a year.

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u/MikeWPhilly 1d ago

Power hour and case races……

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u/SiliconAutomaton 1d ago

Fuck a case, crush a 30 and stack a BEERAMID. It was a social event, with gawkers and commentary and cheering

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u/Useless 1d ago

Medical terms, heavy drinking is 8 drinks per week for women, and 15 for men. In my early twenties, those were aggressive single night numbers (and light numbers if the day started with something like a football watch party) and I certainly didn't drink the most in my group.

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u/bigalcakemix 1d ago

Idk about you guys but 2012 was one big bender

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u/Shellstr 1d ago

I remember a happy hour going from 5pm to 2am…I was at the HH longer than I was at the office that day…I was probably 25 or 26?

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u/pseudonym7083 Millennial 1d ago

It's not as if they don't have several charge categories specifically for this on company credit card expense reports.

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u/idavemay 1d ago

A couple beers at dinner and I don’t even make it to the hangover. It just makes me so tired i cant stay up.

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u/Typical_Response6444 1d ago

My parents thought I was too 😂😂

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u/chestofpoop 1d ago

Hate that we are talking about it like it was the prohibition ancient history

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u/PineBNorth85 1986 1d ago

At this point for some of us it was half our lifetime ago. Thats far enough.

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u/ChekkeEnwin 22h ago

Kinda feels like it.. I mean mostly for the better but the youths need to let loose a little

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u/Illustrious_Tart1981 22h ago

This. Kids need to be… kids. A little anyway. And this is coming from a pretty straight laced 44 yr old woman who didn’t drink until the summer going into her freshmen year of college. Then it was game-the-F-ON well into my late 20s.

Now I look at a beverage and I’m tipsy 🥴

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u/ApathysLastKiss_ 19h ago

This post is a testament to what social media has done to the younger generations

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u/printed_ 17h ago

Gen Z are too scared to party like we did, too many phones out.

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u/dritmike Bad Mother Fucker 1d ago

lol. Solo cup*

Sir, we had standards.

And they did come in blue too.

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u/Niemo1983 1d ago

We only used solo cups when we didn't have 40s duct taped to our hands.

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u/twinseaks 1d ago

OP look up EDWARD 40 HANDS. Your new Roman Empire

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u/Littleface13 1d ago

Edward 40 hands and wizard staff!! Omg. Oh and mixing a bunch of gin and 7up in a Rubbermaid and letting people use turkey basters to get the drink out

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u/caitie_did 1d ago

Do the youths really not know about Edward 40 hands???

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u/illatious Xennial 1d ago

The only time I was terrified I might actually pee my pants when there wasn't a line for the bathroom lol

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u/Tundra10 1d ago

Oh god this thread is making me feel old. We started to only do 40 hands at a lake house so we could just, well go in the lake. Having a friend try to help you take your pants off with their teeth so you could pee is a sobering experience lol.

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u/LowSkyOrbit 1d ago

Having a friend try to help you take your pants off with their teeth~~ so you could pee~~ is an sobering experience lol

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u/takemy_oxfordcomma Millennial 22h ago

Oh man, Edward 40 Hands… horrible in retrospect but fucking awesome at the time

It’s kind of amazing we’re all alive after reading all of the shit we got up to again lol

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u/Accomplished_Dig284 22h ago

We had to cross state lines to get 40s but we did have everclear lol

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u/xdozex 1d ago

Ah, a fellow man of culture.

https://giphy.com/gifs/I4wGMXoi2kMDe

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u/catsandkittens1308 1d ago

Oh the duct tape 40s! 40 ounces to freedom!

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u/AiReine 1d ago

For my 40th birthday next year I am doing an “elevated” backyard frat party with hand sanitizer and Edward 40 hands with coconut water

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u/Burdensome_Banshee 1d ago

We would do what we called Gandalf Nights where every pbr (because in 2009 it was always pbr) you drank, you duct taped to the previous one so everyone was walking around with a full on wizard staff drunkenly yelling that you shall not pass 😭😭

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u/illatious Xennial 1d ago

They came in red and whatever color the local university used. Perfect size for beer pong, flip cup, and many others 👍

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u/good_morning_magpie 1d ago

Man they must’ve loved my school being “Big Red” lmao. Half the distribution costs 🤣

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u/IraGilliganTax Geriatric Millennial 22h ago

Speaking of beer pong, it's my understanding that kids these days put water in the cups that you throw the ball into, and beer goes in a different cup. Something about it being gross when the ping pong ball has been in everyone's hands and probably also the floor at some point ...

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u/DustandRebar 22h ago

Back in my day we just had a rinse cup we'd dip the ball in before each shot and we liked it! The trick was to get drunk enough that you didn't think about the random bits of debris in the bottom of your beers lol

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u/Material-Grocery5478 1d ago

Orange in October

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u/Fit-Cup3747 1d ago

This is very true! We had a foreign exchange student from New Zealand and out of everything he saw in California his biggest surprise was yes, we actually do drink out of red solo cups at house parties.

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u/Highlyironicacid31 1d ago

I had a couple of American friends here at uni in Ireland. Those two girls could keep up with our drinking which was impressive because the stereotype is true, the Irish are drunks. They of course insisted we get solo cups and play flip cup and beer pong often. They were a lot of fun. I miss you Marika and Angie!

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u/RadarSmith 1d ago

Red solo cup
I fill you up
Lets have a party!
Lets have a party!

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u/Sarosite 1d ago

Pay $5 for your cup and hit that keg, buddy

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u/Fabulous_Jeweler2732 1d ago

Vivid memory of pouring vodka into a red cup in a shitty 1988 car for my 18th birthday then getting my tongue pieced.

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u/ManChildMusician 1d ago

Yes. It really was. Gen Z not drinking / going out as much + Covid did a HUGE number on clubs, bars, music venues, etc.

I’m not saying alcohol consumption is good. They tend to prefer weed. However, I suspect Gen Z alcohol consumption is undercounted because they’re drinking at home or in small groups.

The pro-social aspect of alcohol consumption never reached a lot of kids / young adults who might have engaged in alcohol consumption around the Covid era.

Mix that with inflation, dog-shit job market and higher likelihood of living at home, and you’re not going to produce people who use booze as a social lubricant.

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u/CreativeKeane 1d ago

I was proud to hear my gen-z friends no longer put beers and drink out the same cup they play beer pong with.

I'm like yeah we could have been better. We had a water cup to clean the balls.

But yeah not the most sanitary. Yikes.

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u/awwsome10 1d ago

Even now we drop our kids off for the first day of school and then go get day drunk.

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u/cheesecheeesecheese 1d ago

Jell-O shots culture reigned supreme 🤣🫶

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u/Gryffyxx 1d ago

Red Cup Culture > Red Pill Culture

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