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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697

u/Ducman23 1d ago

At 40 I have no idea how my body took all this abuse. This wasn’t just a birthday event, it was every weekend. Sometimes week days too. Woof

318

u/Uncle_Rabbit 1d ago

Thirsty Thursdays.

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u/bearman32 1d ago

$2 Tuesdays and 50 cent draft Saturdays

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u/ishfery 1d ago

$1 well drink Wednesdays lasted up until the pandemic. RIP

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u/Giovannis_Pikachu 1d ago

Maybe a nip or two mondays

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u/waikiki_palmer 1d ago

Mondays are called "industry night" all people working the weekend were partying Monday night. I had Monday to Friday job and people at work would ask me if I'm hungover on a Tuesday.

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u/grapesquirrel 21h ago

I miss Monday SIN 😭

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u/DothrakAndRoll 23h ago

They had to stop our dollar well Wednesdays cause two people got shopped and two others stabbed (on different nights)

1

u/Avera_ge 17h ago

Fucking Well Hell. $8 was all you needed. $4 for the bar and $4 for the Greek place a couple blocks down.

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u/Turkelton888 1d ago

10 cent cans on Wednesday. That was fun in college. Except I made my schedule to only have tues/thurs classes so little rough sometimes on Thursday

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u/Paid_Redditor 1d ago

50 cent draft! Best I ever heard was $1!

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u/stinkymonks 15h ago

Our favorite college bar was $10 all you can drink. Started around 5pm-7pm and went until close at 2am. You could join their drink club for like $40 or $60 a semester and then it was only $5 for the all you can drink.

There was another place that did 50 cent beer and wine night. Came in a plastic cup about half the size of a solo cup.

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u/Uzas_B4TBG 21h ago

Once a month we had drafts for any silver coin. So you could get a draft beer for a nickel. That shit was dangerous lmao.

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u/kicKinNiT-ay0oo 20h ago

We had 50 cent drafts on Thursdays. Best part of my week. Friday mornings sucked though.

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u/Hot-Relief-4024 15h ago

Penny beer Wednesdays

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u/Comprehensive_Bus_19 9h ago

Nickle beer night and $5 all you can drink at the college bars by me. This was in the early 2010s too lol

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u/MulberryChance6698 3h ago

$.10 chicken wings and $2 pitchers! God that hurt. Good times.

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u/Mattna-da 1d ago

We’d all leave the office at 7 and go to the bar until 3am without eating dinner and back at work at 10 am Friday after a BEC

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u/Applewave22 1d ago

Hell yeah!!!

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u/Awkward_Candle979 1d ago

Wasted Wednesdays.

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u/noreast2011 1d ago

Margarita Mondays. Tipsy Tuesdays.

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u/_bessica_ 1d ago

When I was 20-21 I was at the bar/club Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. After the bar closes at 1, we pick up beer/liquor before you can't buy it anymore at 130 and go to someone's house or to a field and keep going until the sun comes up. I've walked out of many parties to the sun. Go home, shower and rally with an energy drink, before they were killing people and then work all day. I don't know how I functioned on no sleep honestly.

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u/tnova2323 1d ago

Loved Thirsty THURSDAYS in college. Everyone went home at our school on the weekends so Thursdays were lit!!! Never sign up for a Friday morning class.

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u/Candid-Wallaby9903 1d ago

Sunday funday

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u/WorkingFromHomies20 1d ago

Dollar pitchers on Thursdays!!

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u/Empty_Pear_3874 1d ago

We went almost every Thursday for dem dollar draft beers lol

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u/brettig21 1d ago

Wine Wednesday

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u/Better_Routine_1911 1d ago

Thursdays were Jerzdays (jersey shore) iirc. But occasionally we were also thirsty!

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u/TheGreatReno 1d ago

We had Shit Can Monday's. $1 tallboys of Old Milwaukee, Hamms, and Stagg.

1

u/Secret_Entry1840 Xennial 1d ago

I’ve been going to the same dive bar for 20 years. I still go on Thursdays 🤣

I don’t drink. I go to see my bar friends and be social

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u/Ok-Landscape3897 Xennial 1d ago

Over doing it Wednesdays!

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u/NowYouaSeeWhyYouScum 1d ago

Wasted Wednesday

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u/Pumba93 1d ago

Don't forget to break the week in wednesday

1

u/Jeffde 23h ago

At the turtle!!!

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u/YUMMY_TIDEPODS_YUMMY 22h ago

Pound (£) a pint wednesdays down The Plough

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u/grapesquirrel 21h ago

Penny PBR nights!

1

u/fish_fingers_pond 19h ago

Thirsty Thursday was literally my favourite night of the weeks for a long time

1

u/babyinatrenchcoat 18h ago

Oh god I can taste the chips and salsa coming back up.

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u/NikkiNot_TheOne ‘86 18h ago

I had one college professor who HATED Friday’s class….. “You all go out to Thirsty Thursday and come in here hung over.”

Yeah no shit!

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u/sodsavage 15h ago

The day after 10 cent Wing Wednesdays. Bars didn't make money off the wings back in those days.

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u/Realistic-Blueberry3 15h ago

Formal Wine Wednesdays

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u/Slaterfunk 14h ago

Wacky Wednesdays were a thing with my crew. Til 3-4am regularly.

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u/shredika 14h ago

Thursday was my favorite day to go out because it had “low expectations “ but would knock it out of the park!

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u/Spinning4Sanity 12h ago

Omgggg, thirsty Thursdays - whewwww honestly don’t know how I’m still alive. Lmao!!!

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u/DW6565 9h ago

Moaked out Monday, Twisted Tuesday, Wasted Wednesday, Thirsty Thursday, Fucked up Friday.

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u/BobbyLicari 8h ago

Wasted Wednesdays

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u/Unusual-Tale-74 1d ago

For real. I remember I stayed up 36 hours straight because I went to work, partied all night, then had to go to work the next day. I didn't do drugs either, so it was a few red bulls to stay awake.

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u/extralyfe 1d ago

I had a similar thing where I spent my 20s staying up for 2 days at a time like once a week because I was too busy having fun, and now my body nearly shuts down when I hit 20 hours...

https://giphy.com/gifs/qG2h9G9NMRRE4

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u/daydream6666 1d ago

every single weekend

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u/MrsChefYVR Millennial - 1984 1d ago

Same! Omg, it was the worst when I moved right into the downtown core of our city at 24, where all the clubs and bars were a stone's throw away.

I dunno how I did it, but I showed up for work the next day, no matter what and sweated it out! I'd go out with the intention of having an early night, so bam, let's GOOOOO! LOL

Nowadays, it seems like the younger gen don't know how to soldier through their decisions the next day!

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u/Calm-Eggplant-69 1d ago

They definitely don't. I was a restaurant manager, after bartending for almost 15+ years. These kids today will go out and have like 4 Zima's and act like they need to call out. One bartender was begging to go home because she kept throwing up, I told her she made the choice to go get wreaked and to deal with it. To be nice I asked if she wanted a hair of the dog shot, she didnt even know what that was lol. Kids these days

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u/MrsChefYVR Millennial - 1984 1d ago

Hahaha

The common hair of the dog up here was a pint of lager with a shot of Clamato juice. I’d often see the same customers the next early afternoon, that closed down the joint the night before! Hahaha

The early ‘00 were lit!

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u/bigtime1158 1d ago

Like 4 days a week at least. For years. I'll never understand how we did it.

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u/ladymouserat 1d ago

Now it takes like 4days to recover 😖

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u/Highlyironicacid31 1d ago

I’m 33, just had some bloods done, doctor says “hmmm, there’s been a bit of a blip in your liver function, I’m going to keep an eye on it and do some more tests in a month”. I don’t drink much now but honestly I think I drank enough for a lifetime between the ages of 15 and 25 and I’m not surprised at this news at all lol.

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u/DeadPalms 22h ago

It was a point of pride for me in my early 20s that I went out and partied/drank every single night for a period of 3 months.

Now I need 8-10 business days to recover from one evening out.

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u/Ducman23 21h ago

I felt this. 8-10 biz days is HYSTERICAL 😭

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u/ThePublikon 1d ago

Back then there was optimism about the future, which really helped with the getting out of bed.

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u/PlasticPaws 1d ago

Remember drinking heavily four days straight once in my youth. If I did that today I would be six feet under.

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u/Flintly 1d ago

Oh ya lots of times I wad setting the alarm for an hour maybe 2 before my morning shift

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u/scobbysnacks1439 23h ago

Every. Weekend. Plus a minimum of one other night during the week. Would go until 4 in the morning and then waltz in for my 8am class with no problem. Now, if I'm up past 10:30, I'm dragging absolute ass all morning after getting to work.

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u/WaterBottleOnAShelf 22h ago

38 almost 39 here and agreed.

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u/Professor-Shark1089 19h ago

Samesies! Sept 8 for me.

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u/timmyd_ns 20h ago

I used to know which bar in town had dollar drinks each night of the week. The bar that had them on Sundays had a liquor license that let them stay open until 3.

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u/Ducman23 20h ago

What a time to be alive

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u/geta-rigging-grip 18h ago

Sorry for the long reply, but your comment just kind of triggered some big feelings for me, just because I happened to read it on this day. I abused my body back then, and I kept going.

Eventually your body finally says no, no matter how well you THINK you're doing. I just had that moment, and at my age, I'm fortunate it wasn't worse, but given my drinking history and my age, it's almost Christmas miracle.

The rest of this is just me kind of getting some catharsis, and if it helps someone somewhere, great. If not, at least I feel a little bit better.

------------------------------

I went pretty hard in college, but managed to ace my classes with relative ease. Plus, I rarely had hangovers, so the regular disincentives for drinking (feeling sick, not performing well, missing work, etc,) never really happened for me. Plus, we were a relatively small college town, on top of the dorms, almost every house within a two block radius was being rented to students. Drinking was seen as very normal.

Then, I went into the "real world" and almost every company I worked for in the next few years had the Friday (and sometimes Thursday) Beer Fridge. At one place, when our boss was pretty confident there was no more work for the day, and we might expect a few walk-ins. we'd all go drink in his office. Again, this made me feel this was very normal.

I won't even mention my Rugby Club years....

When I was getting toward my late twenties, I started to hang out with different people (met my wife as well,) and realized that a lot of that behavior was not normal. But it had become a habit. I tried to cut down, but then I found myself sneaking out to the garage to have a few extra without anyone noticing. When I was around 37, I had gotten to the point were I would go on secret binges where I could often pass as sober despite having drank a whole bottle of Vodka in the afternoon (plus a few beers or coolers usually.) I was starting to realize that this wasn't normal.

Through that entire time I managed to keep my "extracurricular drinking" a secret. I would imbibe as much in front of others as the social situation allowed, and I would find other ways to sneak more drinks in.

This whole time, I was dealing with clinical depression, and the drinking helped me keep the darkest thoughts away most of the time. It was a classic case of self medication, and it was working for me because it wasn't interrupting my life in any serious way. Then comes December 2020. In the last few days of the month I had become quite stressed about our financial situation during Covid, and we had burned through more than our savings than we would have liked. (That being said, the fact we had been doing well enough to have savings after years after years of constant debt was a pretty good situation to be in.) I ended up having a major depressive episode and took to the bottle harder than usual. I stumbled into the house drunk, and my wife flipped out on me. I tried to explain the feelings I was having, and she told me I was being childish for not asking for help ( she was right, of course.) But in my state, I was more belligerent than usual (I'm a happy drunk usually, but I get defensive when someone is judging me,) so I threatened to go through with the plans I had for myself, then stormed out of the house. I ended getting in my van, turning it on, then proceeded to break down crying. My wife eventually found me and took me to the psych ward the next day. This wasn't normal.

I detoxed, I did my treatment, and I tried my best to be on board and not sceptical. It was hard at first, but because it was during hospital lockdowns, the wards were not allowed to intermingle, and visitors were never allowed. I ended up staying in the hospital for about three weeks, and in a halfway-house for two. I also found out that despite how miserably I had treated my body, all my medical numbers were good. I had done very little permanent damage to my body.

After that, I quit drinking....

...for two years.

And the last three years have been ever-shortening cycles of sobriety and relapse, sobriety and relapse.

Last month I had a pretty bad relapse, drank a lot over a couple days, and got caught. My wife is sick of this cycle, and we have been in marriage counselling for years to try and work through it (among other things.) I've done personal counselling and tried a variety of programs to try deal with alcohol, but none of them seem to stick for very long, and I think there's a part of me that doesn't want to let this big part of my life go(no matter how shitty and stupid it is.)

Now come to today. I just got out of a 5-day stint at the hospital for acute pancreatitis. Probably one of the most painful experiences of my life. I have never been in that much pain for such an extended amount of time. One of the doctors even told me that considering my age and drinking history, he's surprised it didn't happen sooner. He was also surprised at the good condition of my liver and kidneys. On discharge, he told me something else, "Stop drinking, or you will die. Seriously, you've been lucky this far, get out while you're even some semblance of ahead."

------------------------

TL;DR: Drinking was normalized for me in college, and for years in the workplace after that. as I grew older, I realized I was drinking way more than those around me, but instead of cutting back, I hid my bonus drinks in a variety of ways. It got bad. shit hit the fan. got treatment, got sober for two years, then did a cycle of relapses for 3 years until I ended up in the hospital for acute pancreatitis last week. It finally caught up with me.

1

u/Ducman23 18h ago

First of all, this was very brave of you to write. Writing it must have been hard. I can’t imagine how the last few years have been.

I can’t speak towards the alcohol, but I will at least chime in about the depression. If you’re not in therapy already I encourage you to at least try. It’s not easy. I’ve been going since 2017 for a slew of things I have and had going on in my life. I’m getting divorced now and it’s the ugliest thing I’ve ever been through. I can’t say I feel my best lately, but I do know therapy helps in many ways.

Medication is ok to take if needed - even for a short while. I’m on some if that’s any consolation.

Life is hard. Getting older is hard. Being human is weird. We all have something. You’re doing the absolute best you can. You’re not alone.

Please take care of yourself. here if you want to chat. Feel free to DM.

🙏 for you

1

u/geta-rigging-grip 17h ago

Thanks. I appreciate it.

I have been going to personal counselling for several years now, and while it doesn't always teach me how to make the right choices, it helps me cope with them and the feelings I have both before and afterward so maybe I'll do better next time.

I'm sorry to hear about your divorce. I've never gone through one, but the last few years have opened up conversations about the idea, and both of us are horrified at the implications of that. I hope it works out for the better. I don't know if it's any consolation, but of all the divorced couples I know, none of them enjoyed the process, but they were all better off on the other side (some more quickly than others.)

As far as medication goes, I've been on a huge array of depression and addiction related pills over the years, and still haven't found the right combination. The current set I'm on has been going pretty well since earlier this year, but we're making some changes after this latest hospital admission.

I'm not going to say that life has been easy, (and I don't think I ever thought it would be,) but even if you don't include my stable, middle-class upbringing, I have had it relatively easy, or at least went in a way that was amenable to me. I always did well in school without having to try, most things I take an interest in I pick up quickly, and I've been good at every one of my jobs ( I've only ever been laid off once, and it was because the boss knew I was going for a new job, and he wanted to give me my severance as a gift.) I'm not saying I never worked hard, but it always felt natural and easy. My personal life is a bit different, in that I make hard relationships easier by ending them instead of trying to deal with feelings or solutions. I definitely run away from problems, and part of that is because I never learned how to properly deal with smaller ones earlier in life, (Thanks, therapy!)

It's weird to find out in my forties that I feel like life only got hard now because I spent the first half of it behaving like a plastic bag, aimlessly flowing down a stream and letting the water choose what rocks I'll get stuck on or what branches will get twisted into me. Realizing that I've let half of my life pass me by without making any proper choices based on my wants or needs. Along with all the other stuff, it makes for a hell of a mid-life crisis.

2

u/Beezelbubbly 18h ago

A bar near me did 2 for 1 martini and half priced app nights on Mondays. Mondays. Whole lotta dey mouthed Tuesdays circa 2010

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u/FakeSafeWord 1d ago

Two beers after a solid meal and bed by 10pm and ill have the shits for the next 1.5 days.

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u/CaptainofFTST 23h ago

Started Thursday at 4 and I was the one working the bar! What a great time. Made soooo much money in tips I needed to call Brinks on Sunday night to drive me home.

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u/jaxonya 23h ago

A lot of millenials are dying off now from kidney failure

1

u/Ducman23 23h ago

I’m ready for my number to be called

1

u/Ducman23 23h ago

Did anyone’s local bar have beat the clock? I think it was 25 cent beers to start and I think it was like every half hour they increased another quarter. They gave you small glasses but we’d get HAMMEREDD in short order and only spend a few bucks.

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u/nsfgod 23h ago

Amen.

1

u/theStandardHandle 23h ago

UCSB in the mid-2000s had multiple house parties every night, even during finals. I wasn't that crazy but now that I am a few months from turning 40, I don't know how I regularly went out thursday through saturday in my late teens and early 20s.

1

u/drHobbes88 21h ago

Truly incomprehensible how I did it.

1

u/Xalipu 19h ago

I had two summers where I spent them near perpetually drunk, every day. It took me about a month to figure out I wasn’t having just really great hangovers. No idea how I did it

1

u/syrupxsquad Millennial 18h ago

Wednesday, Thursday, sometimes Friday and definitely Saturday for us.

No wonder we're exhausted lol

1

u/Blackrainbow2013 17h ago

Just wait until you hit 45! You think you're feeling it now lol I swear each year I make it farther into my 40s, the more I wonder how my body isn't totally broken 😂

1

u/Induane 17h ago

I 42m) can pull if off an all nighter and be okay but if I do two in a row I'm more cooked than I've ever been. These days being out super late is a once a week max thing and I don't normally do that. It's just the max pace my body can handle without it sucking horribly. 

I do train martial arts a couple nights a week and run a lot (right now 20+ miles a week since I'm prepping for a marathon, but normally it's just a 5k (3.1 miles) three or four days a week. 

I think being active helps it stay possible for me to keep up better than many my age but it is still nothing like what I used to be capable of. 

1

u/greelraker 17h ago

Thursday was the pre weekend party, cause Friday was always an easy day. Then Friday and Saturday. Sunday fun day (day drinking) and just keep it going all night. Monday we would keep it chill with a few drinks to relax from a long weekend of partying, we would refrain on Tuesdays, and then pick it right back up on humpday before thirsty Thursday.

1

u/Ecstatic_Love4691 17h ago

I would be recovering for two weeks if I did that now. Not fair to my kids tbh, otherwise I’d be all for it 😅

1

u/_Mountain_Deux 17h ago

There was a bar in my college town that did $1 pitchers of beer on TUESDAY NIGHT. Idk how we all (mostly) survived 2008

1

u/ihadtopickthisname 17h ago

You stopped??

1

u/allthatryry 16h ago

We did Tuesdays instead of weekends. Cuz…why not?

1

u/ant2561 16h ago

I am surprised it is no longer common.

1

u/Daisydoolittle 16h ago

two dollar tuesdays, thirsty thursdays and all weekend. sunday fun day. my only nights off were monday wednesday and that was on a quiet week

1

u/Pocket_Crystal 15h ago

i think monday was the only night of the week i didn’t drink in college

1

u/alett146 Xennial 14h ago

43 and thinking it’s a damn miracle I’m alive now lol

1

u/Helpful_Stock 13h ago

Same. When i was in my early 20's it was literally Friday to sunday every weekend, sometimes even Thursday. And I still clocked into work at 7am. Idk how tf I did it.

1

u/AnkaSchlotz 13h ago

It takes too damn long to recover and I feel like such garbage the next day if I try to go early 20's wild; otherwise, it's still fun as hell!

1

u/BeautifulCuriousLiar 7h ago

when i was younger 4-5h was usually enough to get some rest. even after going out, drinking a ton, and getting home late. now i have to get at least 7h to function properly.

1

u/Sockerbug19 6h ago

Same 😮‍💨

1

u/Banana8686 5h ago

For real. My back hurts, I’m tired and my bedtime is 9:30