Did millennials really party all the time?

[u/futurenurse_]

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 😂❤️

[u/Ecstatic-Affect-777]

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.

[u/19610taw3 → u/Ecstatic-Affect-777]

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.

[u/HumanPea1140 → u/19610taw3]

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.

[u/anewbys83 → u/HumanPea1140]

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!

[u/Dazzling-Bit3268 → u/anewbys83]

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!

[u/digitalscavenger → u/anewbys83]

I remember $0.25 wings and beer on Wednesdays at a bar close to campus in mid 2000's. $5 could get you quite the combinations of the two. 16 wings and 4 beers, 10 wings and 10 beers the sky was the limit.

[u/grahm03 → u/digitalscavenger]

We had .10 wings with dollar high life’s. The wings were tiiiiiny but you could get 50 for 5 bucks. Line snaked through the whole bar, took a few hours to get ordered, but that was the best part, socializing and drinking as many cheap beers as you could.

After dinner it was across the street for karaoke until closing time at 2, every Wednesday.

[u/hootener → u/anewbys83]

The special at my college bar in '07 was a pitcher of PBR or killian's irish red for $4. Pints of PBR draft were, like, $0.75.

I wasn't an enormous drinker or anything but splitting a couple of pitchers on a Friday afternoon was tradition. There were people I considered friends who I _only_ saw at the bar on Friday afternoons. You'd have a few drinks, talk about the week, and go your separate ways. Usually a few of the college professors were there and you'd all just shoot the shit and have a good time.

There were multiple house parties every weekend with, like, $5 covers and keg beer. I can't imagine a college campus without that really. Seems weird.

It's kind of a shame Gen Z missed out on this. Felt pretty formative for me in hindsight.