You’re in college, away from home, around 18, trying to make pals, and a couple of older students who live down the hall from you invite you over to the local sports bar or local version of cheers(actually at Binghamton, there are places called the Sports Bar and Cheers), or a frat house. You’re not a big drinker but you want to have the experience under your belt. Well, here’s the down and dirty. First of all you need to pay a cover fee just to get into the door. The price depends on the location: if your in a isolated college town, expect$1 for a frat party to$15 for the bars. Prices depend on the drinks, so if you’re going to imbibe more than a couple, than bring sufficient amount of$, but dancing doesn’t cost extra, unless you put a price on dignity.
WAIT A SEC! Is that what you’re wearing? Most bars are dimly lit, smokefilled(except New York City woohoo!), and might even have blacklights. What are blacklights? Well they’re these lights that dull out every color except white, which ends up looking like neon. Nobody looks good unless you’re looking at them with beer googles(which may between 3-7 drinks). So dress for the atmosphere, and if you’re from Long Island, leave the black pants at home. who are you kidding, you’re not going to be wearing those when the night’s over! And for the frat party, unless you have a coors light t-shirt it doesn’t matter what you wear.
If you’re a parent, you might be asking.’how does my son/daughter get in and get drinks when they’re underage?’ Well, bouncers check id at the door as well as collect the cover and they can tell a fake id with their eyes closed. Underaged patrons get a stamp or mark on their hand distinguishing them from the legal drunks and alcoholics to be. Once little Kimmy or Johnny is inside, they can usually find a too busy barkeep or an inebriated good samaritan to buy them drinks for them. A drink by proxy if you will. And at a frat party, who said anybody’s checking? About an hour or two, or a year or two, of this mundane scene you’ll realize that it wasn’t such a big deal. There’s plenty of different things to do at a college town, much less a big time city like Chicago, NY, etc.
HOLD ON! What? The bar scene’s overrated? I’m just saying that there’s alot of first time(as well not such novice) drinkers and there’s going to be people sprawled on seating arrangements as well as the always classy nauseous folk- let’s hope you don’t end up being one of them.
*A Caveat:>/b> Transportation, obviously someone sober is driving, but are cabbies the best mode of getting home safe? Some cabbies are on the right side, but on a Saturday night, don’t be surprised to find a tipsy cabbie or one that should be committed. Better to call a reliable(sober) friend than to chance it with a stranger.