<p>roshke, I have long understood that my friends and I of a certain age were raised by wolves. Starting my junior year of high school (driver’s license) I went to the redneck Riviera every Spring Break with what must have been 30% of the Southern teenage world. Not a parent in sight. P.C. Beach anyone? My Texas friends all had similar experiences at South Padre Island or Port A. Stupid, drunk or stoned or both , and broke. And that’s how we started the week. 
I remember vaguely but I remember.</p>
<p>I never went more than three hours away from NYC, and there wasn’t a single spring break that I wasn’t working.</p>
<p>I also walked two miles through the snow to and from class. Both ways uphill. (It’s true, too! ;))</p>
<p>If you have boys, you could invite the girls in wet t-shirts home, and tell them they could stay the week…</p>
<p>Let’s hear it for the wolf parents. About the only rules we had growing up were be home for dinner, get good grades and don’t get arrested. That left plenty of room for fun and exploring limits.</p>
<p>barrons, those were our rules, too. Except you left out (for boys) don’t get anybody pregnant.</p>
<p>Spring Break was alive and well in the early eighties - just in some different places (Mexico was unheard of).
In my senior year, a small group of my friends and I went to Daytona - on a bus - from upstate NY (24 hour trip). Cost us $69 round trip. We stayed at an cheap strip motel. We hung out at the beach, took a day trip to Orlando and went to a few bars on some nights (tough to stay too long without $ though). It was useless fun - but NOTHING like what I see hyped in the news these days. Mom had no idea what I was doing and didn’t really care.<br>
When I came back, I was completely broke. Living off campus, my food budget was $3 per week for a whole month. Kraft Mac and Cheese made with water - iceberg lettuce on the side. Pretty pathetic. No complaints though…this was my choice.<br>
It’s hard to compare this with what’s going on now. Spring Break seems much wilder these days. Or maybe it’s just me getting old…</p>
<p>
It may be and I’m not disputing it. I just can’t imagine how it could be any wilder. I think the advent of these predatory video bastards and the kids’ own predilection toward public humiliation on you tube and the like make it seem more outrageous but …nope. We did all those things too. Just no cameras.</p>
<p>Isn’t that the truth! The stupid thing now is that the kids post their OWN incriminating evidence on Facebook and Myspace!!</p>
<p>Things may be the same, but I think the repercussions were worse back then. When I was in college in the early 80’s, a few girls went to Mexico on spring break and some of them made some questionable choices (wet tshirt contest). When they got back to campus, the news had spread like wild fire and those girls were kicked out of their sorority and publicly humiliated. </p>
<p>Somehow, I don’t think that would happen these days!</p>
<p>hey curmudge - either my memory is totally shot or you and I hung out at different spring break hot-spots back in the day.
Yes - I remember a wet tshirt contest at one of the bars - but at least the girls kept their shirts on! I also don’t remember tripping over vomit. No blackouts here either - we all learned our limits in our early college years and stopped at 2 or 3.
No “all you can drink” inclusive packages either - you had to pay for each one (a HUGE disincentive to drinking for us broke souls).<br>
You may be right … but we were fortunate enough (or smart enough perhaps) to avoid the really wild stuff.</p>
<p>“we all learned our limits in our early college years and stopped at 2 or 3.”</p>
<p>Huh? You were a teetotaller?</p>
<p>Huh? You were a teetotaller?</p>
<p>No - maybe I’m missing your humor here. It only took one serious hangover for me (and most of my friends) to modify our drinking behavior. This was freshman year. No fun to be sick. Although some at our school seemed to never learn this lesson!</p>
<p>
Same for me. Christmas break as well.</p>
<p>Fortunately my daughter has never expressed a desire to go to one of the tropical party locations - if she did she would not get any help from me. She works during the semester and partially funds her trips. Saved Christmas and birthday presents from the parentals (and the grandparents) help to fill the financial gap. </p>
<p>Her last official spring break will be spent at a friend’s home in Aspen - I understand that they have a cook. (Jeez, am I jealous!) You would think that staying at someone’s home would make this a very reasonably priced trip but skiing is pricey and she had a hard time finding a good airfare.</p>
<p>"Huh? You were a teetotaller?</p>
<p>No - maybe I’m missing your humor here. It only took one serious hangover for me (and most of my friends) to modify our drinking behavior. This was freshman year. No fun to be sick. Although some at our school seemed to never learn this lesson!"</p>
<p>Since the median non-binge 4-drink drinkers had on average 8.75 drinks, and if you add these to the binge drinkers who had more, at a sizeable plurality of the colleges in the country students in the past two weeks seemed “to stop” somewhere around 10-15 drinks. Half of those (give or take) did it 3-4 times in that two week period.</p>
<p>Yes, you were a teetotaller. Me, too. ;)</p>
<p>Many summers on the glaring white powder sands of Panama City Beach with our family military life. Dad learned to fly at Pensacola. Ahh, the FountainBleu Terrace, what a palace. Teen years on the boardwalks of Rehobeth Beach DE and Atlantic City where you could drink legally at 18 and “make friends” on genial boardwalks. Summer weeks ■■■■■■■■ the Strand at Myrtle on the now closed down Pavillion, dancing and just mixing with hundreds of teens you would never see again.<br>
All our beaches were near military bases.
My S? I give him a harder time which really isn’t fair. If he can’t make enough money over the summer for his own exploits, we don’t offer any beach trip cash. I might buy a plane ticket for a weekend with a college friend far away given tons of notice to find a cheap seat. It is both “we can’t” and “we won’t.” He wants to live abroad next year, and he does not have an accurate picture yet the price of a Eurail pass in a city where you can drink legally at age 16. Would this be different if he had a big scholarship to his private college and we weren’t genuinely strapped? Probably. I know kids biking across America this summer who opted for more cost effective college choices, so their parents can afford to send spending money and not require them to come up with a summer fund of earnings. Our kid must come up with at least 3000 bucks to live on as we simply don’t have money to fund his happy social life and that is the deal we made. We are making absurd sacrifices at a private college and we had wonderful state colleges as options.<br>
So far this genuine financial bottom line has led him home when others go party all week. By the time he makes more money, his brain will have finally developed enough to look good on a PET scanner. yeah I know 22 is really not that much smarter than 19, but if it makes me feel better.
I imagine he will be doing what I did in Panama City in a big city in Europe next year. Hope he is up to the challenge. He will need some cash and executive brain function to pull it off.</p>
<p>My DD is coming home. She had no money to travel and I’m not giving her any. She needs to have some down time in her life. And because she goes to a well known “party school” the idea of doing more partying doesn’t really excite her.</p>