High School Parties and The Lessons Learned

A lot of lessons can be learned at a high school party. Some good and some bad. Lessons that can last a lifetime and in some cases should last a lifetime. Probably the number one lesson learned was to start running as soon as the cherries and berries start spinning. Lesson learned.

It seemed that about one out of every four parties was busted. They were either busted by parents or the authorities. Most of the time it was better to be busted by the authorities. I respected the cops but I wasn't afraid of them. I would rather be in jail than dead. At least you knew the cops couldn't touch you. Lessons learned.

Some of you will remember the names like Benson's, the Springs, Cherry Hill, Europe, the Basement, the Dairy Farm, the Beach, South Farm, etc. I am sure there are some party spots I forgot to add. It didn't seem to matter where the party was, if it was an outside party these things were going to happen. There was going to be a bonfire, someone was going to get stuck, a girl was going to end up crying and a couple guys were going to get into a fight. Lessons learned.

I was usually the youngest at most of these parties, in the beginning anyway. Being the youngest, my job was always getting firewood. Bob told me. I remember this one time at the Springs I showed up with a couple buddies in the Chevy Cavalier a.k.a., The Duck. I soon realized that my dad's 79 Chevrolet Silverado was there. Evidently my sister was home from college and took old green to the party. Anyway it was my job to get firewood so I got the keys from her and borrowed someone's tow rope to pull out dead trees for the party. I didn't feel like picking up sticks. Go big or go home. That was a heck of a bonfire. I believe that tow rope ended up getting snapped. I jerked a little hard. Whoops. Lesson learned.

If we were lucky someone's parents would be gone and there would be a house party. Well, it would be lucky for the partygoers. Not so much for the party host. The cleanup and explaining sucks. Lessons learned.

I remember making a special trip to Casselton just pick up a case of this stuff just because somebody knew a guy, who knew a guy who had some. Good grief. Lesson learned.

I remember picking up cigarette butts in my friend's driveway Sunday morning after a two-day rager at his house. I believe his parents went to Hawaii or somewhere and were too trusting. Friday night's party was pretty low-key. But the word got spread about the party the next night. You see his older sister came home late Saturday night unexpectedly and she was not too impressed with our idea of a little party. Evidently she heard things through friends at college. I remember looking outside at all the cars and thinking this isn't going to end well. That was a fun weekend. I remember his sister even made us breakfast after we cleaned up everything, including hundreds of cigarette butts on the driveway. There are some top-secret good stories from that weekend. Lessons learned.

If none of these party places turned out we could always go to Lisbon to drag main and pick up some chicks. Or at least that was the plan. There was nothing better than going to another town, hitting on girls and upsetting their boyfriends. When we went to their town or when they came to our town things were going to happen. Back then, Lisbon and Enderlin guys were like water and oil. We didn't mix well. Lessons learned.

It seemed like there was always trouble when you went to the Lisbon theater to watch the weekend movie. I wonder whatever happened to those couches that were in the front down by the screen. Ewww… Some lessons I wish I never learned.

Going to Lisbon also meant that you were eventually going to get into trouble with the Mexi cop. It seems like every time we went to Lisbon someone was getting pulled over or getting scolded by the cops. Not that they didn't have their reasons but geesh, give the guy a break. Lesson learned.

This one time in Lisbon one of my buddies decided to take his car on the racetrack for a couple of hot laps. It sounded like a great idea at the time. That was fun for about five minutes until we heard sirens. Some of us made it out in time. Some of us didn't. Good times. Lesson learned.

Another good idea when going to Lisbon is trying to see how high you can make it up the hill. You know the one, the hill on the East side of the 32 coming into Lisbon from the North. There are usually tire tracks going up to the top. I think I rode with someone once. That was enough for me. Lesson learned.

Anyway, I don't know if high schoolers still party like that anymore but I hope they do. We never really got into too much trouble. We never hurt anyone or hurt anything. Well except for our vehicles and our pride. But I know a couple thing, we made a lot of great memories and a lot lessons learned…

Thanks for reading, Clint