Teen house parties | TheaterFire

We had a rager going on once as a freshman in college with only about 60 or 70 of us. When the cops came they asked for those over 21 to raise their hands. Only my buddy did. Discouraged was an understatement... Cops had him tell US ALL to put all the beer in the back seat of the cops cars. We dutifully filled them and the cops let my buddy keep an 18 or Natural Ice. He was so pissed! But that was all that happened. Ahhh...The good ol days.

[-]

retrozebra@reddit

Ran and jumped out of windows bahaha 🤣 I remember that being a common way of the back door was crowded

[-]

garden__gate@reddit

Do teens NOT do this anymore? Even when they go to college?

[-]

Lensgoggler@reddit

I don't understand it either. I thought this is a universal thing teens do around the world, except maybe in totalitarian regimes?

We did it too, and I'm not in the US. Altho the parties in the movies are always more grander than we had.

[-]

jacob502030@reddit

We didn't do it like this in Austria, except once a year maybe. We were legally allowed in bars and discos by the age of 16 (and many went there a bit earlier) so we went to the city. We met our friends and made new acquaintancies there. And at night, about 2 in the morning, there was a bus called Discobus that took us home. Or we shared a taxi.

I gather the kids have more parties at home these days (since all the covid shutdowns and the price hikes). Apparently, city nightlife as it used to be never returned in the same intensity here.

[-]

the805chickenlady@reddit

I was always jealous of the exchange students when they told us about life back home. Cigarettes and bars and trains, it all sounded exotic AF. Man those kids were pissed about age limits in America.

[-]

garden__gate@reddit

Yeah, one of the reasons my friends and I didn’t do the big house parties in high school is that we were going to all ages punk shows in the city! We couldn’t drink but … we got around that.

[-]

Xx_SwordWords_xX@reddit

We were in bars, too. Fake IDs were so much easier to make.

[-]

Careless_Lion_3817@reddit

I didn’t party in high school either. I did in college though

[-]

garden__gate@reddit

Yeah I’m American and I went to a few parties like in the movies but for my friends it was more like hanging out in someone’s basement with a six pack and some ditch weed, trying not to wake up their semi-negligent parents. Though I think the “popular” kids had more ragers.

[-]

JusticeFrankMurphy@reddit

I was having a conversation with my 16 year old son about this yesterday. In general, today's kids are less wild, more well-behaved, and more risk-averse than our generation was.

[-]

garden__gate@reddit

Probably better off, but they won’t have our stories! I also feel a bit bad for them that they have to be more serious.

[-]

JusticeFrankMurphy@reddit

Yeah the positives are obvious (i.e., they get in less trouble than we did). But I think their progression in maturity and confidence has been slower than ours in many respects because they've gained less life experience than our generation had gained by the same age.

My son, for example, gets nervous about ordering his own food at a fast food restaurant. I could do that confidently by age 12. And that's because when I was 12, my summer was spent sneaking into apartment complexes with my friends to use their swimming pool and then walking to a pizza place afterwards where we would scrimp together money to buy a pizza.

A lot of it is our fault as parents because we keep our kids more sheltered than our parents kept us when we were kids. But they also have more things to keep them occupied at home (i.e., phones, social media, etc) than we had, so they're not as antsy to leave the house and hang out with their friends as we were.

[-]

KrypticSkunk@reddit

Its because of ANTI social media IMO.

[-]

elphaba00@reddit

My son just graduated high school in May. There is a group of kids in his class who all have similar birthdays with parents about 35/36 years old because they were all conceived at the same high school party 18 years ago.

[-]

garden__gate@reddit

OMG that sounds like something that would have happened in my HS. 😆

[-]

Alternative_Plan_823@reddit

I spent a summer interacting with a bunch of undergrad interns a couple of summers ago. Granted, these were CS majors from good schools, but they were mostly cool and adventurous young adults none the less (we were abroad in a fairly exotic place).

I was bummed to hear that they mostly play video games now. The only physical game played at the occasional lame sounding party is beer pong, which was more of a novelty in my time. Drinking in excess was even somewhat frowned upon, if you'd believe it.

[-]

LiiilKat@reddit

See also: Snoop Dogg’s “Gin and Juice” music video

Although on that one, Snoop’s dad chased everyone out of his family’s house, and not the cops.

[-]

Jingoisticbell@reddit

It usually was the parents or parents' friends/neighbors.

simpler times simpler times.

[-]

lostandaggrieved617@reddit

Yeah, while cops showed up every now and then, trouble came in the form of relatives, usually, lol

[-]

the805chickenlady@reddit

My cousin drove by the house I was living in with my grandma. I was 19 at the time and my grandma was out of town at my aunts. I asked her if I could have people over for my friends birthday that weekend and she said sure no problem. My cousin though, he called my grandma trying to get me in trouble about it. Damn if he wanted a beer so bad, he could have just IDK stopped in to the party.

[-]

Ughinvalidusername@reddit

Oh man, for us, it was always the cops!

[-]

CatsAndDogs314@reddit

That's why you have the cops kids there. Then it's just "turn the music down" and "don't drive home".

[-]

MaineHippo83@reddit

Nah sometimes the parents are the ones who bought the booze "better they drink at home than away from home"

[-]

Jingoisticbell@reddit

Yeah, parents doing the buying/supervising was a HUGE "red flag" that there were absolutely no boundaries and someone was probably going to die.

[-]

yallknowme19@reddit

"Snoop Doggy Dogg...needs to get a jobby job!" 😆

[-]

boostabubba@reddit

I ran twice and stayed once. The one time I stayed they caught us all to quick. Ended up calling everyone's parents at like 2am. My mom was pisssssed.

[-]

Pierce-Avenue@reddit

I can jump over a retaining wall like the best of them 25 years later. In heels 🤣

[-]

CountGensler@reddit

oh that's definitely not the case.

[-]

Appropriate-Food1757@reddit

One time the cops caught or short fat friend and came to my house after I eventually made my home after 6 hours of sitting by a tree in the I woods. The cop said he “could have gotten me” (dude got mud all over my parents carpet)

I said “didn’t you see me jump off the deck, do a roll on the lawn and keep running without breaking stride?”

Him: “oh that was you, yeah nevermind”

I just loved running from them, something about it. Put me into another level, everything dialed in.

[-]

CariniFluff@reddit

Yeah highschool ragers were so fun. Between a parent-empty house, a bunch of booze, a bunch of pretty girls, and the knowledge that at some point we'd probably have to book it made it all the more exciting and fleeting.

You'd know it was a good party when you would see a dozen cars parked two blocks away from the house. Nobody parked in the driveway or in front of the party house, so on arrival, every street close by would have a ton of cars like a beacon confirming the party is still going.

[-]

kronik419@reddit

KEEP UP LUNCHBOX...YOURE GONNA GET US ALL CAUGHT!!!

[-]

jayhawk618@reddit

We used to scream "scatter!" when the cops or parents rolled up.

I'll never forget running from the cops at a house party in a ultra-rich neighborhood, and dozens of us climbing and jumping a fence in the back yard, not knowing that there was like a 5 foot drop on the other side of the fence. It was like a zombie movie with people rolling around in pain and landing in each other, just pulling up. Wild times, but also just another weekend at the time.

[-]

ennuiismymiddlename@reddit

You should write a book! Maybe I’m just high right now, but you have a great storyteller style.

[-]

ASingleThreadofGold@reddit

This is such a fun friendship meet cute😂

[-]

Warm-Comfortable501@reddit

I also kept a Mag Light in my truck.

If the cops didnt show and it was for everyone to leave, I'd walk out to my truck and walk to the back door where nobody was. I would cop knock and shine the Mag Light in the window. Everyone would run and house would clear out.

[-]

CrazyMinute69@reddit

10000% did party.

My friend in high school had a huge party when his mom's was out of town. He got his older cousin to get a keg and then charged $5 a person. He thought he'd have maybe 25 people or something. Over 300 showed up. When the cops finally came and everyone ran. The house was utterly damaged. The garage door was kicked in, and someone had thrown the keg through her the wall. My friend kicked out of his mom's house and had to go live with his dad for the rest of high school.

[-]

CariniFluff@reddit

Damn that sucks. That's why I never had a party bigger than close friends. I knew what hellions my larger group of friends were and would never let word get out.

Much rather party at someone else's house after parking 3 blocks away and scouting out all the exits lol.

[-]

CanThisBeEvery@reddit

I was once at a huge house party, but we had all migrated to the backyard. Suddenly, someone cut the music, and got everyone started whispering “Shhhhhh, shhhhhh, the cops are out front… shhhhhhh,” as though we were going to hide 200 people in a tiny San Diego backyard that was bumping 30 seconds prior.

The second the cops appeared in the backyard, we all scattered to the four winds.

[-]

CariniFluff@reddit

When we were either sophomore or juniors my good friend had a party when he mom was out of town. It wasn't super wild but we did have a pony keg (and I had a backpack FULL of 1/8ths of weed).

This girl who wasn't really in our party group was there and somehow her mom found out and called the cops. So the cops show up like 4 cars deep banging on the front door. We turned off the music and lights and everyone went in the basement. No one went to the front door. After about 15 minutes one of the cops gets out a megaphone and says something along the lives of "We know X is in the house and she needs to come out now or we are going to consider this a kidnapping"

After much discussion she goes into the garage, we lock the door into the house and she opens the garage door. The cops were...not happy. This was suburban Chicago so all the cops were roided out tryhards.

By now it's probably 45 minutes since the first arrival and there's now at least 12 officers knocking on the front door, the back sliding door and basically just crawling all around the yard which was not big at all.

After stashing all the pipes and weed and keg, we finally decide that we just have to make a run for it and it's best if everyone goes all at once. This wasn't my first rodeo so I was pretty far towards the back but had a clear view of the front door. The first people out were the kids a year older than us who tried to outrun a dozen angry, salivating cops, and that ended about as well as you'd imagine. They got tackled left and right.

The next group out were the kids in my grade that were either always in trouble and trying to outrun the cops or kids who were never in trouble and weren't used to this situation. They basically walked straight into the waiting cops' hands and a few of them were even greeted by the cops by name. I specifically remember one cop saying "Hey Y, I expected you would be in here.".

Finally I was one of the last people to go. I calmly walked out the front door, didn't make eye contact with anyone and pretended like I wasn't paying attention to what anyone was saying. I immediately turned left and basically followed the side of the house towards the back and once I was another half way past the neighboring house I booked it and disappeared.

Had to come back the next day to get my weed and pipe (cops didn't find it thankfully). From what I remember about 30 kids got drinking tickets, about 5-10 got arrested for fleeing/eluding or possession.

There were SO many parties that got busted. The suburban cops were so fucking lame. But I always tried to stay in the back yard so I'd hear as soon as the cops showed up and would book it out back as fast as I could. The few times that I was inside a house when the cops came I would usually run out the back door but there were a few times where I'd replayed the above scenario... Just wait for all the cops to be busy tackling and wrestling the first kids out and then you just calmly walk out and disappear into the night. Also, I never understood the kids who upon hearing "Cops!" would grab all of their beer or liquor, shove it into their pockets and then sprint out the front door only to immediately get tackled. Like you only had to see that once and if the cops are there just drop the booze. Are you really going to pound a couple more beers in the neighbor's back yard hiding in a bush? It was never worth the risk to bring 3 beers with you.

[-]

runaway_sparrow@reddit

I remember the cops arriving with a school bus to transport everyone they arrested.

[-]

CanThisBeEvery@reddit

Oh man, they had a plan

[-]

Automaticman01@reddit

I remember partying at a frat house in San Diego when the cops came through the front door. We all ran out the back, straight to the next party two houses down.

[-]

Motosurf77@reddit

Trying to get everyone quiet while the cops were at the door .. I remember it like yesterday.

Exact same situation.. entire house was PACKED and like 50 people in the back deck

[-]

Mewssbites@reddit

Interesting how different experiences can be. I grew up in a conservative Evangelical household and I can assure you, not only did I not go to unsupervised parties, I didn't know anyone who went to them because I wasn't allowed to know people who did, lol.

(I had helicopter parents for the time, which is ironically still less helicopter-y than the average parental expectations today, I think.)

[-]

Awkwardpanda75@reddit

My bestie broke her arm my smacking it on a mailbox mid run from a party.

Of course we lied and said she tripped and fell on it at my house.

We had so many injuries from sneaking out and equally as many lies to cover up said injuries. My kids got nothing past me growing up.

[-]

Dumdumdoggie@reddit

Im 40 now, still have a scar on the inside of my thigh from getting hung up while jumping fences to evade the cops after a party at my girlfriends house when I was 16.

[-]

hmmqzaz@reddit

Yeah pretty much

[-]

Xx_SwordWords_xX@reddit

…then we ran.

I always stayed near the kitchen back door, for exactly this reason. Lol

[-]

kshizzlenizzle@reddit

Ugh, constantly. A ran through poison ivy in one of those ‘60s mod’ satin dresses…and stepped in a pan of oil, ruining a brand new pair of white sandals.

That was all just harmless. Running from cops at street races in high powered vehicles, now THAT was some scary shit!

[-]

jesusmansuperpowers@reddit

Sometimes 3 times in 1 night.. and multiple times a week.

[-]

the_well_read_neck_@reddit

When I was 17-18, I was partying with 21-25 year olds through co-workers. Their house, we dubbed the KTK house, aka Kappa Tappa Kegga. I was "freshman" because I was the youngest. They had a huge backyard that could easily park 50 cars and be out of sight from the road. The only neighbors were a 24-hour machine shop. We'd have a keg or 2 in the garage for beer pong and flip cup, along with the 20-foot beer bong you had to get on the roof to fill. Big fire pit out back, and another dedicated beer pong table and keg in the basement. Music was through a PS1 hooked to the surround sound receiver with no TV. Ahhh, good times.

[-]

Pizzasaurus-Rex@reddit

We weren't as good looking (or adult looking) as the partiers in those movies, and if there was a band they probably weren't very good yet. But other than that, I'd say it was spot on.

[-]

Rtn2NYC@reddit

Very much same.

[-]

ThisIsADaydream@reddit

100% accurate. The best part was running from the cops when they showed up 😭😅

[-]

BreakfastBeerz@reddit

In my experience, they did happen, but they weren't common. I only ever went to 2 parties like that in high school, and I can only ever think of maybe 2 more that happened that I didn't go to.

There were plenty of much smaller ones when police would never get called to, but the big ragers you see in the movies were rarities.

[-]

SaltyAir-StarrySkies@reddit

My mom loved it when the cops broke up a party at my friend's house and I was like:

"Come on, gang! Let's walk to my house!"

[-]

Appropriate-Food1757@reddit

I bet she cooked up some good shit. I had a buddy like that but it was his dad.

[-]

woolsocksandsandals@reddit

Same

[-]

Messijoes18@reddit

My college parties were definitely this. High school sometimes mostly we were in people's basements in high school or way out in the boonies. But college parties were definitely as described

[-]

JPhrog@reddit

Same here, I basically did all my share of drugs, alcohol and parties before I turned 21 then I stopped lol

[-]

AldusPrime@reddit

I went to one party like this that happened in a friend of a friend's house, after they'd moved out.

Her parents were trying to sell the house. It was empty and immaculately clean. So, she invited all of her friends over to get wasted.

By the time the cops came, there was vomit in the sinks, beer spilled everywhere, and blood spattered on the wall from when one dude punched another and broke his nose. I missed it, but I saw the blood on the wall.

Anyway, I imagine that house was no longer ready to show.

Other parties were just parents out of town. Or parties at one girl's house where she had a second house on the property and her parents let us party there.

One time, the cops came, cornered my friend and just kept asking him, "WHERE IS THE METH? WHO IS SELLING THE METH?"

Once they found out there was no meth, they just stole all of our alcohol. They didn't break up the party. They didn't send anyone home. They just stole the beer and whiskey. It was actually kind of hilarious.

[-]

VincentVanGTFO@reddit

As a teen in the 90s I was invited to several parties like this, not only in other teens parents houses (often divorced dad syndrome, where he was present) but also to college aged dudes parties. Now, as a chick one would think a lot of untoward stuff took place but honestly we all just hung out and had a great time, that said if a girl was open to something, stuff went down but in general you could just hand out pay the $5 for your red solo cup for the keg and have a great time and no one acted creepy or entitled to do anything more than have fun conversations or play ping pong or what the fuck ever with you.

[-]

SweetCosmicPope@reddit

Definitely describes my high school and college days.

[-]

Mail_Order_Lutefisk@reddit

Same. And the only arrest on my record came from one such excursion.

[-]

tigerlilie43@reddit

Yes, same!

[-]

GuidonianHand2@reddit

Yep

[-]

de-milo@reddit

i had three bands play in my backyard at my 18th birthday party and the cops came. my parents signed “we’re so proud of you, love mom and dad” on the citation and put it in my birthday card.

[-]

bbpathfinder@reddit

The movie Dazed and Confused could have been a documentary

[-]

red286@reddit

Yes, although the sex wasn't quite as prevalent as movies make it out to seem. Raunchy movies need their sex scenes.

But the rest of it, absolutely. I held a house party myself when my parents went away for a week. Absolute fucking disaster shit show. I invited about 10 people, and then they all decided to invite like 10 people and before I knew it there were over 100 people at my house, most of them complete fucking strangers, everyone getting shit-faced, music blasting, some asshole in the basement started throwing beer bottles at the wall and then when he got bored of that called 9-1-1 and reported a stabbing, and then he left. Cops showed up, cleared everyone out, confiscated all alcohol, searched the entire house top to bottom to make sure that no, no one had been stabbed, and then left. Took three days to clean the place up, I thought I'd done a good job of hiding all the evidence, but then of course my neighbours ratted me out the second my parents got home, and I was grounded for the rest of the summer.

[-]

nickyler@reddit

Depends on which movie with the sex scenes. The raunchy open a bathroom and two people are in there scene was very rare, but the American pie scene in the upstairs bedroom while everyone else is downstairs partying was not rare at all.

[-]

madshm3411@reddit

And if it did happen, it was not in the house. Usually in a car or sneak away somewhere.

Not speaking from a lot of experience, but I knew a guy.

[-]

MLDaffy@reddit

Yeah basically lol. Closest thing to sex was making out and getting to feel a boob.

[-]

KingMaddMetalZilla06@reddit

We need more backstory

[-]

MLDaffy@reddit

One of best friends had a birthday so we all had a huge party for him in a field for end of summer. Bon fires, booze, music etc. Him and another one of our friends were playing around and gun went off shooting the friend in the head accidently. He thought he had killed him so he stuck the gun to himself. If he had waited literally less than 2 mins he would have seen the friend originally shot get up not even knowing he had a hole in his face. Was basically end of everything that night. No more teenage fun/summers/etc.

[-]

uncertia@reddit

Wow that’s horrific :(

[-]

MLDaffy@reddit

Yeah sadly he was the nicest/kindest 1 out of everyone. The one who got shot was already bad kid and didn't do any better in life so was kind of a "wrong kid died" situation. Granted I'm sure having that grief on him wasn't easy but could have tried to channel it.

Definitely imprinted on all of us and basically everything was gone that day like the end of a crazy kids movie. People went different ways, few of us who were the closest still stuck to one another. His mother couldn't even get out of his bed from mourning to go to the funeral. She fell apart afterwards dying at an early age from heart failure. I still have his stuff and a memorial in a large picture frame for him.

[-]

uncertia@reddit

So sorry for your loss. I lost one of my best childhood friends to suicide a few years ago and it is still so heartbreaking - I can’t imagine WITNESSING it 😭

[-]

MLDaffy@reddit

Sorry for your loss as well. It is tough and honestly it never goes away but it will get better with time. Just try to channel it in good ways in their memory. Thank you, definitely something I wish never happened nor anyone have to ever go through.

[-]

probablyatargaryen@reddit

Jfc that took a turn

[-]

bobnifty76@reddit

Yep, sometimes parents were out of town, sometimes the parents sanctioned it, you just had to give them your keys

[-]

FreeTicket6143@reddit

Yeah, also outdoor ones with bonfires out in the woods or farms kinda like Dazed & Confused.

Hung with punk bands and player plenty of basement/house shows too.

[-]

dee-liv@reddit

Same it was either out in the middle of nowhere or at the “cool parents” house.

[-]

Dumdumdoggie@reddit

A few high school punk bands would rent a pavillion at a local park and have shows there for 2$ a person. Was enough to pay for the rental and beer money for after the show.

[-]

itsmestanard@reddit

Yeah, also outdoor ones with bonfires out in the woods or farms kinda like Dazed & Confused.

Yeah semi-rural Australia definitely had parties that resembled those seen in Dazed in Confused. We also had parties way out bush with huge bonfires and tents, absolutely no-one around at all. Heard stories of epic Bush Doofs too but I wasn't lucky enough to experience those!

[-]

hayduke5270@reddit

bush doof! I love Yolo

[-]

spezizacuk@reddit

Our town had a house built by three farming families where their property lines met. Had a pool and was like three or four bedrooms. You couldn’t see the house from the road or other houses as it was down in a holler. The teenage kids of two of the families used to throw the wildest parties there. There was community weed up in the attic if you knew about it that would get passed around. Kegs, hunch punch, the works. One party I think there was 100 or more kids there. Good times

[-]

thehousewright@reddit

Field parties for us country folk and abandoned warehouse parties for the post industrial city kids.

[-]

Jenaaaaaay@reddit

I was constantly almost dead in a field and my parents had no idea.

[-]

kittenparty4444@reddit

Corn field parties were the best parties! Although I legit have no idea how we even found the locations back in the day before GPS 😂

[-]

sedatedforlife@reddit

I remember driving up and down country roads in the general area my friend described until I saw flames or cars.

It was really the best because if the cops showed up, you just ran into the corn field. In then dark, it’s impossible to find you. You just had to wait for them to leave. Then, you had to figure out where they sat to wait for you to drive away, and then drive away the other direction with the lights off.

[-]

Blizzardof1991@reddit

Ah man, I had stacks of the breathalyzer straws. I didn't like running. But I sure liked drinking

[-]

Jenaaaaaay@reddit

Ours were power line parties. Where you going tonight? Out by the power lines. I honestly have no idea what that meant but I knew how to get there lol

[-]

unlovelyladybartleby@reddit

I followed the bass and the smell of burning pallets

[-]

flamingmaiden@reddit

This right here. It's a miracle more bad stuff didn't happen to us.

My mom was shocked when I told her (as an adult) how often I was almost dead in a field, and she had no clue when I was in high school.

My son was shocked when we told him what we were like as teenagers. Dude gave us a mini lecture on making good choices.

Growing up in a rural community wasn't all bad, lol.

[-]

32MPH@reddit

lol

[-]

ultramagnes23@reddit

I grew up in a capital city in the 90's, but because of boundary line on my street I had to go to high school 15 miles away in a sleepy little farm town suburb. Because of this I got to regularly experience both cornfield parties and warehouse parties.

[-]

CariniFluff@reddit

abandoned warehouse parties for the post-industrial City kids

Those were called raves my friend.

[-]

Appropriate-Food1757@reddit

Logging roads for the PNW degenerates

[-]

raindancemaggie2@reddit

I grew up where a friend owned a huge farm in a pretty wealthy area. (lucky them) We had post homecoming and prom parties there where no police would ever notice because it was in the middle of many acres of private property.

[-]

idle_isomorph@reddit

If you know someone with a crop duster, an airplane hangar makes a great location for a country folk party too!

[-]

surfacing_husky@reddit

I once partied in a field that was adjacent to one kid's dad's construction business. He made the mistake of telling us his dad had employees leave the keys in the equipment. I ran over several cars with the giant roller thing they used to pave streets before i was stopped. Guy didn't press charges though, just told me to work 40 hours with him during the summer and that was it. The work was MUCH cheaper than the fines and police involvement so inwas ok with it lol.

ALSO almost lost my fingertips in a corn field once so im good on all of that crazy shit.

[-]

pug_fugly_moe@reddit

“Y’all cummin ta Tabor Field? There’s a fukken keg t’niight.”

[-]

Biggseb@reddit

Beach parties for us. In the beach town where I grew up, we had a strip of beach that was technically a disconnected part of the inland city next door. Our police wouldn’t bother to patrol it if there wasn’t a call to respond to, so we would go gather there by default if there were no house parties or they got broken up.

[-]

charutobarato@reddit

Yeah a beach spot was our backup if no one’s parents were out of town. Looking back it was pretty gorgeous but we were always looking for something else haha

[-]

ItJustWontDo242@reddit

We called these bush parties where Im from

[-]

ceanahope@reddit

This was my experience. I remember attending a few outdoor parties. One involved a 30 min hike down a wooded path to a waterfall in the woods. Was a pretty poace, but looking back now, that hike was dangerous when buzzed. That was where I went after prom with my date and group of friends.

[-]

redditprofile99@reddit

Yup. Exact same for me. Cops would show up sometimes and we'd scatter. Lol.

[-]

BaddestKarmaToday@reddit

We called em barn parties. Only one cop out in the middle of nowhere and you could see em coming a mile away.

[-]

camstercage@reddit

Used to call them pit parties. Almost every highschool had its own “ pit” randomly almost dying of alcohol poisoning in the middle of nowhere was a pretty common experience.

[-]

soopirV@reddit

I had one “party” at my house in highschool when my folks were away for the weekend. Was just a few friends, but still got busted by dad finding a beer cap under the couch fringe.

[-]

meyers980@reddit

I went to many, many house parties. Went to plenty of corn field parties too.

[-]

upforadventure80@reddit

Yes

[-]

Elevenyearstoomany@reddit

I knew of two parties that happened to, one junior year, one senior. I wasn’t at either despite the one senior year being at the corner of my block.

[-]

DisasterDebbie@reddit

Nope, nothing like the movies until college. But I also grew up as a theater geek in a working class inner-ring suburb. More popular kids whose parents had the money for club sports or came from one of the Catholic schools would go to parties thrown by kids they knew at other schools. But we were too close to the city for field parties and most people's parents would not be out of town without them because nobody had money like that.

[-]

Neat_Pineapple_7240@reddit

I’ve been to many parties like this. Hundreds of drunk kids and cars parked down the whole street. Good times

[-]

Manic_Mini@reddit

Even in the late 00s huge house parties were fairly common in my area. I attended several that easily had 3-400 kids, I threw a few and the biggest one of mine ever got was right around 150 people.

Stuff like this was way more common in years gone bye.

[-]

VanManDiscs@reddit

Yes.... absolutely. Our high school parties were legendary. Back in 2007ish we had a field party or at someone's house a couple times a month

[-]

HAWKWIND666@reddit

Lots of acid and robotics in on the weekends

[-]

ElliotNess@reddit

Beer and weed mostly but yes

[-]

ZookeepergameWild776@reddit

Awesome house parties in the 90s/ early 2000s.. We weren't staring at screens 24/7 back then..

[-]

Hot_Future2914@reddit

I was a band nerd so a lot of my parties did not have any obvious use of substances. Certainly someone was using them but they were hidden. Same thing about swim parties or the occasional off season party someone threw. Just dancing and snacks and bonfires.

Cops did show up tho because band kids are loud and fucking obnoxious. We were suburban so it was just backyards, and parents were around. I didn't drink in HS so I didn't go to any of those kinds of parties. I also didn't drink in college so I didn't get up to much in HS.

Grad school though, I partied in GS, so we were drinking classier stuff. I was living with my grad school roommate in National Park hpusing a year after we were done with school and we had some college aged interns living with us too and they were baffled with our liquor cabinet because it wasn't just full bottom shelf trash.

[-]

PicantePico@reddit

Definitely. Getting the cops called usually meant we were in a nicer area and neighbors didn't like the racket. Cops would tell us to keep it down then leave.

More rural areas parties went all night. Bonfires, lots of drinking, usually a few people were doing acid or shrooms. People hooking up randomly. Fun times.

[-]

Ragnarok314159@reddit

Most of the parties I went to in the 90’s were totally boring and was just people chatting and someone’s parents home.

There were multiple parties that were more fucking insane than the movies even could put on screen. I watched someone throw a keg through the back of a police car window and someone tried tearing the light bar off. It was one of the parties were me and my buddy watched for a long time and then thought “we need to gtfo before someone dies and we are accessories”

[-]

hulsey76@reddit

Can confirm. There were usually two fights per party also.

[-]

theoriginalneel@reddit

BLM lands in Central Wyoming back in the 90s, and on Casper Mountain. Cases of Natty and Beast cost about 10 bucks. Great fuckin times.

[-]

pgeho@reddit

No cops in this one, no party break up… but a lesson was taught. End of summer baseball party, keg ran out. Older brother of a friend called to help the situation. Drove into our small town to the drive through. Older brother loading up 3 additional cases of beer into the car and he sees an assistant football coach in line behind his car.. Hey coach Williams! These guys are having a party and they ran out of beer nodding to his younger brother and another friend in the car (we all played football as well..) we continued to party that night. Next morning at the 8:00 AM weightlifting session coach Williams (who hadn’t been there all summer shows up) it was 1 week before the start of camp. Suddenly that day we had a conditioning test out on the track. Being a co captain along with the 2 friends from the beer run the night before we were all expected to lead every sprint. We did 10 40’s, 8-110’s and 4 440’s, mind you conditioning all summer after lifting weights had been light at best, maybe basketball ball or dodge ball.. At the end of the sprints as was just leaning over the inside fence around the track afraid to move or something was going to come out of each end at the same time. Legs shaking, eyes burning from sweat. Coaches standing outside the stadium laughing their asses off.

[-]

nightowl7748@reddit

We didnt do house parties. We went out to the woods or a corn field somewhere.

[-]

maybeRaeMaybeNot@reddit

Yup! All good fun out in the sticks. No one got busted except…

My younger sister went to a bonfire in a field and they accidentally set a big round bale on fire.

[-]

breeezyc@reddit

Bush parties!

[-]

bonghitsforbeelzebub@reddit

Yep,out here in the country there was a ton of drinking around a campfire in the middle of the woods haha. High school was fun in the early 2000s

[-]

ClockwrkAngel2112@reddit

Same!!!! Never had parties like the movies lol

[-]

KingMaddMetalZilla06@reddit

Jock shit: houseparters

The alt outcasts: hanging out in the woods or abandoned buildings

[-]

_hi_plains_drifter_@reddit

I went to both 🍻

[-]

KingMaddMetalZilla06@reddit

Nice

[-]

Kellzy1212@reddit

I graduated in 98 and Can’t Harley wait, Clueless and Go! very accurately portrayed exactly our parties. Also, tons of trying to follow random people to a party based on almost no information. No map, no phones, no GPS. Sometimes we’d end up at Waffle House or Perkins because we lost the people we were following.

[-]

Extreme-Guitar-9274@reddit

These parties were 100% a thing. I threw a few of them myself.

[-]

getdownmakelooove@reddit

I grew up in a very small Texas town, but we still had pasture parties with a huge bonfire and it was a party. Someone always had a system in their truck, so there was lots loud music. There was always weed, and someone always had an older brother or cool parent who provided alcohol. Lots of making out (and probably sex, but I didn't get any that way) in the back of cars or on a blanket near the fire. It was very close to what you saw in Dazed and Confused.

99% of the time, the cops left us alone. However, if the cop that stumbles across your gathering happens to be a Texas Game Warden who is having a bad day....you're fucked.

[-]

spaceace321@reddit

Parts of American Pie could be autobiographical for me tbh

[-]

sed2017@reddit

You fucked a pie?

[-]

ineptplumberr@reddit

Stuck a flute in his ass

[-]

greennuggetsinmybowl@reddit

Only once, but that was at band camp tho..

[-]

thatstwatshesays@reddit

I do not miss the whole, “And one time….” prompt. You could not start a sentence with “And one time…” for like ten years without someone following with “….at band camp…”

It was funny the first five times, then another 9.99 years happened.

[-]

breeezyc@reddit

Imagine being a flute player. I STILL cannot tell anyone my age I play the flute without it IMMEDIATELY being responded to by something about band camp 25 years later. I HATE THAT FUCKING MOVE.

[-]

Sausage_Queen_of_Chi@reddit

I thought it was a trumpet

[-]

Impossible-Taco-769@reddit

He did. I’m the pie.

[-]

tellerwoes@reddit

That was Kevin, not Jim

[-]

dragonfett@reddit

Are you creamy?

[-]

Psynautical@reddit

Impossible, taco.

[-]

S_A_R_K@reddit

Glued himself to himself

[-]

NightWriter500@reddit

He also jizzed in a beer and his friend drank it.

[-]

Dry-Discount-9426@reddit

Who hasn't?

[-]

Cyberhwk@reddit

You got pissed on?

[-]

Jenaaaaaay@reddit

Same

[-]

DiaDeLosMuebles@reddit

Same. My brother and I had the party house all through high school. It was a gimme that time he after party after any school dance was at my house.

[-]

Special-Medicine-437@reddit

I grew up in a rural area so our parties were almost always outside in some field or on the bosque, if we did inside it was usually a barn or shed. But yes, exactly as depicted.

[-]

randomhero1980@reddit

In the country, we had field parties....the cops would come to those as well.

[-]

the805chickenlady@reddit

no idea. I didn't go to parties. I went to punk shows when I wasn't grounded which was 95% of the time. My punk rock shows in a basement though seemed safer than those parties.

[-]

schoolisuncool@reddit

Hell yeah it is lol every single weekend we would meet in the McDonald’s parking lot, and figure out who’s house we were all going to party at. There would be easily 100 kids every party. About a third of the time, the cops would come break it up.

[-]

Human-Individual-918@reddit

100%

[-]

NorCalShasta@reddit

The house party at the beginning of American Pie and the party at the Moon Tower in Dazed and Confused were almost eerily accurate. The house parties and outdoor keggers we had in high school were basically identical.

[-]

Hour-Pressure-3758@reddit

Yup! We raged!

[-]

mrdirtman13@reddit

Yep.

[-]

badger_breath@reddit

I went to a few parties. None were like what we see in movies or heard about. I was and still am introvert. My circle of friends was small. We hung out on the train tracks, tagging, doing stupid crap and beer and weed was always involved. The party thing was not my cup of tea.

[-]

Fahlulah@reddit

Not where I was from. We were the cars in a circle in the woods type county.

[-]

PhilipJohnBasile@reddit

I had Nintendo

[-]

Gloomy-Moose-4367@reddit

it was every weekend

[-]

pedro4662@reddit

Too many cameras in parents homes. GPS trackers on kids phones who are all on their parents plan. Unless the parents are in on it there's no opportunities anymore for the house parties we used to have.

[-]

Limp_Engineer9826@reddit

Yep! Definitely more glorified, and “glossy” in a movie, but not totally out of step with an actual “my parents are out of town” high school party. Better lighting, for sure! 🤣

[-]

Stang1776@reddit

You know whats worse than the cops showing up at your party? Having Uncle Buck show up at your party.

[-]

TrollOnFire@reddit

Got a prime example… kids down the street…

Neighbours 5 houses down on a cul-de-sac 10 houses deep in a 3000 person town, had two boys. One my age at the time; 16, the other was 3 years older. The younger brother was a hockey player so he invited the team and enterage, while the older brother invited all his friends who invited their friends and soon the place was hopping with townies. I watched from my front step 3 houses away as cars of kids spilled into my small street. Drunk and shouting kids walked in from all around town. When it was all done, the yard was trashed car parked in the yard with tire tracks all over up the street. What I heard about the inside from the extensive rumors: some one had torn the fabric of the pool table downstairs, the stove glass door had been smashed in with glass throughout the kitchen, someone swan dived the dining room table to bits, the family had recently installed an in ground pool in the back that had the liner damaged and pool had to be drained. Just the highlights… hey Brandon, how was that night eh?

[-]

XennialBoomBoom@reddit

Canadian? Something about your writing made me read it in a Canadian accent even before I got to the final "eh?" :)

[-]

YVRkeeper@reddit

My sister had one of those “you tell a friend who tells their friends and suddenly half the town is pulling in your driveway” parties. What was supposed to be 6 teenage girls watching a movie while my parents went out to dinner and a show turned into chaos.

I’ll never forget my dad coming home, standing on the front steps like a bouncer telling car loads of kids to go home… and they LISTENED TO HIM!

[-]

CariniFluff@reddit

Shit I ain't arguing with a pissed off dad when I'm 17 and drunk. See ya.

[-]

AmIYourNeighbor@reddit

Sounds like a blast tbh

[-]

HighScorsese@reddit

Was for me from the late 90s up to the early 2010s. Shit was ill

[-]

uhhseriously@reddit

Totally accurate for my high school experience. Maybe now every week, but at least once a month or so.

[-]

bonghitsforbeelzebub@reddit

Yes definitely. Also parties in the woods.

[-]

Colambler@reddit

I feel like the movie house parties closer resemble college parties in my experience, in terms of the vibe. Granted I grew up in a college town so we sometimes went to college parties (ie older siblings).

High school parties in my memory were a little sparser, more drama, more messy. Less dancing (this there were some) and more just drunk/high sitting around conversing/yelling/vomiting/someone trying to play guitar.

[-]

AgentOrange1717@reddit

Same. The high school parties they’re depicting were definitely more like my college parties.

[-]

neph36@reddit

I did both kinds in HS myself

[-]

Atworkwasalreadytake@reddit

I think it depends on where you live.

[-]

pennie79@reddit

Same here. I never went to many parties when I was in high school, but I don't think there were many big parties going on.

I went to many huge parties similar to what you see in the movies when I was at uni.

[-]

MedicalDeviceJesus@reddit

Yeah high school there weren't really places without parents 99% of the time. College this experience is spot on.

[-]

LazierMeow@reddit

In high school we had a code we'd leave on voicemail. Meeting at xyz's to study, was a field party. Sleeping over at xyz's was a rager. Rulebwas, if anything out of hand pull the breaker. Oh nooooo lights out, go home kthxbyeeeee. We learned

[-]

phoenix0r@reddit

Same. The movies depict more of the vibe of college aged parties.

[-]

PeggyOlsonsHaircut@reddit

Yes! House parties were awesome!

[-]

thatG_evanP@reddit

For me, yes, pretty damn accurate. Plenty of memories of cops coming and me stashing drugs in the hosts furniture. I'd always come back after the cops left and tell them I lost my keys or something so I could retrieve my stash.

[-]

WheelLeast1873@reddit

Dunno, was a nerd in hs

[-]

Conscious-Guest-8342@reddit

Even after high school… I pulled up trying to get my mid-twenties brother in law from a party in the late 90s and just soooo many cops. And they told me that they were arresting EVERYONE and I could pick him up from jail later. They arrested close to 100 people that night

[-]

bujuzu@reddit

My dad traveled for a lot of the 90s, and my sister and I would alternate who got to throw the party each time. Mine were usually pretty tame but hers were rip roaring, people on the roof etc. of course I never got caught but she did several times. I recall neighbors ratting her out, or dad finding beer cans in the garbage or cigarette buts on the patio, all sorts of dumb stuff that taught me how to not get caught.

[-]

the-cookie-momster@reddit

I heard of these things happening, I guess, but I was hanging out with a small group of other recluse high schoolers in a graveyard playing mind's eye theater so I wasn't uhh invited to that sort of thing

[-]

Plane_Chance863@reddit

Heh, I just hung out at home. No wild parties for me.

[-]

caramelpupcorn@reddit

You had fellow recluse friends to hang out with? Must've been nice!

[-]

Enso_Herewe_Go@reddit

Yes. Totally accurate loo

[-]

DirtbagNaturalist@reddit

Yep.

[-]

UnluckyParticular872@reddit

Yep, accurate. Add fights to the lists of things that happened at 90’s parties. lol

[-]

jackfaire@reddit

Yes but not all of us were invited

[-]

FoppyDidNothingWrong@reddit

Was invited to one of these once. Couldn't get a ride there (too stupid to lie) and the rest is history. 😅

[-]

BellaLeigh43@reddit

We had parties, but out in the woods off logging roads or on secluded beaches at the reservoir, lakes, or rivers. The cops only cared that we got home safely, so as long as we had a DD to shuttle people down the mountain back into town, they left us alone.

[-]

ZookeepergameWild4@reddit

Ture for me in high school and college. Chased by searching helicoptors more than one. Also:.TP'd houses and had ours TP'd, busted mailboxes, nightswimming in pools and lakes, snuck out and wandered around smoking cigarettes.

[-]

Competitive-Safe-452@reddit

Not for me but I’m sure it was, I wasn’t cool enough to be invited to house parties

[-]

ifallallthetime@reddit

100% accurate

[-]

splynneuqu@reddit

It wasn't just house parties. They also took place in the woods, beach, at a lake.

[-]

BreckyMcGee@reddit

I was in HS in the late 90s and this absolutely tracks.

[-]

Senn-66@reddit

In my more rural area, it was a barn instead of somebody's house. But yeah practically the entire school was there. Can't imagine it could happen today.

[-]

tweakin_casually@reddit

Never had parties like that but I was with the drug crowd not the drunk crowd

[-]

KingMaddMetalZilla06@reddit

Zionist Military Industrial Complex says thanks for your contribution to our global policing 😊

[-]

tweakin_casually@reddit

By getting high instead of drunk?

[-]

RedundantInsomniac@reddit

This thread is fascinating to me. I also never had/attended parties like that, or even heard of them happening - but I was in the theatre kid and lunch-in-the-library quiet nerd crowds.

[-]

oodja@reddit

Didn't have to worry about the cops shutting your party down when half of the party kids had cops in the family. Gotta love small-town corruption!

One of our high school graduation parties was LITERALLY at the chief of police's house (his son was in my graduating class).

[-]

wookiesack22@reddit

We didn't have hundreds of people usually...but i remember 30 people hiding in a tiny bedroom totally silent as the police talk with someone downstairs. Or being at a party when someone says, police are coming, we gotta go.

[-]

jr5263754@reddit

Yes but the ratio of girls to guys wasn’t 1:1 it was like 4 guys for every girl. And the parties were rarely as good

[-]

drainbamage1011@reddit

I'm sure some people in my class were having those kind of parties. We were the ones out drinking around a campfire in a field or the woods. One of my buddies moved out to his grandparents' farm and their barn was a common hangout spot. No sex or drugs, but no cops to worry about either.

[-]

firewifegirlmom0124@reddit

I mean…we had those. But usually if the weather was even semi decent we partied in a field. That way no one’s house got trashed and no one’s parents found out. And the rain washed away the puke from the MD 20/20

[-]

RetroBerner@reddit

The cops didn't always get called, but I'm sure the neighbors weren't too thrilled. It's usually pretty accurate, but with less dancing

[-]

1101base2@reddit

While I did go to a few of these parties this was not my general experience. Personally most of my "wild" parties I went to we played board and video games, occasionally when we went all out we would do the parties...

[-]

mister_burns1@reddit

In addition to house parties:

Bonfire parties at the beach

Kegs at secret locations in the woods

[-]

_hi_plains_drifter_@reddit

Definitely the “secret” location!!! We called ours the “Pines”. Keg was there every other weekend.

[-]

BombedShaun@reddit

Also so many parties in a random field.

[-]

Dr_Stef@reddit

Definitely attended more in the woods parties. Campfire, boombox, lots of beer, starry night. Perfect

[-]

savesyertoenails@reddit

we partied in the exact secret locations our parents partied at when they were our age. sometimes the cops would show up and chase everybody. must be weird to be a cop.

[-]

ShiraPiano@reddit

I never went to them but yeah. Pretty common at my high school.

[-]

MaineHippo83@reddit

They existed I went to a couple, not quite as common as the movies make out.

[-]

IMAKENNEDY@reddit

Dead ass haha. Yup I lived in Connecticut growing up and we had many parties that were busted by the cops and that had 100 + people, who sometimes trashed the house.

[-]

rainbowtwist@reddit

We took over abandoned warehouses, crammed a hundred+ people into a house while on all kinds of drugs, played music on huge Mackie speakers and danced in the park until cops chased us off. Tried experimental psychedelic compounds.

Once I watched a couple with a white wolf pour gallons of milk over each other while high outside under the moonlight at a house party.

[-]

PackageDue7689@reddit

I've never seen the cops come to one

[-]

Rare-Confusion-220@reddit

As GenX (54m) it def reflects my highschool years

[-]

pardonmyass@reddit

Kinda. Where I’m at was country af in the early 2000s so it was usually someone’s grandpa’s pasture close to a creek.

[-]

Weak_Radish966@reddit

Partied extremely hard in the mid to late 90s. Hundreds of kids would show up to whoever was having a party, wildly out of control. Kids' houses got trashed.

[-]

heyitsrider@reddit

100%

[-]

BackgroundPrompt3111@reddit

Have you seen Can't Hardly Wait?

It was like that, pretty much exactly. I went to 4 or 5 of those

[-]

storm838@reddit

yes, we all hid in the basement from the Five O while the poor kid would answer to door and try to explain the street full of cars on both sides and the snow trampled by a herd of people. The snow always gave it away to the parents.

[-]

Vash_85@reddit

More or less

[-]

LoganJamesMusic@reddit

I'm gonna assume yes...though I wouldn't know first-hand - I never went to parties.

[-]

pseudonymmed@reddit

I was never invited to a house party in high school. I am sure they did happen occasionally but I wasn’t part of the social circles that had them. The problem is you need someone with a big house and parents who will leave their kids long enough to have a party, plus teens who aren’t scared of their parents response if they get caught. Maybe my town was too working class for that to be common. What was more common was a party in the woods or a secluded beach somewhere. Also in my town partying in high school was cliquey.. it’s bizarre to me to see Hollywood films where the weird/geeky/alternative kids are at the same party as the conventional ones.. that never happened in my town. I was part of the alt weirdos so we certainly partied but it was in smaller groups, usually outdoors, and was more likely to involve weed and psychedelics than booze. The more mainstream crowd had parties with drinking and more fights. But we weren’t partying together. The geeky types had their own gatherings that probably involved geek hobbies. They weren’t getting invited to other parties unless it was a prank on them.

[-]

picklepuss13@reddit

Very accurate late 90s early 00s hs and college parties.

[-]

Tutux4@reddit

Very accurate. I’m Gen X and like watching these teen movies as it brings back fun memories. My son who’s 25, had parties like these too. He’d actually house sit with a friend and the owner knew they throwing parties. Good times.

[-]

plasma_smurf@reddit

The parties I went to in the 90s were always small groups of people quietly getting stoned and listening to NIN.

[-]

Icy-Regular1112@reddit

Kinda? I went to a few of these. We knew the kids in our school that had the “party house”. The parties I hosted were a bit more tame because I had present parents that had a line that we would not dare cross. Maybe we snuck in a bottle of Boone’s Farm and yeah there definitely were couples doing some making out and fooling around. From what I hear, kids these days are lame lol

[-]

VerbalKlimt@reddit

Absolutely but for me and my friends it wasn’t some rich kids huge house while the parents weren’t home like in the movies.

It was a double wide trailer with holes in the floor and the parents were drunker than we were. Then the cops showed up and we ran.

[-]

hdulgs@reddit

Yep, you'd go out Friday/Saturday and visit multiple parties in a night.

[-]

schmampbee@reddit

This is something that doesn't happen anymore?

[-]

Powerful_Leg8519@reddit

Can’t Hardly Wait is a tru life documentary about a party in the 90s

[-]

MrBobSaget@reddit

Yes. My house was the party house because I had the parents who said “well we’d rather them do it here than somewhere we can’t keep an eye on things.” So for better or worse that’s what happened. I had ragers like twice a month my senior year of high school. Now that I’m a Middle Aged suburban dad myself, I can confidently say…my parents were out of their goddamned minds.

[-]

mdmommy99@reddit

In my experience/area I always linked this to a little more financial privilege. I went to a private school and the kids were always having these big house parties when their parents were out of town etc so I went to them. But in my actual much more working class community we never had them that big or out of control because nobody's parents were ever on vacation. If we had them, they were in the basement with parents upstairs.

[-]

whoisdatmaskedman@reddit

I went to a bunch of parties just because my best friend had a big house and I was invited by default. I lived in a wealthy area, so lots of alcohol, lots of drugs and his parents were always out of town.

[-]

Corn_Beefies@reddit

Yeah all the damn time

[-]

Objective-Giraffe-27@reddit

We used to completely pack houses with 100+ kids and a keg. The stoners would always find the coziest room and smoke that bitch out. We started parking our cars blocks away from the actual parties to avoid the cop busts. Most of my friends all got MIP tickets at some point before graduation. These movies weren't exaggerating

[-]

ratpH1nk@reddit

When I live in Baltimore we had big house parties in our rented place with a DJ and a ton of people. Then I moved to Austin and we did the same with an our band and a few friends bands playing in the back yard. Tons of people, the next day clean up could be a bit gross to say the least.

[-]

CompletelyBedWasted@reddit

I grew up in rural Tennessee. We had field parties. If the cops came they usually had a beer too. Only once were we told to leave. New guy, lol.

[-]

distrucktocon@reddit

In high school? No. My buddy and I tried this in highschool when his parents were out of town and like 6 of our bros just showed up. No women. We just drank beer and smoked.

College tho, that was a different story.

[-]

rideadove@reddit

100% accurate and the best times ever

[-]

Fackrid@reddit

That wasn't really a thing in my neighborhood in suburban Detroit, usually it was just like little crews of 5-10 people hanging out in someone's garage or basement drinking 40s and smoking really shitty weed and cigs

[-]

RemarkableKey3622@reddit

yup, there was always a band or a dj and some poor sap's parent's house got thrashed.

[-]

leggypepsiaddict@reddit

We never had the cops called or had anytbj g broken (that my mom noticed) but I did end up puking on my sister's jacket during one and someone showed up with a fake lawn goose to thay same party. That goose was around for years.

[-]

_ism_@reddit

Neither did I, and I'm wondering. I never even heard about parties at school, not even aftermath stories.

[-]

The_Nightscrawler@reddit

Not here 😅 Noise complaints are a civil matter - nothing to do with the police.

[-]

OlDirtyTriple@reddit

HS Sort of, on a smaller scale.

Didn't see an actual suburban split level house become a 200 person rager with kegs and people hooking up like on random pieces of furniture until college (00-04)

Shit out of a movie.

[-]

kurtstoys@reddit

Not exactly highschool, although we did have ragers then too. We had this party in Charlottesville in our house down "the corner" where we had 3 different bands, one on each level of the house. I made a double barrel gravity for that one. We were the only non frat house on that street, so most nights, multiple houses were having a party. Couldn't imagine someone having a bullhorn at 2am in my current neighborhood, roasting pedestrians, but back then it was normal lol

[-]

Appropriate-Food1757@reddit

Yes. The main sport in my home town was running from the cops and I was pretty good at it. Some hid in the attack at the house the cops came to, I would have pissed my pants so that was out of the question. Some just stood around and got their MIPs.

Usually the parties were smaller than the movie ones with a few dozen people. Some were large like the movies show, maybe 1-2 per year.

Many times we went to party at some obscure outdoor location like “the quarry” and for extra large ones “camping” up in logging roads.

But we were partying somewhere, pretty much every weekend.

[-]

Fast_Satisfaction484@reddit

Our school was famous for being part of the city’s largest B&E (at the time). There was so much theft and property damaged they classified the house party as a B&E. We were pretty proud of that at the time. So I would say yes, very accurate.

[-]

capofliberty@reddit

Yes. It was a great time. I can’t imagine how much life sucks for kids these days.

[-]

greysweatsuit2025@reddit

There were organized commercial burglary operations in our neighborhood that would just go from one giant house party to another with moving trucks and literally clear out all the possessions in them once everyone got to wasted to do anything about it.

I grew up in a city.

We used to have four 500 person House parties that literally required 10 or 20 cops to break up.

Had hip Hop shows in the party like DJ's microphones everything.

It was just a different world.

[-]

col_akir_nakesh@reddit

There were indeed parties, but I didn't really go to any lol.

[-]

DrAsthma@reddit

We had it all.

[-]

Jbowen0020@reddit

I didn't make many, but the few I did, that was fairly accurate. I don't remember 5.0 showing up though. Guess we kept it quiet enough.

[-]

FinishingMyCoffee1@reddit

They don't tend to show the meandering for hours in parking lots hoping a party location would present itself, but yah

[-]

General-Belgrano@reddit

Been there. Done that.

[-]

Super-History-388@reddit

I went to many such parties and even threw a couple myself.

[-]

Mail_Order_Lutefisk@reddit

Same shit happened to that kid Corey in Australia. The kid who wouldn’t take his glasses off for the news interview. Is that you?

[-]

Super-History-388@reddit

No, this was in the U.S.

[-]

kittenparty4444@reddit

OMG! His interview was EPIC! I was going to respond to another comment about him but was like oh, probably no one remembers that!! I was in college when that dropped and we all quoted him constantly! 😂

[-]

Mail_Order_Lutefisk@reddit

“I’ll say I’m sorry but I’m not taking the glasses off.” That kid was a damned legend. Still is.

[-]

5uck3rpunch@reddit

I have attended a few of these when I was in high school & I graduated in '88. They were exactly like we have seen in movies. I remember jumping out first floor windows when cops showed up. Also falling in a creek in the dark behind a house running from cops coming to one of these other parties.

[-]

rusty02536@reddit

gif

I was there.

It was all true & more.

[-]

zombiezambonidriver@reddit

Yes, very much so. Source: I'm 44 and graduated high school in 1999.

[-]

FollowingNo4648@reddit

Yes, but I lived in a rural area, so no police were ever called.

[-]

JCarr110@reddit

Completely accurate

[-]

Epicardiectomist@reddit

I was only invited to one party for graduation, and it went exactly like the movies.

You could never do it like that now, everything would be filmed and ultimately used as evidence.

[-]

maen_baenne@reddit

That was my house 💯 My parents traveled a lot, and left us home alone on weekends nearly every weekend when the weather was nice. We got really good at cleaning house hungover on Sunday mornings. Our house was the spot for many years.

[-]

RedditModsSuckTaints@reddit

100% accurate. So many nights like this.

[-]

-kindness-@reddit

Sota the same, minus the live music. There was a place out in the desert people used to call Bones. I don’t know why; it was just an area out in the desert that was like a big pit with dunes nearby. We’d take our shitty bottles of Boone’s Farm or cans of Natty.

[-]

augustwest30@reddit

I was friends with a guy who lived down the street who went to the private prep school. After I got my drivers license, I would often drive him and his friends to parties each weekend. It was basically the same group of like 50 kids who would descend on the home of whoever had parents out of town that week to drink. One week, my parents were out of town, so it was my turn to host. No cops were called since we kept things mostly inside in the basement. I thought I cleaned up pretty good, but there was a little bit of silly string that was stuck to the wall in the kitchen that tipped my parents off that something went down.

[-]

AiryPastelFarts979@reddit

Yes it was back in the 90s, I’ve been to those parties and only once were we in a neighborhood where the police were called, but they let us underage people go with a warning. I usually went to the ones that were out in the boonies and there weren’t any neighbors nearby to be bothered. Those were some good times, but I don’t miss the hangovers

[-]

HistoryGirl23@reddit

No, but I've never been a partier.

[-]

HomefreeNotHomeless@reddit

Yes. I even threw a huge one for the 1999 new years

[-]

ConcernInevitable590@reddit

I went to a lot of parties. And parties in the woods.

[-]

slippedintherain@reddit

I graduated high school in 96 and never went to or heard of a party like the ones in the movies, but I was also a nerd with very introverted friends.

[-]

dotBombAU@reddit

I had some pretty rad times.

[-]

malibuklw@reddit

We went to a couple of these but they weren’t really my thing.

[-]

CaveJohnson82@reddit

As a teen in the UK - yes, but with no cops. Have never ever heard of police being called to a party tbh.

[-]

SomaticallyWrong@reddit

100% some great times

[-]

thecicilala@reddit

Very accurate for me. I went to a lot of house parties in HS.

[-]

eggs_erroneous@reddit

These stopped happening? That's sad.

[-]

wheatorgy69@reddit

For sure. Cops often called by the parents of the kids throwing the party when the word got out and too many randoms started showing up.

[-]

Thee-lorax-@reddit

I was a theater kid and we had cast parties. We’d usually party tell 1:00 AM and by party I mean watch South Park, talk and listen to music.

[-]

207Menace@reddit

We didn't have them at houses where I am. Usually took place at a beach or Sand pits.

[-]

jfk_two@reddit

our parties were fucking wild.

[-]

Mental-Method-1321@reddit

I’ve never known anyone who held or went to a HS party except for the kinds held at the teen center on the military base. There was only food, soda, and dancing at those.

[-]

Otherwise-Ad-1051@reddit

100% accurate in my experience. I've been able to run from police at a couple of parties and have been caught at a couple. One time everyone was so out of it and music so loud, the police just walked right in. I looked up and told my friend, hey look someone came dressed as a cop. Then i noticed the rest of the police and the music stopped. There was no running that time. The next day at school I found out one of my friends was hiding in the bathroom under the sink until the police left. I really miss those times.

[-]

SaveusJebus@reddit

Not in my circle of friends. I'm sure it was accurate somewhere though

[-]

TulsaOUfan@reddit

Yes, but we had them in a field outside of town with DJs, generators, and truck mudding competitions.

[-]

EatLard@reddit

Seems to be pretty accurate for house parties. In more rural areas, they’d pick a field somewhere outside of town for the kegger.

[-]

Xx_SwordWords_xX@reddit

100%

I once dove out a second story window into a snow pile with no shoes on, just to escape the cops when they arrived. I'm Canadian, and we always take our shoes off in the house -- even when having an under-age house party, lol.

I also went to a party once that had people from another school show up, and by the time the night was over there was no walls or carpet in half the house (people started tearing the house up, for fun).

Our neighbours had a party once, that ended with a 12-person brawl on the front lawn.

I actually hadn't even thought of any of this, until now. It's just too typical.

[-]

No_Faithlessness_142@reddit

Yes totally a thing, as well as keg parties in the woods until that was also broken up by cops

[-]

WeAreNotAmused2112@reddit

When my sister and I had parties when the parents were away we were fairly strict on who showed up. No open invites, friends only invites, and if a friend brought a friend they had to vouch for them. Drugs were not allowed except for a little bit of weed here and there. Anyone who drank had to stay the night or wait the appropriate amount of time to sober up. No open ragers, but be still had a good time.

[-]

Loop22one@reddit

Yes, 100%.

Not US here though, so the relationship with alcohol wasn’t the same - it was (and is) legal from 18 and buying (back then) was often possible from 16 if you looked old enough, without checks. So less keggers etc (which aren’t really a thing in the UK anyway) - but definitely the big parties. Not 200 ppl big - but 30 people big, sure. The drinking and sex and music (and some - but more limited - drugs, at least at the ones I was at).

[-]

Dry-Resolve771@reddit

Yep

[-]

jenny_quest@reddit

In the UK, it was very much like this but without the police turning up (unless the noise went on past a certain time maybe but I never experienced anything more than irate neighbours). Lots of drinking, weed, loud music, if the house was big enough bands and sex. My friend's parents owned a farm so we'd all pitch up tents and hook up for the night 🤣

[-]

leicanthrope@reddit

I don’t know if they happened, but if they did, my introverted ass was never invited.

[-]

nightrunner900pm@reddit

Was in HS in the early to mid 90’s in the same area where the "John Hughes’”high schools were … and there were parties that were exactly like that.

[-]

SpikeHyzerberg@reddit

one of the craziest parties I went to had a Jerry Springer theme.
there was a stage and one person acted like Jerry the host . every one came in white trash costumes and acted a fool on stage ..
I remember that people were acting on stage like bad people then get off stage and other guests would think that is how they really were.. guys pretending to abuse girlfriends.. people so drunk they couldn't tell who was acting and who was a bad person many fights and cops came.

[-]

Pristine_Main_1224@reddit

We (1990-93) had very few “big” house parties. We did have huge parties in “the woods” though. None of us even knew who owned “the woods”; it was just the traditional party spot. The police would show at least once a weekend usually to run us off. Eventually we moved to “the land” that someone’s parents owned.

[-]

South_Dakota_Boy@reddit

I met my wife at a rave we had at a kids house while his parents were out of town in October of 1994.

We advertised this rave on college radio and charged admission. We insisted no alcohol or drugs though (we weren’t straight-edge, just an attempt to keep it under control).

We moved the furniture out of the living area and put it in the hallway. The couch was on its end to block access to the back rooms.

We went all night till daylight. Didn’t get the cops called somehow that time. It got busy and we made a few hundred bucks.

I spent the night hanging out with this girl I had seen before but not met. We chatted and exchanged numbers (pre cell-phone). She called me the next day and we hung out. We started officially dating exclusively a month or so later in November of 1994.

Married in 2002, kids in 2012 and 2015, still going strong.

[-]

mizushimo@reddit

The popular kids at my high school were always having Keggers in the woods after games and stuff. The only one I really went to was an alcohol-free halloween party where we watched the Blair Witch Project on the hosts projector screen tv.

[-]

Markoff_Cheney@reddit

In a time before everyone had a camera and phone on themselves at all times, there were legendary parties that managed to run for as long as they could. Some even managed to avoid the cop bust. Some folks got good at throwing parties that avoided the cop bust.
It was a veritable scramble for knowledge of the parties every weekend you jr and sr years of high school.

[-]

VoteBurtonForGod@reddit

My personal experience, yes. Can't speak for others.

[-]

19Charger@reddit

100% All week during high school the question always was always asked…”where the parties at?”. Sometimes the parties would be local. If there was nothing going on, we always had friends who had other friends who went to nearby “rival” schools and they would know someone who’s having a shin dig. But yes, there were absolute memorable ragers in my book for sure. Miss those days.

[-]

thatstwatshesays@reddit

How sad 🥲 house parties in the 90s were amaaazzzzzing (and quite literally exactly how they appear in movies)

[-]

kshizzlenizzle@reddit

I’m shocked that kids aren’t still doing this! Then again, maybe not. When the moms and teens all get together, the teens are the ones LEAST likely to get into borderline illegal shenanigans. 🤣

[-]

BIGepidural@reddit

We had most of that with some extra stuff strewn in and rarely if ever any cops.

Wasn't as packed as what things looked in the 90s when people could barely move in house parties; but the night clubs were like that.

Oh yeah, teenagers in the 90s had their own night club nights where anyone over 13 could go to different night clubs on certain nights. That ended in the 2000s; but the 90s were awesome!

Lots of parties.

[-]

NotTroy@reddit

Often exaggerated for the screen, but yes. Dozens of people, pony kegs, beer pong, loud music, maybe a bonfire. Beer bongs, large coolers filled with hunch punch with diced up fruit, weed. I was only ever involved with one where the cops got called, and I personally never saw them as we headed out immediately so I only saw flashing blue lights. That was the party we went to after my high school graduation. The only party I've been too that came close to what the movies show was one hosted by some frat guys at a house they rented. There were probably a good hundred or so people partying in and around a house that couldn't have been more than 2000 sq ft. Maybe smaller. No cops got called at that one, the party just slowly died until around 4am there were only about 10 people left sitting in a back room passing a bong around a smoke circle shooting the shit.

[-]

lostandaggrieved617@reddit

Actually, yes. The best parties are always at "the pit", no matter where it is!!

[-]

CircusFreakonLSD@reddit

I never had police called , but yes, this was a regular thing at my house, especially during the summer. My parents were pretty much never home, and I have no siblings, so I had a rather large house all to myself. I didn't actually like being home alone, so I had a lot of parties and smaller, more tame gatherings, too.

[-]

greenflash1775@reddit

100% accurate. Running from the cops is why our obesity rates were so low.

[-]

SPotPAI@reddit

In my experience, yes lol

[-]

CommercialPhone69@reddit

Ghetto bird out every Friday and Saturday night

[-]

xargos32@reddit

I didn't go to parties in high school either. They still aren't my thing.

That said, I heard about some crazy parties from people I went to school with. Not close friends, though, since they weren't into parties either.

[-]

DooficusIdjit@reddit

That’s what we did. Including motorcades to the next one when one got shut down or the vibe got shitty.

[-]

erinrachelcat@reddit

I went to a HS grad party that was so much like the film Can’t Hardly Wait. A real mix of people and some surprise hookups happened. No cops though.

[-]

Poison_Ivy_Rorschach@reddit

Yes, but I only remember the cops showing up twice.

[-]

grunkle_dan78@reddit

we did a fair share of house parties, but we mostly did mountain side parties in the woods.

[-]

Professional_Use6852@reddit

Not so much in Australia. We were always in awe of the parties we saw in American movies and TV shows.

[-]

ferfocsake@reddit

We had tons of parties like this in high school, with the exception that we were more rural than suburban, so the parties generally took place in fields, pole buildings, the woods, etc instead of houses. We even had a New Year’s Eve tradition where we’d all meet up on a different random frozen lake every year. The location was always kept a secret till the last minute because we didn’t want anyone to tip off the DNR.

[-]

Beetso@reddit

Honestly the real parties I went to were often even crazier than the ones depicted in movies! Going to high school in the early '90s ruled!

[-]

Crafty-Evidence2971@reddit

Flip cup, beer pong, party till you pass out or puke. We were degenerates but it was a good time!

[-]

ihatecatboys@reddit

House parties, bonfire parties, keggers with that weird older guy that shows up to high school house parties, and more. The more I look back at high school the less I understand how I am a functioning adult. The house party in Can't Hardly Wait is so wildly accurate to so many of my weekends its wild.

[-]

officialdougjudy@reddit

Even down to the weird yearbook chick. It checks every random box.

[-]

IAm5toned@reddit

The house party in Can't Hardly Wait is so wildly accurate

yes. yes it is 😂

[-]

CalamityClambake@reddit

My kids don't believe me when I tell them this. They can't concieve of it.

It's our fault. We put cameras in all our houses.

[-]

GramercyPlace@reddit

Do teens no longer do this?

[-]

ltsmash1200@reddit

I was not cool. I did not go to any of these parties.

[-]

anclth@reddit

Not an accurate representation for me. I think the movies are over the top.

[-]

Dildo_Shw4ggins@reddit

I went to junior high and high school in smaller towns. Most house parties I went to were either on the outskirts of town or way in the boonies — without any neighbors to worry about. Never had cops shut us down, luckily.

[-]

First_Banana2470@reddit

Pretty much

[-]

jRok57@reddit

Absolutely. More times than not, the party would end with running from cops

[-]

ringobob@reddit

So, as a kid whose primary social group was my youth group, that was 250 kids strong and very active, I didn't have the experience of alcohol, drugs, cops getting called, etc. But massive house parties, parent approved, sure, at least a few throughout high school. And much more often groups of 10-15 of us.

I heard about a few of the other less... well behaved parties that occurred, almost always after the fact. I wasn't particularly uninterested in such parties, but there was a social layer between me and the people going to those parties.

[-]

Not_a_werecat@reddit

Literally never saw this.

But.....

I grew up suuuuper rural. Nobody had a big house to host that kind of party. And everybody was in everybody else's business so guaranteed that the parents would hear about it from nosey neighbors before police were ever called.
I would not have been invited.

[-]

sedatedforlife@reddit

Yes… mostly. We never had the dancing they always seem to have in the movies, unless some random girl got drunk and was making an ass of herself… but she was usually dancing alone. There also wasn’t usually snacks like I’ve often seen in the movies. It seemed like 1 of every 5 parties like these ended with cops coming and everyone running.

Good times!

[-]

AndrewActually@reddit

I grew up in the mountains and we threw a WILD party in the woods.

[-]

_its_a_SWEATER_@reddit

More than you know, OP.

[-]

fairlyaveragetrader@reddit

Yeah, absolutely, I was just chatting with the girlfriend earlier about this and brainstorming on if it's why parents are so helicopter oriented today. Worry a bunch, people absolutely lose their minds if you say something like a 20 year old and a 16 year old that was commonplace back then by the way. It was common to get drunk before you were 16, have sex somewhere between 13 and 17, depending on where you lived even drive your parents car around when they went to sleep before you had a license

It was a different world compared to the hyper monitored politically correct culture of today

[-]

InappropriateWaving@reddit

Yes. Not as many police visits or pianos flying up the fireplace. But enough.

[-]

HedyHarlowe@reddit

My 18th was massive. I was so scared people wouldn’t come I don’t remember much of it. I wore sparky butterfly clips in my hair and blue eyeshadow.

[-]

jachildress25@reddit

I’m from a small town in the Midwest, so our parties also took place in the middle of a field somewhere.

[-]

littleirishpixie@reddit

In rural USA late 90's, ours were much more a handful of people and sharing whatever 3-4 bottles of liqueur people managed to swipe from parents or beer if someone's older sibling was home from college. And there were always jello shots (not sure who actually took the time to make them but someone always did and kudos to them). I remember playing a game of "screwdriver" pong with was easily the world's most cheap and disgusting vodka mixed with orange kool aid. It was awful.

They were usually held at someone's cabin even if people's parents were gone for the weekend. It was a small town and nobody was getting away with a party without the whole neighborhood telling on them. I don't think they ever exceeded 30 people (but to be fair, when your graduating class is 100, that's a decent number of people), and there was no blasting music or dancing, usually weed but nothing harder than that, some drinking games, and usually a campfire. At some point, people would rack out at various places around the house for the night with whomever.

I was in college until I went to a party that looked anything like the movies. And after I got past the first 5 minutes of feeling like I had officially arrived, I actually sort of missed the small town party vibes.

[-]

Rsubs33@reddit

Yes and no. No parties I was ever at were as well planned. Like I swear ever party in the movies they had a band or a DJ playing and they always had better booze. And I don't think we have like 200+ people like the movies but we would have 20-60 easy.

[-]

TwistingEcho@reddit

Yeah, had a few house parties in Australia. Nothing really big though, not more than 30 personally.

[-]

johnnloki@reddit

Yes. Absolutely yes. One summer I made it my goal to have sex on as many friends parents beds as possible. I aimed low. Lol.

[-]

eddie2hands99911@reddit

Got chased off the roof or the garage because we had the keg up there. Don’t rightly remember how we got it up there but it hurt coming down…

[-]

nahmahnahm@reddit

I mean… My mom called the cops on herself when the house party she threw got out of hand. This was back in the 60s. She was a popular party girl and I was a nerd so I never got this experience. Lol

[-]

PawsbeforePeople1313@reddit

Oh yeah. I had a party that was labeled "The Live Aid Concert of 2000". Hundreds of people, so much music both digital and instrumental, so many drugs, so much sex I had to throw people out for screwing in my pool. We had the absolute time of our lives and the neighbors never called the cops because we were "that Italian family in the big house". We threw a few rangers while my parents were out of the country. We still talk about those parties 25 years later. Great memories.

[-]

TBeIRIE@reddit

Can confirm for circa 1990-1994.

[-]

civilyDisobedient@reddit

We were experienced fence jumpers out of necessity. 😂 Had to be fast to not get caught. Thank God cell phones weren't a thing yet....

[-]

Revolutionary-Mood87@reddit

As a late 90s juvenile delinquent, can confirm. 😎

[-]

SopaDeKaiba@reddit

Yes. But they were never as huge as the ones on TV and in the movies. At least not the ones I went to.

[-]

Cake_Donut1301@reddit

Yes. And supposedly the cops let the air out of everyone’s tires.

[-]

Necessary_Total6082@reddit

A little different for some of us. If we were going to a party in a rich neighborhood or the Frats. Yeah. It's pretty correct except sometimes it wasn't the cops showing up. Instead private security.

But most of the time for me and my friends, it was trailers out in the sticks, or in the middle of the woods or fields. Getting out there was half the fun. Old dark dirt roads, climbing and hiking through trails, trees, and all the nighttime Florida wilderness.

Bonfires, truck batteries powering everything, screaming, dancing, drinking and all the rest 😉. Wild and getting away with it all in a way that the rise of Social media and smart phones killed.

As long as we made our survival known to our parent/s by Monday and showing up to school, or calling home at whichever friend's place we crashed landline. Or showing up to work. It was all good so long as nobody got pregnant, was calling for bail, or got stranded 3 counties away. That seemed to be the only thing any of our parents actually were concerned about.

[-]

LukeMayeshothand@reddit

I lived in a rural area so the crowd was smaller, and we did it in fields or cul de sacs or on boats. And because we were so rural there were no cops. But we partied all the time.

[-]

Crans10@reddit

I had to go to College for these parties.

[-]

forbins@reddit

The answer is yes. That’s how our parties were. It was a great time to grow up. We didn’t have the restrictions and rules of today but we learned how to party from the 70s and 80s. It was incredible looking back.

[-]

petite-cherie_@reddit

I was not only one of the teens who participated in these, but I was someone who threw one (accidentally). I made the mistake of mentioning to a group of my stoner friends that my parents were going out of town, and later that day, other people in some related circles were telling me they were looking forward to my party. It didn't get too wild although lots of people showed up, and eventually my neighbors placed a noise complaint so everyone left. At other friends' house parties I skinny dipped in the pool, drank until I passed out, and even ended up losing my virginity. I came from a big city and had a shitty upbringing which led me to be reckless and rebellious.

[-]

zombiejov@reddit

Yes

[-]

Great_Produce4812@reddit

I was a senior in '99 and found out that a few kids from our high school (which had ppl from all over, not a neighborhood high school in NYC) were having parties regularly where all of the above was happening. I was never invited, even though our school was literally all nerds.

But yeah I never saw any of it.

[-]

sum-9@reddit

Absolutely yes.

[-]

IceCoughy@reddit

It varied, particularly In how cool the kids were that threw the party

[-]

FastWalkingShortGuy@reddit

In the late 90s, we used to have parties at the houses that had in-ground pools (they were everywhere back then, don't see them much anymore).

Everyone got drunk and high as fuck, and went skinny dipping, and we set up tents in the yard where "cuddle puddles" would go down.

So yes, it absolutely happened.

[-]

ZealousidealPound460@reddit

You know how they say movies are an exaggeration and not based on reality?

This one is 100% spot in. 1. High school parties at houses where the parents were away

High school parties with kegs and handles of liquor in the woods / fields
College parties / frat parties / ragers

[-]

checksy@reddit

My neighbors never called the police.

[-]

Just_Another_AI@reddit

Absolutely. Parents leave the teens home alone while they go on vacation? PARTY

[-]

Ear_Enthusiast@reddit

We had lots of these. Some kids parents would go out of town and 150 people would show up and rage.

[-]

Sunshinehaiku@reddit

Most definitely.

[-]

red286@reddit

All the raves I went to were at warehouses in industrial parks in the middle of fucking nowhere. Everything seemed normal until you were within about a block and then you could feel the bass shaking the ground. Even from the outside, it all seemed fairly tame and normal until you went through the doors and then it was just a fucking madhouse of flashing lights booming techno and everyone blasted on X, grinding on each other, and sucking pacifiers.

[-]

melophat@reddit

Lived in LA/San Fernando Valley for highschool (c/o 2k), and this pretty accurately describes the parties that I went to in HS.

[-]

djsynrgy@reddit

Definitely, but I largely avoided them; way too much social anxiety – not that I had such language or awareness at the time; I just knew I didn't like how I felt.

I needed a 'purpose' to be able to get through those. Still do, honestly.

Like, the band I played with during most of HS, played a few wild parties like this, and that was fine for me, because I didn't have to mingle; I just had to perform. Go figure. Also, for a while there, our weekly band practices inadvertently turned into big teen parties, to the point that we had to add a second weekly "closed door," session just so we could actually get some work in.

We were an obscenely loud band; every last one of those parties ended with cops. 😆

[-]

literanch@reddit

This was more early and mid 2000s for me. Not that I did tons of partying but pretty much every house party I’ve ever been to was during that time period.

[-]

Neither-Mycologist77@reddit

I did all my partying in college and grad school, so same. I don't remember any drugs, and I never noticed any sex, though I know people were doing it. I preferred to sober up and go home, so maybe all of that happened after I peaced out.

The only party I was ever at that had cops show up was actually dry. It was a bunch of kids from a Christian fellowship group, and we were just really loud. The police were confused, we were apologetic, and they left.

[-]

literanch@reddit

Pretty much just alcohol at the parties I went to. Although some dumbass guy fired a handgun into the air in the backyard of a party at someone’s big house in a nice neighborhood with like 150-200 people in attendance. I left immediately.

[-]

_Internet_Hugs_@reddit

Yes and no.

Wild parties, yes. Alcohol and sex, yes. Police, no. Most people were smart enough to keep things down enough to not have the police called, nobody wanted to get arrested for underage drinking. Those were the kind that were held after football games and when people's parents went out of town. Nobody got too stupid, the worst thing that happened was public nudity and somebody throwing up somewhere unfortunate. Nobody destroyed property and there was often a person who was Keymaster. Keymaster got your keys when you walked in and was the one who decided if you were sober enough to drive.

I lived in Arizona, so the really wild parties were held out in the desert. I never went to any of those because I didn't drink and didn't do drugs. There was absolutely no appeal for me. I heard stories though, crazy stories.

[-]

Cutiemcfly@reddit

Yes, completely true! When I was a sophomore was super drunk at a party when my drunk friend begged me to pierce his nose. We had just got ring in when the cops busted in. The only acceptable reason for running!

[-]

pdfsmail@reddit

I had a friend who had a bedroom full of large speakers quite for literally floor to ceilings, the music was so loud, his neighbors would open their doors to listen to music and his neighbors had large yards. Everything else definitely! So I would say this is definitely accurate

[-]

LordLaz1985@reddit

I didn’t go to parties either.

[-]

C1sko@reddit

We stepped out up and did DP’s in middle school.

[-]

Parking-Till1121@reddit

I graduated HS in 2001, in New Jersey. These movies were all pretty accurate. Cops around that time loved nothing more than to break up parties. Ours were very suburban though. Unfortunately I never got to experience the country parties, out in a field somewhere tipping cows. 🤣 (if that’s something that actually happened, I only heard of it cause of a Blink 182 song)

[-]

Edlo9596@reddit

I went to parties like this in college, but never in high school. My husband definitely did though.

[-]

Gloom_Pangolin@reddit

We had a fair amount of “you can drink but only in our house” parents that allowed some ragers that were booze and weed laden hook-up shindigs. In 1998 a good friend of mine lost his dad to a work accident and the family got around $20mil out of the settlement and insurance (they were loaded to start with). Mom emancipated the kids and went to travel the world with the 20-something landscaper. My friend was left with a million dollar home, a trust fund, and a year and half of high school. Punk shows, raves, keggers, weed, coke, ecstasy, way too many adults partying with high schoolers… The kid drove a $100k+ BMW in high school. It was fucking wild. Also, he survived his wealth and went on to become an MD, then dropped dead of a stroke at 35 unrelated to his previous party life.

[-]

liza9560@reddit

I lived in a small town, so raging house parties were not a common thing. We partied in the woods and fields, with bonfires and Bush playing outta someone’s truck.

[-]

jad14850@reddit

Fuck yeah and it was fun af

[-]

Healthy-Neat-2989@reddit

Absolutely. We started in middle school. I remember once, an 8th grade teacher got wind of it and showed up, and no one listened to her so she called the cops. High school was houses and fields. College was parties with a door charge. A lot went wrong but damn, we had fun.

[-]

jailasauraa@reddit

I'm from a small town and this was accurate... except for the cops getting called. Our parents would find out eventually IF somebody did something TOO extreme..... and still didn't really care.

[-]

dsteazy80@reddit

Yes. Hosted two. Went to several more.

I’ve been to subdivision house parties and rural field parties. I tried alcohol, marijuana and acid for the first time at some of these parties.

I also got really drunk at one, puked everywhere, passed out early in a random bedroom floor and woke up to some awkward teenage sex going on in the bed above me. I didn’t know what to do, so I just pretended to be asleep.

[-]

OtherlandGirl@reddit

Hell yes, I was at many and co-hosted two. It was exactly like that.

[-]

pink_faerie_kitten@reddit

I was homeschooled in high school and never went to a wild party ever 😆

[-]

mondomiketron@reddit

Maaaan I went to some crazy house parties for sure!

[-]

nightterrors644@reddit

There were house parties put on by students and field parties at my high school. I was an outcast there so I didn't get invited. Did go to some house parties being thrown by people at other schools. One of the schools, I would have gone to if we lived about a half mile down and the other side of the road or two miles west over in the local town. I lived closer to that school than my own. Made it real convenient to go to their parties and I wasn't treated as an outcast there.

[-]

instant_ramen_chef@reddit

I was the house DJ at my high school. I dj'd at houses, flyer parties and clubs in the mid-late 90s. I can tell you that not all of the parties were crazy ragers. But they happened. I love telling stories about those parties to the younger kids these days. They dont throw crazy parties like that anymore. We really did that shit multiple times a week. My generation invented the "ditching party" that happened at 1pm on weekdays. There was always lots of weed and "Jungle Juice" which was the cheapest booze tossed together with punch mix and tang powder. Some parties had nitrous balloons. You had to go to a rave to get mdma or K. Christ those were such good times.

[-]

Plastic-Sentence9429@reddit

Yep. My house was on a fucking list with our small town cops. And my parties were usually just me and like 10-12 of my friends.

It was mostly because I had a pool, surrounded by neighbors, absent parents and would party until 2am or whatever. With music. I was not very considerate.

[-]

BalrogRuthenburg11@reddit

They were an almost every weekend occurrence in my area of southwest Chicagoland. I use to keep the cap from every kegger I held at my house and it was around 30. High school was a blast!

[-]

nola_mike@reddit

I threw two parties. The first was an after prom party and we had about 50 people show up. That was a fun night.

The second one was sort of a goodbye party before we all went off to college and it was pure insanity. 2 kegs and multiple cases of beer were consumed. People were spilling out of my house into the backyard and out front. Handheld camcorders were pretty big then and people were paying mine around all night so I have it documented somewhere.

I also attended a ton of house parties. I can confirm, the movies were pretty spot on.

[-]

idleat1100@reddit

Yes. A lot.

[-]

SoSoOhWell@reddit

Parties in high school always had cops show up. Most of the time if we sacrificed a case of beer and a few pizzas to them, then they would leave. If they came back for another complaint we were toast. Also if the party got too big pizza and bees were not going to save us.

Majority of the time we had motel parties. We would get a room and fill a tub with ice, beer, and booze. Somehow every time the lights would always get broken in the room during the course of the party. Cleaning up with one janky light in the bathroom and whatever light ftlrom the door being open really sucked though.

[-]

Sheerluck42@reddit

For me it was college parties and no one under 18 was allowed. I couldn't imagine handeling that in HS.

[-]

halflife-crisis@reddit

My friend in high school threw epic parties. Hired older guys as bouncers. No freshman allowed (except me!). Imported kegs. She had a job at a liquor store, and often got paid in booze. Yes, she was 15/16. One time the cops came and we rolled a keg out into the pond behind her place to hide it…neighbors saw it floating the next day 😂

[-]

fearless-penguin@reddit

Pretty much.

[-]

wtfworld22@reddit

Toss in getting blacked out in a cornfield and yep.

[-]

lsp2005@reddit

Yes of course this happened. It still does.

[-]

TheGreat_Powerful_Oz@reddit

Yes

[-]

DeanOfClownCollege@reddit

100% accurate. Police or sheriffs showing up to break up the party was pretty common.

[-]

Forever_Forgotten@reddit

The main party house on my side of town was literally condemned and missing the entire back wall (there was just sheet plastic). We brought boom boxes, beer, whatever prescription meds we could steal out of our mother’s purses or medicine cabinets. We brought candles, Coleman camping lanterns, flashlights. Multiple classmates conceived children during parties in that house (or in the field out back “looking at the stars”). Cops were called numerous times. That house eventually burned down and I’m certain it was during a party.

There was also at least one kid who lived in the middle of nowhere who threw similar parties in their parents’ barn. I’m always surprised that never burned down.

My Junior year the most popular girl in my class decided to throw a rager “just like in the movies” while her parents were out of the country. Well, she got her wish. Over 100 kids showed up and absolutely thrashed her house. We’re talking having sex in her parents’ bed, peeing in her parents hot tub, they damaged her father’s car in some way, broke at least 1 window. The cops were called and multiple kids were arrested and her parents had to fly home from their vacation early. It was even in the newspaper. As part of her punishment, her parents (or…maybe it was some sort of mandatory community service punishment thing?) made her give a presentation about what she’d done and the school held an assembly.

[-]

Ok_Percentage5157@reddit

Yeah, fairly often. I wasn't a high school drinker, but went to parties at different places. Thankfully most were drama free, but cops showed up a couple times. College parties were probably the best though. .

[-]

IAm5toned@reddit

💯 🎯

[-]

Shinespark7@reddit

[-]

cookiemonster8u69@reddit

Yep! I was at one where a car got pushed down a hill and it rolled into someone's house. You haven't lived until youre crouched down in the backseat of a Chevette in 20 degree weather for hours while the cops search the area.

[-]

KnightShift1980@reddit

Ours were at an abandoned Drive in, but everything else is on par.

[-]

burgundyblue@reddit

Yup, minus the drugs.

[-]

BaddestKarmaToday@reddit

Pretty accurate.

Friend’s little brother threw a party and some douche decided to start throwing around the mother’s decorations. We (19/20 yo friends of the older brother) didn’t take kindly to that. Fight started, spilled into the street, 10+ cops showed up, buddy and I jumped the back fence and hid on a neighbors front porch. It was his mom’s house (she’s outta town), parents divorced, his dad showed up just before the cops (someone called him) and ended up getting arrested for contributing. The kid that started throwing stuff spent a few days in the hospital.

[-]

Allureme@reddit

I didn’t stay long enough for the cops to come but I also had a hand in bringing the party favors

[-]

Ok-Comfortable-5955@reddit

For me they were usually out in the country.

[-]

whats_for_lunch@reddit

100% real shit for me. I remember hiding inside a house staying quiet with like 50ish people while the cops were shining lights in the windows haha.

[-]

tsrubrats@reddit

Technically my high school party years were the early 2000s but yeah, it was like that. I think we caught the last wave

[-]

WaxWorkKnight@reddit

Until the cops showed up. Wouldn't recommend it these days. No evidence of what I did exists.

[-]

Octowuss1@reddit

My friends and I had a party just after high school for 420 when one of us had parents out of town. It was wild, even a DJ showed up. His hippie parents came home early and camped out in the garage so we could keep partying. No cops; the house was out in the country. It was a 420 miracle.

[-]

DeadSharkEyes@reddit

100%!

I distinctly remember going to a house party and the police showed up and we ran away through an orange tree grove. And later being pissed because we had to leave a six pack behind in the grove lol

[-]

Audiosauce@reddit

Yes absolutely accurate. Back in those days we all had pagers in the friend group so we'd go downtown and hand out our pager numbers only to girls, if we got a page and a guy answered we'd simply hang up or say sorry man we got too many people here...lol

Good times

[-]

JenninMiami@reddit

We were still having house parties like this until we turned 30. 🫣 Except by then, we could afford Dan’s and full bars.

[-]

Barney_Sparkles@reddit

Yes.

[-]

GenX_Fart@reddit

Yup. This was accurate for me.

[-]

punkrawkchick@reddit

Absolutely, I was at a party once where we escaped the cops by hopping into a canoe and paddling away🇨🇦 The kitchen table had been thrown out the front window and added to the backyard fire.

[-]

babe_ruthless3@reddit

My first time drinking, smoking a cigarette, kissing a girl I didnt know was at a house party.

[-]

Foreign_Donkey463@reddit

For my 19th birthday, my then boyfriend (who was 21) had the idea to make a flyer for a party we were having at his house. He wanted to give it to some friends. Well, it ended up on the community bulletin board at the local grocery store. On the day of the party, his neighbor came by and told us that she found it on the bulletin board. Long story short, the house was FULL of people, many of which none of my original party knew. Money was stolen from my purse, which we later found in a random spot in the house. The cops were called. After they left, a fight broke out on the lawn. My boyfriend kicked everyone out only to have my friend let everyone back in through the backyard. It ended up being legendary....LOL

[-]

idontknopez@reddit

10000% was accurate

[-]

Yougotthewronglad@reddit

Yes, I was in secondary in the UK during the 90s so our house parties were wild. Lots of X and techno.

[-]

BojukaBob@reddit

I only ever saw one like those, and it went very badly. My buddy's mom and stepdad were gone for a couple weeks. My buddy had a small gathering of friends, like 7 or 8 of us on the Friday, while his sister was having a party on Saturday. But she told her friends at school to "tell everyone party at my house on Saturday" and the place was crawling with people she didn't know. There was at least one sexual assault, the garage door was torn off and when my buddy and I had to start clearing everyone out, they stole my boots for some reason.

[-]

Skipptopher@reddit

Our parties were usually out in the orchards and fields. Very small rural town, cops were chill about it as long as we didn't fuck with shit. Occasionally if someone's parents were out of town we would have house parties but they were rare.

[-]

BoysenberryKind5599@reddit

Went to a Catholic HS in the middle of Dallas, those movies were my life.

[-]

7thAndGreenhill@reddit

If you kept the chaos inside, the party was fine. But eventually someone would do something to cause a neighbor to call the cops.

There was always someone who couldn’t handle being drunk

[-]

Silkysilkysilkysilky@reddit

For me it was right after high school, summer of 98. A group of 6 of us rented a big house with a pool and split it 6 ways. Rent was cheap enough to do that easily. We had epic large parties and yes the cops were called a time or two.

[-]

Slim_Margins1999@reddit

Had parties like this every 2-3 weekends in High School. Pretty affluent area near Boulder, CO. Some kids parents would let us party when they were there but those were a bit more tame. Had a couple friends whose parents travelled a lot and we fucking raged, hard. Plenty of kids with older brothers in college at CU to provide booze or Asian liquor stores that gave no fucks about selling to -8 year olds. Lol

[-]

nervousRexy@reddit

Every party I was at

[-]

FradinRyth@reddit

While they weren't as shoulder to shoulder packed as they tend to show in 90s movies, the best house parties I remember from highschool were actually with the kids in band and were to far from what was shown in the movies.

[-]

sedaislayer@reddit

Hell yeah, it ain’t a party unless there’s a fight, someone gets laid and the police show up.

[-]

barredowl123@reddit

Oh most definitely.

[-]

loganrb@reddit

Outdoor raves in the desert or big house parties in town all during high school in NM.

[-]

MartyMcFlysBrother@reddit

Every weekend.

[-]

SomeoneHereIsMissing@reddit

In my case, much smaller scale. I wasn't friends with cool kids in my private high school, I was friends with the stoners at the local public high school (and ironically, I wasn't a stoner).

[-]

Designer-Bid-3155@reddit

Yup. I partied at frat houses, though.

[-]

disney_on_crack@reddit

Yep in the city I grew up in there was an area that was notorious for it in the 90s. Basically a bunch of new subdivisions built in the 80s, just houses as far as the eye could see. By the mid 90s the young families who'd bought all those houses had teenaged kids, and people were starting to realise that it might not be such a good idea to pack thousands of teenagers into these suburbs with no shops, no amenities, no sports grounds... literally nothing to do. So of course someone's parents would be out and they'd have a party, everybody would find out and hundreds of people would turn up, chaos would ensue. Hell I lived on the other side of the city and we used to turn up to these parties just to see the mayhem. The riot squad turned up a couple of times.

[-]

Creatine_Sharts@reddit

OH we had the most outrageous parties ever. We planned around parents out of town, we would make people park 1/2 mile away then shuttle people to keep the cops away. We would designate like 2 people ONLY (usually me) to talk to the cops if (when) they came. We kept EVERYTHING inside or out back the front was dark and driveway empty. We kept the cops from entering and there wasn't much they could do. We would also do pay parties sometimes. We did one for the 2000 ball drop and made a bunch of money and had the biggest party most those fools ever heard of (I was 17 at the time)

[-]