When did the bonfire parties in the woods stop?

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jackfaire@reddit

They still happen but not everyone gets invited. I wasn't invited to one until I was in college the second time after my divorce. I was between 22 and 24.

I didn't go to my first house party until I was 25. All that I did were age appropriate to me in my 20s all peers in their 20s but my high school years were bereft of such festivities.

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It happens more in rural areas. But also, I've encouraged my kid to stay the fuck out of parties because everyone has a recording device and that's the only reason most of us aren't in jail. Kids will now post all their crime on the Internet for the police.

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singleguy79@reddit

You guys got invited to bonfire parties?

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Swimminginthestorm@reddit

My peers definitely had parties with bonfires. I was often invited, but only if I promised not to tell any of my admittedly super awkward friends. I would always thank them for the invite, but those awkward friends were loyal and fun.

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MaineHippo83@reddit

The kids aren't drinking as much anymore. Then you have the problem of massive over policing.

So the kids are much more risk-averse and the risks are a lot higher

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Few_Candle9432@reddit

I’m honestly trying to think of folks that age who would know how to build and manage a fire, or even be willing to gather the wood and I don’t know any. lol. I’m not kidding.

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andrewclarkson@reddit

I never went to anything like that in High School but I host one every September now.

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ghandi3737@reddit

Money, our parents had expendable income that they gave to us to have fun.

Somewhat more difficult to do now for younger kids with wage disparities.

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ksigguy@reddit

One of the big reasons was camera phones. I was born in 83 and lived in rural Idaho. We were rarely in the woods but we did have bonfire parties almost every weekend at one farm or another. My own parents were cool with the partying and we had an old milling barn that was really long. We had a fire pit behind it since you couldn’t see it from the road.

Without cameras even people whose parents would have been upset about partying never saw evidence of their partying. Today it would be on social media while the party was still going.

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SnooStrawberries2955@reddit

Partying at a bonfire in the pasture was the thing I grew up with. 1983

Debauchery is no longer cool.

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caramelpupcorn@reddit

You guys were going/invited to unsupervised outdoor parties? I was at home watching the latest X-Files.

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DETRITUS_TROLL@reddit

I was staying up to all hours.

It was just for DnD and MTG.

And we drank copious amounts…. of Mtn Dew.

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laziestmarxist@reddit

That orange mountain dew was definitely liquid evil but I still drank 4 cans a day

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DETRITUS_TROLL@reddit

Pfft. Rookie.

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CEEngineerThrowAway@reddit

A few dads started playing MtG again. It’s great, meet at 7pm as the kids are winding down and stay till 10-11ish. The host even supplied pizza rolls and Mountain Dew, and I made a faux pax by bringing strawberry goat cheese bruschetta instead of cool ranch Doritos.

I spent 20 years thinking Magic the Gathering kinda vanished underneath the popularity of Pokemon. One day my kid and I went past a coffee shop, Enchanted Grounds, and my nerd radar went off and was pleasantly surprised to see a Local Game Shop stocked with D&D, MtG, tons of board games. I wasn’t the kid getting invited to parties in the woods, so it was nice to show him third spaces like these exist.

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akm1111@reddit

MtG is totally still going strong, it's just a fairly expensive hobby now to build just the right decks.

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CEEngineerThrowAway@reddit

Luckily it hasn’t been expensive yet. We’re a few sessions in and couple of guys have been playing for while and just exited to have others to play with, so there a quite a few extra decks floating around. They’ve also filled in with a lot of home prints on the rare cards, which I actually find relieving.

The Commander format for 4 buddies sitting around a table was great.

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DETRITUS_TROLL@reddit

You can keep in fairly inexpensive as long as you don’t have that ONE GUY in the group.

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theboxisempty@reddit

Only the last half of senior year. Otherwise I was at home playing FF7.

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portagenaybur@reddit

I played FF7 and went to forest parties

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guyincognito121@reddit

Well you probably only had really shitty Chocobos then.

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Him_8@reddit

C'mon. Xfiles was on Sunday night after the third season.

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LoudSheepherder5391@reddit

I had to look it up. I dont recall.xfiles switching days. They switched right around the time i started dating and going to parties in the woods. So I never knew

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Him_8@reddit

I had a girlfriend with a strict mom. I watched XFiles every week with her..... Then went and drank at the party in the woods 🤣😂🤣

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caramelpupcorn@reddit

I forgot this detail, but I mean I was generally home-bodying it up Friday-Sunday so it's all the same to me.

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venk@reddit

Are you me?

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caramelpupcorn@reddit

Only if 90% of your mid-life crisis is realizing you were (or, let's be real: still are) way less popular than you thought.

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PersianCatLover419@reddit

I went to some house parties. They were not super large, and crazy like in movies such as 16 candles since then the police would get called.

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VitalArtifice@reddit

Time well spent. As an aside, The X-files holds up well.

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RootDDoot@reddit

Watching XFiles with no lights on?

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HontoRenata@reddit

We’re dans la maison

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graveybrains@reddit

So thats why I could never understand that lyric

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HontoRenata@reddit

Sneaky Canadians talkin’ French. You never can tell what they’ll get up to.

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congeal@reddit

Gotta switch to Bloodhound Gang lyrics

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_Ethel_Beavers@reddit

I hope the Smoking Man is in this one.

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Ok-Concert-6475@reddit

Thank you for this reference. I read the line above, and started humming the song.

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Bajovane@reddit

I will never forgive the Cigarette Smoking Man for F’ing up a football player for the Buffalo Bills player - costing them the Super Bowl.

https://247sports.com/video/x-files-buffalo-bills-superbowl-woes-due-8955752/

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KermitMadMan@reddit

I had friends that had older siblings. That’s the only way we knew about the parties.

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Rdubya291@reddit

Yeah. It was pretty damn fun.

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affectionateanarchy8@reddit

Exactly this. Recording it onto vhs so i can dissect every scene.

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tweedchemtrailblazer@reddit

Summer of ‘04

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Fabulous-South-9551@reddit

I was in warehouses doing drugs

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NakedSnakeEyes@reddit

I walked past one such woods party a few weeks ago, I made a post about it.

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REO_Speed_Dragon@reddit

Oh they're still happening we just stopped getting invited

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5WattBulb@reddit

We'll have our OWN bonfire parties! And none of them will be invited!

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mc_louds@reddit

Only star bellied sneetches can come to our bonfires!

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Alloku@reddit

With blackjack and hookers! In fact, forget the bonfire!

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123FakeStreetAnytown@reddit

r/unexpectedfuturama

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johnrgrace@reddit

I’ve got a solo stove and a pending application for a charity gaming license.

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overengineered@reddit

Gotta start somewhere!

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congeal@reddit

Can we get it done by 9pm? I'll get sleepy.

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Dog_Baseball@reddit

And the smoke gives me sinus inflammation, can we just gather around a pile of wood?

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pupperdogger@reddit

What about one of those little fans that blows up through orange streamers and plastic logs? Just like a real fire.

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congeal@reddit

Maybe just a zoom meeting with a fire background? Do I have to turn my camera on?

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eggs_erroneous@reddit

Yeah, I can't see well in the dark so driving is a little dicey. Maybe we could just meet at the McDonalds for coffee at 6am tomorrow morning?

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congeal@reddit

Maybe we could just meet at the McDonalds for coffee at 6am tomorrow morning?

that McDs shut down 15 years ago. where you been?

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reluctantrevenant@reddit

That's why we have the fancy solo stoves. No smoke.

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Stompedyourhousewith@reddit

And then you think about all the wood you have to haul or chop, and you reach back to put your hand on your slightly aching lower back...

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HAL_9OOO_@reddit

They did continue after we stopped getting invited.

But as far as I can tell, teenagers today are lame as fuck and don't do anything like that.

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Cutthechitchata-hole@reddit

You guys were invited? We happened to find them by following rows of our age kids around

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j_ly@reddit

Life 360 says otherwise.

Poor kids these days...

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Glass-Marionberry321@reddit

Really was amazing times. Like the forest kegger on dazed and confused. I feel badly for kids today, really lacking in their party years.

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SiphonTheFern@reddit

Apparently never and they involve fireworks around here.

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armyofant@reddit

No WiFi in the woods.

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RogerDodger457@reddit

Just had a conversation about this, and the fact that everyone has phones and can be tracked by their parents likely deters this more than a house party.

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mister_burns1@reddit

We had our bonfire parties at the beach. Woods were for kegs, but no fire because you have to be careful with fire in California.

The teens where I am now do seem to have parties and drink (the girls get especially drunk, it is reported), but no keggers in the woods. I get scoffed at for asking. Which I do repeatedly.

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AdComprehensive7939@reddit

My sister was born in '89. Huge difference in levels of innocence but they made up for it w opiates in later teen years.

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BiddleCity_Bullshit@reddit

Ahhh that mix of drunkenness, fear and adrenaline when cops would show up. Sprinting drunk through the woods where you can hardly see and later hearing about the poor bastard who got caught had to go to court for an MIP.

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IsThataNiner@reddit

Made my best friend throughout high school from hiding out in the woods together freshman year.

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Moonskaraos@reddit

I remember running from cops in the woods and lost one of my sneakers in particularly a mucky area. Good times.

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Ok_Percentage5157@reddit

As a parent to four (now grown) children, I can guarantee they did not.

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pseudonymmed@reddit

It really depends on where you grew up, and who your friends were at the time. Those matter a lot more than when you were born.

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The_Curvy_Unicorn@reddit

Class of 96 here…grew up in the middle of nowhere, town of 2,000 people. My classmates wanted to have a bonfire pasture party for our 20th reunion. We passed and met up with friends at my mom’s house, where we could legally drink, with indoor plumbing and snacks.

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Allureme@reddit

When the woods were cleared for new developments.

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Door_Number_Four@reddit

With phones your parents can track you.

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Easy_Independent_313@reddit

I love that I basically have LoJack on my kids.

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urfriendflicka@reddit

My kid (16) loves to track me, so she's happy that I can track her too. She feels safer knowing that we can find eachother in am emergency.

When I was 16, I was so paranoid that my parents would figure out how to track me via my nokia 6610 that I turned it off and left in my car that stayed parked at my friend's house while I went out. I was expected to only use it if there was an emergency and I would have died in a field from alcohol poisoning before calling my parents for help, and by turning it off, I could claim the battery died.

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the_kid1234@reddit

My assumption is that those that are tracked leave their phone at the one friends house and the ones that aren’t keep them on them.

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latebloomer2015@reddit

No, they definitely take the phone everywhere. They may just turn off the location or their parents don’t actually check. There is also the possibility that the kids don’t care and are doing it anyway.

But seriously…how else will they go viral if they can’t record themselves doing something amazing(ly stupid)? /s

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yourlittlebirdie@reddit

I don’t think kids today ever part with their phones. How are they going to take photos to share on Snapchat if they don’t??

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Budget_Assistant1425@reddit

IME, you are correct with them being unable to part with their phones, but not because they are sharing on Snapchat (or elsewhere), but because they rely on the phones so heavily during interactions with one another. The phone is both where they are getting the media/info/cool young people shit to share, and how they are sharing it. Like instead of actually engaging in a conversation about a movie or band, they are texting each other memes or clips, etc in real time, sometimes while sitting together under the same roof.

Also, all the field parties I attended in high school involved getting a ride with friends and underage drinking. A lot of teens aren’t getting their licenses at 16 the way they used to, and drinking is out of fashion for younger gens.

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DiscoLibra@reddit

My neighbor still tracks her twenty something daughter. Her daughter was going on a date and she was checking to see where she was at. It really bothered me. I get wanting to know where your kid is at, but it just seemed like a huge invasion of privacy esp at that age.

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Easy_Independent_313@reddit

My 28 yr old sort of niece allowed my phone to follow her. I saw that she got back with her boyfriend before she told me (I'm happy for her, they are actually great for each other) but didn't remind her I can see her location and acted surprised and delighted when she told me.

I pay for my kids phones, so they share their location with me. That's the deal.

My parents also share their location with me. I actually made them do it after they got lost one too many times over the summer this year.

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Door_Number_Four@reddit

That seems weird to me.

I raise my kids in a major city….they can see where I am on their phones, and I can see them . My oldest, who is now 24, pored out of that a couple years back, which is fine.

Mom probably needs to watch a little less true crime.

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n0exit@reddit

Airplane mode

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Door_Number_Four@reddit

Yeah, my teenager tried that, and we had words.

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FlySecure5609@reddit

Yup. Life 360 and Karens with the police on speed dial killed this.

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guyincognito121@reddit

Seemed to be more of an 80s thing where I grew up in the Chicago suburbs. I used to hang out at a corner bar where some older dudes would reminisce about hanging out in the nearby forest preserves. Always seemed weird to us.

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pinchenombre@reddit

Because everyone is recording it and then blasting it on social media. Gone are the days of flashing the band at the concert or making out with strangers drunk. Everything is recorded. You are always on blast. Debauchery blocker? camera phones and social media of today.

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Chemical-Dog6364@reddit

They stopped?

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Capn26@reddit

It’s funny. I’m an 82 kid. My parents split, remarried, and u have a brother and sister born in 93. Their group did FAR less partying than we did. They were extremely boring. Now my stepson and his friends seem to party like we did.

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mdmommy99@reddit

1980 and I always thought bonfire parties were just something that teens only did in movies. It probably depends on where you grew up more than anything.

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Dickrubin14094@reddit

Also 1980, definitely thought it was a movies thing till I started reading through the comments on this post

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rialucia@reddit

I think this is the answer. OP’s wife must not have lived in an area where bonfire parties were not a thing, or just ran with a different crowd that didn’t go to any.

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Man_Bear_Beaver@reddit

Buy a camper, rent a space in a campground.. aaaannnnndddd you're there again.

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BlueProcess@reddit

Drinkable mayonnaise

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ChristyLovesGuitars@reddit

AFAIK, that was just in movies.

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RadioWavesHello@reddit

They are out there, but the are trix

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Fabulous_Brick22@reddit

My 16 year old hangs out with his friends either at the park after hours or on his friends roof lolol. Thankfully not getting up to anywhere near the amount of shenanigans that I did lmao

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TheLakeWitch@reddit

I wasn’t really going to parties in high school (finally got invited to a few during senior year). By college I’d moved back to Michigan and we were having them in someone’s pole barn or someone’s parent’s cottage (someone’s parent’s camp for you New Englanders).

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FormidableMistress@reddit

I was at a bonfire last night.

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rguzman2003@reddit

I don’t know if this is everywhere, but in the city where I grew up, the place we used to have bonfires at way out in the desert is a developed community now

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imhereforthevotes@reddit

Kids don't drink any more.

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lappinlie@reddit

We just have bonfires in our yard now and prefer the company of our dogs and maybe a couple friends to a big party

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Kennedygoose@reddit

Cameras. You can’t break the law without some dipshit friend posting it and getting everyone caught. If cell phones were as common when I was a kid as they are now, I’d have been fucked.

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uscarbinecal30m1@reddit

If you've listened to any mainstream/radio country music this century, they're still going on.

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thegreatcerebral@reddit

The weird part is they kind of stopped. At least at the level they used to be. 100%. One surveillance didn't exist like it does today back then. It was easier to get your hands on stuff you shouldn't have them on back then as opposed to now also. Lastly... all the land is being taken up for development (at least in my area).

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CalamityClambake@reddit

Maybe your girlfriend wasn't cool in high school.

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Complex_Mention_8495@reddit

German here. For me it were not exactly parties but basically a come together of like-minded people. Often enough people I didn't knew before. We had one favorite spot with a nice view over the nearby city and it was definitely an option if we didn't want to go out into a pub, the cinema or a discotheque. Since beer is allowed at age 16, we would grab a 6pack of Beck's beer and maybe some sausages from a gas station and then stay there until late at night. Maybe somebody would even bring a guitar...

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MassholeForLife@reddit

When my oldest was graduating HS in 2017 I asked if she wanted to get a keg to celebrate. She said dad ‘kids don’t do that anymore’…… I was gobsmacked! Gobsmacked I tell ya! Running from the cops at a kegger in the woods was a right of passage in the 80’s.

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gonzagylot00@reddit

Maybe she grew up in a city?

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-misc@reddit

It’s because they paved paradise to put up a parking lot

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Top-Wolverine-8684@reddit

My husband grew up in a semi-rural area of the Midwest, and that was how they spent their weekends. The rural relatives in his family still do this. I have only lived in the California suburbs, and couldn't have ever conceived of such a thing! All of my friends were very religious and/or musical theatre kids, so the wildest we ever got was going to a friend's house to watch a Disney movie with the rest of their family, and their mom would bake chocolate chip cookies.

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tkecanuck341@reddit

Never had a bonfire in the woods, but we had bonfires at the beach all the time. I just went to one on Saturday.

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Fabulous_Hat7460@reddit

Tell me you didn't grow up in the midwest without telling me you didn't grow up in the midwest...

There were never any parties in the woods in the midwest, we did that shit in corn fields.

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bluescrew@reddit

4 pickup trucks backed up to the fire pit with the tailgates down

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bluescrew@reddit

This is the Xennials subreddit, right? Why are y'all pretending you don't know that kids are being constantly tracked when you are the parents doing the tracking lol

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proper_specialist88@reddit

Growing up in NW Florida, it was mostly the woods, but sometimes on the beach. Cops showed up either way but the parties in the woods lasted longer. I remember running from the cops in my Docs on the beach being a serious task, until I finally found a condo complex to duck into.

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Ive_seen_things_that@reddit

I had one last night with my buddy. We drank beers and watched the aurora! Get out there!

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No-Wonder1139@reddit

In the hills behind my high school there was a huge crack on the side of the hill that made a really great cave, just enough overhang to block the rain and wind, but open enough to the elements that the ground was covered in dirt and sediment, and room for smoke to escape making it a perfect place for a bonfire. My kids went to the same high school, had no idea it was there. There was someone having a fire there every time I ever wandered up that hill on any given Friday or Saturday night. There was either a party or a gathering all the time. Kids now don't even know it's there. It's odd.

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DiscoLibra@reddit

I had this conversation with a boomer neighbor during Halloween a few weeks ago. She was complaining how many teenagers were trick or treating, that they should all be working or have jobs instead. I kinda laughed and said, "or at a keg party out in the middle of the woods"

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raisedbydogsnhippies@reddit

They stopped for my friend group when facebook started, and now we're all strangers.

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NachoNachoDan@reddit

I live in a rural area. They are alive and well and kids even still drink beer and smoke weed at them.

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surlysquirrelly@reddit

HELL YEAH

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Dicfive@reddit

God I wish I was still 17

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buickgnx88@reddit

But you can do that now as an adult without having to worry about the cops showing up!

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Dicfive@reddit

Man I do! I sit in my backyard all the time and smoke out and am in bed by 930. It’s a great time

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AotKT@reddit

And you can do them at a sensible hour so we’re all home by 9pm!

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void_method@reddit

Yeah, but, I don't wanna hang out with a bunch of kids, I'm not that one dude from Dazed and Confused.

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WiseDirt@reddit

gif

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MonsterMashGrrrrr@reddit

Alright alright alright

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Tsunamiis@reddit

This is why there’s no more late night bonfires

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elektrik_noise@reddit

There's a gay bar near me that on Sundays plays all Madonna, Janet, or Kylie, etc. Obviously, there aren't middle to younger Millennials, absolutely no Gen Z. Not their generation's music. Very 40+. And, as such, those "nights" start at 4 and wrap up at 10. Most of us olds leave by 7:30. I fucking love it lolol

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AotKT@reddit

I immediately went to look at your profile to see if I could figure out where you live so I could move there to be a patron of this bar. Alas, you are in The Cold Place so I will have to go without. I seriously need to win the lottery so I can start a similar bar.

This is like the one time my friend and I took her son to see Slayer and were excited that the show started at 5pm only to realize it was a festival type thing of like 6 bands and Slayer wasn't slotted till like 10pm. It was a long night. We sat in the very back of the lawn section and crocheted whilst headbanging gently because at our age any vigorous motions = a week of back/neck pain.

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elektrik_noise@reddit

Yes, I live in Chicago. The Madonna/Janet/Kylie events are a lot of fun! There's also a Gaga night, but it's at a different gay bar that younger people go to and we go every so often, but we get a seat and keep to ourselves lol. Come in the summer, it's a blast here. I saw Slayer many years ago in high school. It was fun, not my fav band by any means but I wasn't mad to be there. This year some industrial old timers came through- NIN, Ministry, TKK, and those were fun. Esp bc they're prob gonna be hanging it up sooner than later.

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akela9@reddit

I was a bartender (and when not on the clock a barfly, unfortunately) for many moons. Used to roll my eyes so hard at all the "wanna be home by 9:00" kind of talk from people my/our age. I didn't even get done with work until 2:00 a.m. and then ya sometimes wanted to meet up with buds somewhere for breakfast.

Then I quit bartending. And eventually I quit drinking.

I GET IT, NOW. And I apologize profusely for being snarky about it in the past. I don't even know how I was doing that ish up until about four years ago. Thinking about getting back into bartending feels impossible. Feels like it would literally kill me.

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AotKT@reddit

I used to close down bars on weeknights so I get it!

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Constant_Concert_936@reddit

I’m going to need more than one of you to hold me up for my keg stand.

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BlackieDad@reddit

It’s not as fun when you’re allowed to do it

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icenine09@reddit

😬

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Doc-007@reddit

You couldn't pay me enough money to go back to 17. I'll take 25, but never 17.

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seriouslynope@reddit

17 was mt favorite age until I turned 23. Now 23 is my favorite age.

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CorgiMonsoon@reddit

gif

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Tsunamiis@reddit

We are

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MyNameIsNot_Molly@reddit

That warms the heart to hear. I seriously wish my kids would go outside and get in (a little) trouble for once!

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Sodamyte@reddit

Grew up in a rural area. Most of the bonfire parties I when to, the parents did this also lol.

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throwawayfromPA1701@reddit

Yep. Altho I think there's more vaping and less drinking in my area.

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Harkonnen_Dog@reddit

After Texas A&M?

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shponglespore@reddit

I'm a burner and I've seen some epic bonfires in the woods at Burning Man regional events. But there's always the fear it'll be called off at the last minute because of a burn ban. Also those fires always have the local fire department there to make sure things don't get out of hand. Safety third!

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Crafty_Original_7349@reddit

All the land is posted and private, and most landowners have cameras. If you show up to have a party on someone’s land, you can expect a confrontation with an armed landowner and at minimum a very uncomfortable chat with the Sheriff.

I think the meth problem is what changed the casual rural mindset around here.

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TemperatureTight465@reddit

My brother was born in 85 and his friends still have bonfire parties. Your wife just has a different caliber of friend

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DDrewit@reddit

Still going strong in rural NorCal.

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Longjumping-Spare870@reddit

I definitely attended these parties in empty lots, different spots every weekend. Beer keg, freedom, open skies, sometimes the cops showed up but mostly didn’t. What I don’t remember, how did we know where to go!? It was always word of mouth, I think I remember always following someone else to the spot. This would’ve been in the early 90s so no cell phones. Better times.

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akm1111@reddit

Somebody passed a note to someone else. And they were always folded in awesome ways. And the note circulated thru the school.

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newhappyrainbow@reddit

I’ve only ever lived in big cities. Shortage of nearby woods in these parts.

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akm1111@reddit

There were not many "woods" nearby for kids to have bonfires near me.

There were rumors of parties, with all the drinking, but I wasn't in that crowd.

My kids band group had a part at someone's house in like 2018 that had a good sized fireplace, so that are still happening sometimes... kids are just way more busy now.

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b_squared130@reddit

I feel this post in my soul. Firstly, my wife and I are nine years apart and she also wonders how I have spent my adult years on a chain gang or stamping license plates. She was the straight A student who graduated early while I was the average grade kid who would throw keggers in the woods on the weekends and skip every class I deemed non essential. Great times.

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whistleridge@reddit

why aren’t kids pursuing our levels of debauchery these days?

They’re more educated. They get levels of sex-ed, consent, drug education, substance abuse and alcohol abuse, mental health support etc. that we could only dream of. Plus they have healthier parents.

It’s a hard truth that a LOT of our generation were out drinking and smoking in the woods not for fun, but because they were either self-medicating against the traumas they experienced at home, or relying on bad information. Kids today have far less trauma, far better tools to manage it, and much better information.

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Entire-Order3464@reddit

Because 15 year olds aren't allowed to do anything anymore without their parents monitoring them.

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halflife-crisis@reddit

I started throwing these parties at 15…. Ah, good old days.

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InternationalRow1653@reddit

Yes me and my group of friends met each other when we were all around 15, we stayed together from them until well some of them still hang out but I live further away. I always try to see them when I go back home but I can't hang anymore. And when they get together the stupid obnoxious teenage drunks creep back out and it gets crazy loud and I'm just like, yall are getting on my nerves I'm going home. I can't do it anymore

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RedSolez@reddit

I think where you lived plays a part. I went to high school in suburban NJ...went out every weekend but never a bonfire in the woods. We had woods but none secluded enough to get away with a bonfire, and if you were wealthy enough to own multiple wooded acres you were probably having a house party when your parents weren't home.

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neogrinch@reddit

first time I ever got drunk with a large group of friends was at a little party in an old abandoned cemetery down a long dirt road in the remote woods. I was a sophomore in HS at the time. We were drinking Boone's Farm. Outside of parties in the woods, we'd also spend a lot of time driving/riding up and down main street and various hangouts around town, finding people to hang out with. I can recall my mom telling me stories that when she was a teenager 20 years prior (1970s) it was very similar to my teenage years, including the Boone's Farm.

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InternationalRow1653@reddit

We used to buy boones and mad dog by the case, regularly. Idk how we did it or how we did it so often.

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Routine_Ask_7272@reddit

My wife and I (both Xennials) had a stamped concrete patio & firepit built a few years ago.

We can have bonfires whenever we want!

Unfortunately, the bonfires don't get huge. It's only 15-20 feet from the house, and we live in a subdivision (luckily, no HOA).

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Usual-Role-9084@reddit

I wasn’t cool enough for bonfires in the woods as a teen. But then I married into the cool kids and became cool by default and we do this shit all the time as adults lol

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bassjam1@reddit

82 here, for me and my buddies they stopped exactly 10 years ago when we all started having kids.

There are still bonfires, but we call them birthday parties for our kids who are all in the same grade, the fire doesn't get lit until after cake and the fire is in someone's back yard. And they're over by 11pm.

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InternationalRow1653@reddit

Just 10 years ago? I'm 82 as well but my youngest child will be 21 in March. So our parties stopped way longer than 10 years ago. My kids and most of my friends kids graduated in the past 3 years and are in college now. We started having kids really early I guess lol

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PM_ME_UR_CONFIG_SYS@reddit

They still exist. There was one on the other side of my town on Halloween that got out of hand after news of it spread on social media. Over 500 people showed up and at some point a shooting occured, injuring 3 teenagers.

https://www.wistv.com/2025/11/04/richland-county-sheriff-address-blythewood-bonfire-shooting/

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StillhasaWiiU@reddit

Woods? They got cut down and built over years go.

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redmeansdistortion@reddit (OP)

I live in a large urban area. We used to sneak into the various parks in the city at night, start a fire, crack some beers, and pass one around.

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Psychological-Cry221@reddit

This fascinates me. Where I grew up you could drive a truck for 10 to 100 miles out in the woods on class 6 roads. I always wondered what kids in gigantic cities were doing. I figured it was the same stuff, but different

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Coriandercilantroyo@reddit

Not fires in city parks lol

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Mata187@reddit

Couldn’t really do that in LA. There were house parties, but someone always did something stupid and it got shut down really quick.

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Putrid-Art-1559@reddit

I still live in the area I went to high school in and you are correct. All the woods we used to party in are now subdivisions.

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Constant_Concert_936@reddit

I’d like to think those houses are haunted by some really stoned and stoked spirits.

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blyzo@reddit

All that hidden porn, lost forever. :'(

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PMMeYourPupper@reddit

They paved paradise and put in a parking lot

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imlikewhoaa@reddit

You dont know what youve got till its gone

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Deep-Interest9947@reddit

Yeah when I was in high school my high school my school was on the outskirts of town. I drive there in mostly dirt roads and it was surrounded by nothing (plenty of places to party). Now it’s surrounded by target, Trader Joe’s, and one million subdivisions.

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sarithe@reddit

They're still going strong here in NC. My niece just went to one last week. The wild part is that my niece just tells my sister she's going to one. My sister and I had to concoct and coordinate stories with our friends to get to those type of parties as teens.

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InternationalRow1653@reddit

Yeah I'm from SC and our bonfires in the woods were our actual backyards. Too far out in the country for cops to show up. I'm sure they still happen. I'm just too old for that now. But I could have one, it just won't be fun with nobody around. I don't have friends anymore. I don't drink anymore either. I don't think my bonfire party would be fun. 😕

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Efficient-Rent-5644@reddit

When social media came

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Far-Slice-3821@reddit

They still happen depending on the personality and location of the teens.

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Drslappybags@reddit

I live in Texas about 1 and a half from the Texas A&M campus. They used to have a huge bonfire before the A&M texas game but in 1999 tragedy struck when it collapsed killing 12 . I feel like ever since bonfires have had a kinda stigma around the area.

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Dangerous_Midnight91@reddit

100% still happening and 🔥. Your wife is just a nerd and probably a narc! No cap… Be careful what you say around her, sus AF 😒

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Echterspieler@reddit

I remember one time we were having a bonfire party and some random dude was walking the railroad tracks and just showed up at our party because he saw the fire.

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FionaGoodeEnough@reddit

I was never invited to that type of party. I only found out they really happened outside of the movies when a girl in my class got pregnant at one.

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Namaste421@reddit

Some high school girl just got killed at one in Alabama unfortunately.

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YorkiesandSneakers@reddit

After we burnt down the woods.

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HopelessMagic@reddit

I mean... Now the woods just burst into flames so...

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deephurting66@reddit

I own quite a few acres and still have them come fall, I know a place that gives away trash pallets and use them for our comfortable inferno with beers and blankets

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SoSoOhWell@reddit

I know they kind of fizzled after their heyday when I was in school due to a few Hallucinogen fueled issues that involved the police and hospital stays. At least in the area that I lived. Well that and urban sprawl killed most spots we had the parties at as well. So between being watched like hawks by the police, and less places to do it, I don't think the parties had a chance to get off the ground. After the elder students who knew about how and where to throw them all graduated, it was relegated to lore and they didn't pop up again.

Besides we had hotel parties. Less bugs and better in the cold and inclement weather. I think those still go on. Someone I was friendly with in school whose son is a Senior in a HS a couple towns over where I grew up said that he knows, and goes to hotel parties still. So some traditions never end....

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Adventurous_Cloud_20@reddit

I think it depends on where you are, specifically in the US. Here in central Iowa, they're alive and well, and I went to them almost every weekend if I could when I was a kid.

My wife, who's 10 years older than me (born 1971), never went to a bonfire party until she went to college. She was born and raised in Annapolis Maryland and her parties were mostly house parties either at shore houses or her friends parents when they weren't home.

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apple1229@reddit

I grew up in Eastern Iowa and was visiting my folks a few weeks ago. A friend from high school mentioned her kid was having a bonfire party in the woods by her house if I wanted to crash. It was great! The booze is much better now that we don't have to bribe someone's older brother to buy it!

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Adventurous_Cloud_20@reddit

And he always kept the change! Cost of doing business he said.

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InstantTurnOn@reddit

I'm 10 years younger than your wife, and I guarantee that there were bonfire parties in Annapolis. Down in Bay Ridge on the beach. At least when the weather permitted.

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ElderScarletBlossom@reddit

It's not like the whole class would show up. There the kids who liked to party and/or were invited (like you), and those who didn't and/or weren't (like your wife). Naturally this results in people having pretty different high school experiences. As for kids today, they're not exactly going to tell some random adult about what they get up to. And if you know some kids, they're likely going to give you a highly edited version of their lives.

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nuskit@reddit

I grew up in the city. There were no woods. There were also no crazy parties. Los Angeles in the 80s-90s was a war zone. My best friend died in a drive by in front of me. A year later my first boyfriend also got shot in a drive by. I went to a lot of funerals in high school. After Kurt Cobain killed himself, suicide rates jumped. Our Pregnant Minors Program had a waiting list so long that girls were having their babies before they could enter it.

The goal was to see if you could make it to 25. I always assumed I wouldn't see 21. For some of us, Gangster's Paradise was just called life. If I needed to get away, I went to the beach after school. I spun out for a couple of years after the deaths, started smoking buckets of weed doing some dangerous stuff, fake ID into Whiskey A Go Go, dipping my toe into gang activity. When I turned 22, I had an existential crisis because I was NOT supposed to be alive.

I always assumed that parties in the woods was just movie stuff, because surely we were all just trying to stay alive. It wasn't until.well into adulthood that I realized that there were some people who had so little death in their lives that they could just have a party without feeling like they were inviting in a drive by.

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Visual-Fig-4763@reddit

They didn’t stop, we just stopped going. My daughter is in college and there is a bonfire party every weekend. She goes every now and then

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YogurtclosetDull2380@reddit

Me and the boys get together and do shrooms around the campfire in the fall. We're scattered all over the state so once a year is about all we can do.

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Life_Grade1900@reddit

Same reason kids dont skateboard anymore, or ride bikes, or break bones.

At a certain point parents chose safety, conformity and convenience over experiences

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EnoughMeow@reddit

That’s how I met your mother. At a bonfire that the FD broke up. We moved the party to her friends house. She’s still my favorite person in the world alongside our kid.

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Sodamyte@reddit

And it didn't take you 9 seasons to tell us!

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Ok-Concert-6475@reddit

I grew up in the PNW, so plenty of woods. I never went to a bonfire. I don't know if we simply didn't have them around here, or if I was hanging with the wrong set of friends.

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GlomBastic@reddit

When the maps pin location of the party got shared on FB and Snapchat. Instead of knowing how to get to the spot. So over...

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iron_vet@reddit

I didnt realize it was lost that soon. My daughter is 17 yrs younger than me but all that stuff is absolutely foreign to her. Is it that they had cell phones? Had to go out to parties and see what was up. They were all connected all the time.

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JeffTS@reddit

For my friend group, it was when the surrounding land was bought up and developed. We had a campsite in the woods behind my parent's house that we regularly had parties at through the mid 2000s. I still have a fire pit but I haven't had a fire in it for years. I'd love to, because I miss it, but I'm also not for late nights of drinking around the fire anymore either. Hangovers seem to take a week to recover from anymore.

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BrattyTwilis@reddit

Growing up in the Midwest, this was a pretty typical thing. Not sure when it stopped, but the last time I went to a bonfire party was like 12 years ago

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Suitable_Guide_7818@reddit

Yeah, I don’t think the spirit of those nights disappeared, just the logistics. The “rural keggers in the woods” era needed two things: no cell service and a friend with a truck. Now half those woods are subdivisions and every kid’s location pings on a map that's connected to their mother. They didn’t stop partying, they just don’t have to haul a keg into the woods anymore.

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desertdweller2011@reddit

i hate to tell your wife that they probably were happening, she (like i) was just not invited. sorry, girl

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texan01@reddit

I grew up in the city so parties were always at someone ma house but I was a band nerd so I only ever got invited to those.

Now in college in a rural area, I went to a couple.

But we just got out of that scene as we got older.

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Bluevanonthestreet@reddit

Were y’all raised in the same area? I was raised in the suburbs of a large city. We had a few bonfire/field parties but it was hard to find a location because land was being bought up constantly. My husband was raised in a rural small town. They were still having bonfires in their late 20s. Everyone knew someone with land that could be used.

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whyneedaname77@reddit

We drank on the golf course.

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MowingInJordans@reddit

They still occur, but on a smaller scale.

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Beaverhuntr@reddit

In Arizona we just called them " desert parties", back when you could get a keg of Budlight for 50 bucks.

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Mata187@reddit

There was a party near our facility once. Not sure whose idea it was, but someone to used an ATV and tried break into a federal building… they didn’t succeed. Caused over $10K in damage though. Plus all the broken glass everywhere really sucks too.

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Beaverhuntr@reddit

The sheriffs department would break up some of these desert parties and they would show up in pick up trucks and a dune buggy I kid you not!

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mikeisboris@reddit

We would buy Busch light for $54.99 or Keystone light for $49,99 I still remember the prices. Looks like Busch Light is $125 now here. That isn't too bad really, since I made $6.00/hr when I was buying Kegs and McDonalds pays like $17/hr now.

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gravengrouch@reddit

Three foot pit in my backyard says otherwise. And friends still come get fall down drunk just like the old days

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ManicOrganic2@reddit

Field parties house parties and bonfires … great memories from high school. I loved the 90s. My kids don’t do these things either.WTF is going on? We all knew where to meet up. Did cell phones kill the field party?

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garden__gate@reddit

Sounds like your wife may have just been a nerd. Like me. I did know about bonfire parties, but my friends and I were not invited! 🤪

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EastTXJosh@reddit

Bonfire parties in the wood were an every weekend occurrence for me in high school. I lived in a rural area and we had spots all over the county. We even gave the location names. Most of the time, these were BYOB locations, but there were other times when they turned into keg parties. If the season was right, we often had a crawfish boil too.

On some nights, the local sheriffs deputies would find us, threaten to call our parents, and then send us home.

Other nights, we partied all night in the woods.

Many of the locations where we partied in the woods had been used by teens in our county for several generations. I have to think they’re still be used today, but I can’t confirm.

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dingleberrytetherbal@reddit

We had names for all our spots also. Big tree, the hollows, bridge out, low water. Just name one and truck loads of teens showed up. Can't count how many times a sheriff told us don't let us catch you on pavement tonight.

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UnknownPrimate@reddit

The gaps between winter and forest fire season disappeared around here.

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moeru_gumi@reddit

You guys had friends, and parents that weren’t breathing down your goddam neck to “study, that’s your job while you’re too young to work” and picking up the kitchen extension EVERY TIME you got a phone call to listen in on you? You were allowed to drive? Your towns had public transportation? Damn must have been fun…

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SignificantApricot69@reddit

I had them in the 90s but it helped when your family owned a big piece of land and you owned wood as well

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RunMysterious6380@reddit

They didn't stop. It's mostly a regional/cultural thing (and still happening with younger generations here in the Midwest).

I was JUST invited to one this past weekend, as well. You probably don't know the right people or are at a different stage in life, if you're not getting the invites anymore. Maybe go organize and throw one yourself, if you have the property to do it. You'll have a ton of folk show up if you promote it to your peers.

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Cobaltfennec@reddit

One kid in our class fell into the bonfire and was in the hospital for a bit (yes, drunk).

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malachite_animus@reddit

Idk but I never went - only the popular kids did.

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Sweet-Sale-7303@reddit

Not where I am. Not enough woods.

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Winnipesaukee@reddit

I figure the reason why there aren't a lot of bonfire parties where I live lately is because of a drought. If there wasn't one, I would have already had a few myself.

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maybe-an-ai@reddit

When parents could track and find their kidw via cell phone.

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No-Championship-8677@reddit

I went to high school in Los Angeles so this was definitely never a thing. Also, west coast fire danger in general doesn’t seem conducive to fires in the woods on a good day. Maybe it happened in rural areas and I just don’t know about it?

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Mata187@reddit

Same…grew up in LA and went to school in Rosemead. Never heard of bonfire parties. House parties yes. Some guys at my school tried having a Bonfire at Dockweiler Beach once, but it was a far drive and the night that was chosen, it just so happened to rain… it never happened.

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No-Championship-8677@reddit

I lived in SF after high school and we’d have bonfires on the beach though so maybe that’s an equivalent. Not sure they’d let minors reserve the spots though.

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Weak_Radish966@reddit

In college, we found an area on campus where you couldn't see a bonfire from any of the nearby roads. It was tucked away right near our dorm and also the Chancellor's house! We had some all night rippers at that spot. I google earthed it and I bet you could still get away with it.

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sageamericanidiot@reddit

I didn't grow up with woods. We had forests, but they were protected and even back then we knew we could potentially burn California down with a bonfire. We had fires in backyards while my friend's parents pretended we weren't smoking weed and drinking beer. Tried to have a fire on the beach once, but that was quickly shut down.

I think kids are still doing all of this. We're just old and the parents now. They hide it from us.

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MoonlitBlossoms@reddit

Wish this was a thing now.. No one in my “real” life wants to do things like that anymore. I miss bonfires.

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ztfrey@reddit

Used to have keg parties with crazy fights down the abandoned railroad tracks outside of town when I was younger. A little while ago my teenage son was telling me about this crazy party with a bunch of fights down the railroad tracks. In our area at least its still going on to this day. We're just older now and not invited. Most kids hide this stuff from their parents too so we rarely hear of such things.

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anOvenofWitches@reddit

Those bonfires ended up with drunk girls beating the crap out of each other. That was always my assumption as to why no more high school bonfires

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AlwaysSleepingBeauty@reddit

You were invited to parties???

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xargos32@reddit

I never went to any. I only ever even heard about 1 or 2. 🤷‍♀️

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Masterweedo@reddit

I'm pretty sure they still happen. I live in a rural area, lots of woods.

I was born in 84 and we used to go quickly load a truck up with pallets from the local pallet company and burn them back in the woods. So much warm beer, ugh. I mostly stuck to liquor and weed.

It helped that cops had cars then and couldn't really get back there, the cops got Ford Explorers now though. Although a homie did crack his oil pan getting back there in his Explorer in like 2002. I somehow made it in a Cavalier with no issues.

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austinmiles@reddit

We had Desert Parties.

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Global-Discussion-41@reddit

I live beside a forest and it's still pretty common to see teenagers walking into the woods on a Friday night with a six pack

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catplumtree@reddit

I was just a homebody. But that happened regularly where I grew up.

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portagenaybur@reddit

We used to be able to run from the cops. If you actually got caught, they’d feel bad for you. Maybe call your parents or just tell you to get out.

Nowadays they’d find some way to charge you with a felony if they don’t beat the shit out of you in the woods first. Stakes are a little higher.

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ASCENDKIDS@reddit

Don't forget the keg

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rhk_ch@reddit

They are still happening where we live. There is the fancy version grownups have with a fire pit and the kid version in the woods somewhere. We live in a rural area, though.

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helikophis@reddit

Stop? No, we perfected the art. We do a full week every summer, and our firetologists are the best in the world.

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mamap31@reddit

They still happen where I grew up. A few years ago a high school girl got really drunk and drove into the lake and died and was missing for a week so that kinda put a damper on the fun.

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Li-RM35M4419@reddit

I live rural and I hear them all the time. Just because you don’t witness it doesn’t mean it ain’t happening

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Unfortunate-Incident@reddit

Where I'm at hotel parties was a big thing. We'd have some house parties on occassion, but mostly it's just someone renting a room in a cheap hotel for a night and dozens of people showing up. We could usually find a cheap hotel party every weekend.

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CaptPotter47@reddit

I think it depends on where you live how often that stuff still occurs or how long it lasted.

But really social media and video games have killed the desire to go and hang out all the time like that. We didn’t have much else to do on Fridays. And now kids today have tons to do. Same reason malls aren’t super popular on Weekend evenings anymore. There’s just more to do.

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livens@reddit

More and more cities have enacted anti-burn laws. Even rural areas around major cities are banning open burning like that. So the bonfires are still happening, probably just not where you live.

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