Enjablog

I don’t know why I thought of this today, but I just remembered an adventure from my teenage years. It’s not very exciting compared to the antics a lot of kids got into, but it was memorable for me.

A friend got tickets to see Everything at some club in DC for New Year’s Eve 1998 (That is, 12/31/1998). Without really considering the implications, I agreed to go. I’m sure I lied to my parents about this event in some way, so, uh, yeah. This is where I went. Don’t worry, it all turned out ok…

When we arrived, we surprisingly (no, not really) found out that you had to be 18 to get in. In retrospect, I’m surprised you didn’t have to be 21 to get in. In any case, we all got carded and, poor little underage me, I got stopped at the door. I couldn’t get in, was in some sketchy DC neighborhood, and didn’t know my way home, much less have any mode of transportation to get there. It was New Year’s Eve and my poor college budget just blew something like $20 for this waste of time.

As you can imagine, the bouncer would make no exceptions for me. I wasn’t on The List and only underage people on The List were allowed to come in. We were quite a nuisance standing at the doorway though, blocking people from entering and creating a fire hazard of ourselves. We politely got out of the way until the influx slowed down a little. I asked the bouncer if there was any way I was going to get in tonight. What was that? I think I saw a twinge of sympathy coming from him! He said he would let me talk to the manager and if I could convince him, I was free to spend my evening there.

So, we stand outside a while longer, waiting for the manager. He shows up… seems like a nice enough guy. I explain to him that I was here with my friends and didn’t realize I needed to be 18 to get in. I showed him my college ID and assured him that if I wanted to get in trouble for underage drinking, I would have just gone out and found a frat party. My friends were all here and I had no way of getting home by myself without them, so they would all have to leave, etc., etc..

The manager conceded that the tickets had already been bought and they probably wouldn’t have people just showing up looking for something to do at this point. (Getting close to 10 pm.) So, if I promised not to get into any trouble, they would put me on The List and I could go in. (Yeah, because that’s how business works. “Ok, little girl. Just promise not to get into any mischief.”) They drew extra big Xs on my hands and in we went.

I made sure to thank them on the way out and demonstrate how completely sober I was. I was very convincing, I’m sure.