Posted on 11/29/2006 7:22:19 AM PST by the_devils_advocate_666
Students often use the excuse that the best times of their lives are in college so they can use drugs and abuse alcohol, but I recently found out that you can still party well after the convocation ceremony.
While attending the Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band concert in Knoxville, Tenn., with my father, I saw baby boomers doing everything college students do today. I expected the concert to be fun, but watching these 40-, 50- and 60-year-olds partying was truly a learning experience.
While rocking out to tunes like "Still the Same" and "Turn the Page," the older concert-goers were drinking excessively, passing around the sticky-icky, and being utterly loud and obnoxious - just like college students.
A lot of students like to party hard in college because they believe that college is the only time in their lives they are allowed to drink and look stupid doing it. Youngsters have been trained to believe that after college their lives are virtually over. After college comes responsibilities, work, bills, kids and uneventful life experiences. But this isn't true in the slightest.
With this perception of a dismal life after college, students find it completely acceptable to get blackout drunk without any repercussions. This need to "live life" in college pressures students into drinking to the point of alcohol poisoning. Attending the concert made me realize that life after graduation is something to look forward to.
Instead of drinking as much alcohol as you can before you pass out or smoking enough weed to numb your entire body, students need to understand that they can still have a good time after receiving a degree.
These gray rockers proved to me that partying isn't reserved for the young. At the concert, I saw both men and women falling over drunk, getting high, fighting, dancing drunkenly by themselves and urinating in a grimy parking lot.
Everything that typical partying students do in college was being done by their 50-year-old counterparts.
Bob Seger himself proves that even at 61 you can rock a full house of 12,000 screaming fans. This observation of the older rock 'n' rollers made me see that college students don't need to cram a million party experiences in four years because they have the rest of their lives to have fun, whether it be drinking, peeing in parking lots or just meeting new people.
Don't get me wrong, I believe college is a source of a lot of great moments. But we have the next 40, 50 or 60 years to live our lives the way we choose. Using the excuse that college is the "best time of our lives" shouldn't hold up because at 20, we haven't been able to experience a tenth of the moments that await us in the next 40 to 60 years.
Instead of speeding up, we need to slow down our party-hard lifestyles.
Next time you're at the bar taking your eighth shot of Wild Turkey or starting a fight with someone for "smart-eyeing" you, try to remember that nearly all of the things you do now can be done at any age.
Whether or not it is openly accepted is an entirely different column altogether.
Slight difference between college students getting drunk and baby boomers. It's illegal for the college students...a fact that seems to totally escape the college student until they're arrested/ticketed for underage drinking.
AOL chatroom gathering? Oh, I forgot, there was no mention of sex while bent over a dumpster.
I was thinking the same ... immature and refusing to grow up! They don't release just how ridiculous they are.
"Still the Same"
I paid $5 to see him live about 30 years ago. I think he's getting $65+ for tickets now.
How inspiring.
Looking back on my life (I'm 65 now) the best time of my life was between 40 and 50.
Sure college was fun and the Army Boot Camp put me in the best shape of my life. Ages 25-35 were super learning experinces, with Viet Nam in there.
But Age 40, I finally came into my own. I no longer cared what others thought. I could make decisions with full confidence that they were the right decisions.
During my 50's it was a time of slow decay of my medical and physical being, not so hot.
However, not once did my ability to party dwindle.
Any relation to Willie Nelson?
Bumper stickers on the car of the 40 something next door to me:
I may be getting older but I refuse to grow up
Body by Budweiser
And he cannot understand why I don't like his outdoor mega bass subwoofers at full volume during the summer time.
I used to go see him years ago at the Hideout, when he was Bobby Seger and the Last Herd.
Almost the same scene - lots of doobies being passed around - but very little drinking.
If it ever does, they have pills now that can fix it.
Some don't realize that us antiques were there when rock 'n roll was in its infancy. Yes, Virginia, there was life even before the Beatles.
I've been drunk a few times. Hate hangovers. Moderation in all things. Didn't smoke rope, except twice. Like beer 'n Jack better.
Good music has know age limit. If music gets your heart started, it can begin, or end, even the ugliest day.
My favorite from Bob Seger is "Her Strut". Love the words,
and, it COOKS. Think I'll crank it up right now.
Rock and Roll Never Forgets.
What kind of silly scold would attend a rock concert of a rocker with a fan base going back almost 40 years, and then get upset that some of the audience was over 40.
It was a rock concert, try attending the opera, or a republican convention, and you will find an even higher number of people over 40.
Many college students see these days as being freedom from their parents, and they live hard and fast with the rules. Their brains are still full of mush and they don't realize that having a good time does not entail waking up on the bathroom floor in their own vomit.
With maturity it is hoped that the majority of them will learn about moderation. In doing so, they inevitably have much more fun when living it up with their friends.
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