Back in Summer Camp, it was the night before my 18th birthday and I was a counselor. At the time, we were allowed to go off the grounds at night and that usually meant heading to the nearest bar – which when your camp is based in Wurtsboro, NY – the choices are very limited.
Typically it was never an issue at all to get into bars, but usually towards the end of Summer, the local police raided them looking for underage patrons (mostly counselors). Therefore, the lady working at the front door, Madeline, was being particularly difficult that night and wouldn’t let me in without a valid ID.
I pleaded with her to let me in because at midnight it was my birthday. But she just kept denying me saying she didn’t believe me. In a leap of faith, I said “you don’t believe me? Here is my ID to prove it’s my b-day at midnight!”, knowing this would reveal my true age.
Somehow she must have done the math incorrectly because she thought I was turning 21 at midnight - not 18. So she made me wait outside the bar the entire night – nearly 3 hours while most of my friends were inside having an amazing time.
The clock struck 12 and she finally let me in. Everyone inside lined up shots and made a big deal of my fake 21st birthday. The bar presented me with an orange trucker hat and a large Lowenbrau bar mirror to take home.
The shuttle back to camp left around 12:15AM so I literally had 15 minutes inside the bar before having to go back. And given that my birthday usually fell on one of the last nights of camp – things tended to get very loose with rules. So out of nowhere at around 1:00AM a stoop ball tournament breaks out on boys’ side and me and my longtime friend, Justin, beat a ton of other counselors to take home the championship. Then I proceeded back to my bunk to throw it all up.
That was one of the funniest stories of my life. Would love to hear about yours.