Do You Remember When Drinking Was A Sport In Lubbock?

Yes, to be young and full of alcohol all over again.

Lubbock's Complicated History

Lubbock has a weird history with alcohol. Looking back on it, it makes even less sense than when we were going through it. How crazy is it that we had to drive across an imaginary line to get booze and there was no prohibition on bringing it back into the city (unlike fireworks). Even worse, that place we drove to was also full of drugs, prostitution, and every other possible means of sin. The whole process might have made sense if you couldn't just go to a bar and get booze there. It was just a really weird, really arbitrary, and not thought-out system that we lived under for so many years.

The Glory Years

The drinking age was 18 when I was 18. It went to 19 when I was 19 and in 1984 it was raised to 21. All of this meant, I drank A LOT. The clubs out there made it easy to drink a lot too. There are two specific hot spots that I remember as a young adult with a small wallet who liked booze a lot. First, since there's not a lot to say about it, was the short window in which the Main Street Saloon had "Drink 'Till Someone Pees" night. Next was my favorite hang, "New West". New West had an open bar from 7 to 10 every Friday to Saturday night. The drinks were a bit weak (unless you tipped heavily) and we would just go from the front of the line to the back of the line until we had a good buzz on. We, as in the radio station, also held contests like "The Tequila Bat Races" in which drinking played a major part.

It's A Different Time

The type of drinking we used to do in the late 70's and 80's is generally frowned upon these days. It's probably a good thing because I know I drank myself stupid on more than one occasion (then again, we usually went to after-parties as well). I do miss being a part of big social events like this but a nice concert every once in a while fills the void quite nicely.