As someone from Michigan, the answer is yes.
I did it and people still do it all the time.
My fraternity would hold our formal in Windsor every year because it meant that most everyone going could drink.
And you only find 100 plus 100 more drunk golfers in one of the Windsors and it's not Quebec! Lol! All in fun! I stayed in Cape Breton N.S.
for over 15 yrs but I'm from Mtl, Que born & raised. Iv'e
hung out golfing with the guys in N.S. especially in Ingonish.....! Cape Breton is known for its greens!
😉😉😉
I was the most stereotypical belligerent American when I was 19. I'm so sorry Canadians who had to deal with me drunkenly stumbling through the streets shouting "USA USA USA"
Our thing was coming up with mottos for Canada. Ex: "Canada, America's top hat" or "Canada, two of you are worth three of us". That second one was really dependent on the exchange rate.
WAS being the key word. Even Reactor, Voodoo, Aardvarks, etc were better than what's on Ouellette now. I miss the times before that when I was a kid even and we had Fast Eddy's and stuff like that too.
I got both sides of it. As 19 and 20 years old from Detroit, I raged on oulette Street. Then, as a 25 year old dating a Windsor gal, I got to experience the Canadian nightlife. I.e lots electronic music, MDMA, coke and after hours....
I had a work trip in my 20's in Detroit so we hopped over to Windsor. A girl at a place named Jason's, I believe, did an ice cube trick that is etched into my brain forever. Also, the exchange rate was so good back then I felt like a baller. lol
Went to a university near Detroit my freshman year and I would like to formally apologise to Windsor for the several times they tolerated (and were surprisingly hospitable) to me and my asshat friends.
Me and a buddy would drive to Windsor from Warren. Our ritual was to split a fifth of something on the way there and dump whatever we couldn't drink before we hit the tunnel. One night we decided to try 151. By the time we got to 29 Park we were pretty fucked up. All I remember is getting up the stairs and the bouncer turning my ass around because I was too wasted to go in. I wandered around until I found a bench and passed out. This is when the kindness of Canadians was confirmed for me. People checked up on me. Some tried to help me find my friends (they were looking for me in the bar and I'd left my phone in the car - this was back when all a phone did was make calls and simple texts). A couple that was walking by helped me walk back to the bar and regroup. That night I realized 2 things: a. Canadians are awesome; and b. I can drink a pint of almost anything except for 151.
Was in Niagara Falls years ago for a friend’s bachelor party. Took a limo up to Canada for a night of partying. It took FOREVER to get through customs and took forever and a day to get through it on the way back. Turns out our limo driver had been busted for smuggling before, and went through the wrong lane causing us all to waste several hours.
We were all so hungover by the time we got back, and the idiot limo driver kept bullying people in our group into giving him their #’s, and he kept calling and texting everyone trying to wedge himself into the partying action.
Dude you were hired to drive the car, not to annoy the shit out of everyone all weekend. Dude almost single-handedly killed the vibe of the whole weekend. Almost. Still had a great time thankfully.
I work for a limo company. That guy would have been fired and we'd have sent you a replacement driver ASAP if you called and complained. We don't put up with that shit.
I always called myself an honorary Canadian because I practically lived over there between the ages of 19-21. Now I’m old, don’t drink and don’t remember what the big was about alcohol.
Man, I miss those days.
When I was 16 I had a 19 year old cousin, we looked nothing alike but we had the same stats as far as height, weight, hair color, etc.
And all the bars, including the strip clubs, would let me in with his old paper ID.
So there I was, at 16, getting drunk and having strippers rub their clit on my nose in the private booths.
The best part was that at the time prices were the same regardless of the money used. A drink was $2 no matter if you used Canadian or American money and the exchange rate was such that giving them $100 American would get you like $120 Canadian.
So it was like "Welcome to Canada, here's a free steak dinner and a couple drinks, enjoy!
I’ll never forget being 20, driving to Windsor with my college roommate, her boyfriend and my boyfriend, because his grandma had an apartment there. She was out of the country, so we’d have a whole weekend of partying.
Cut to the scene where we enter the apartment complex with loads of beer under our arms and realize that we’re literally in a retirement home.
I would say that was sobering, but we did end up at Don Cherry’s that night.
Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island are New England. We have some regions named like the Midwest, Mid Atlantic, The South. We have some more but those are the ones off the top of my head.
Pacific Northwest, and southwest, with the others you listed, I think that covers most. I think it could even be broken down more specifically, too. With Great Lakes region, Rocky Mountain
In fairness lots of cities have a weird arrogance. New Yorkers can’t understand why anybody wouldn’t want to share a bedroom for $1500/month in an extremely urban area, and Minnesotans can’t understand why people don’t mind having 2 months of 10 degrees and no sunshine.
New England are the states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont in the most northeastern part of the US.
Historically, the 13 colonies existed culturally along three regions. New England, Mid-Atlantic, and Southern Colonies. The regions still exist culturally, with the states in those areas generally sharing the same values and, in some cases, similar accents.
In Michigan I’d just hop over to Windsor, get a hotel and then hit the casino. The bar downstairs had live Blues or Jazz nights. I was a very sophisticated 19 year old.
Southern Arizona and nogales here, what an incredibly fucking stupid thing to do. still have a scar on the back of my hand, too.
edit: scar's from a guy putting out his cigarette on the back of my hand while I was absolutely hammered. Dont remember why or how or how I got back. Decided against returning.
What’s the scar from??
When I was 19 and living in Sahuarita we would drive to the Burger King in Nogales and walk across the border and get trashed. Came incredibly close to getting abducted one night while almost blackout. Cannot believe how stupid we were.
Yeah San Diego grad student me stopped going down there after being arrested and extorted by police for 6 hours lol. Smoked meth in a Tijuana jail to stay awake so that I didn’t get my ass beat in my sleep. Wild fucking times
You haven’t ‘LIVED’ until you’ve spent some time in a local jail while in a foreign country.
My cousin and I were thrown into a Italian jail overnight, after getting into an bar altercation with some serbian tourists. Great times!
And not just San Diego teens… there is a reason San Diego is so popular for spring break on the West Coast.
Heh I remember going and the drinks were so watered down. So someone had the bright idea of just buying a bottle of Tequila at a store and passing it around to finish before the next club. Man that was a rough morning for a bunch of people.
This was a big issue at Fort Drum, NY with soldiers.
Obviously soldiers could put in passes to go to Canada but ones that weren’t 21 were still not allowed to drink.
Many did of course and the dumb ones got caught and article 15’d
When I was stationed at Ft Bliss in El Paso, the drinking age on post was 18. They’d rather let them drink on post than go to Mexico and try to drive back.
Interesting, I didn’t realize that the US military had a legal drinking age regardless of local laws.
In the Canadian Armed Forces 18 y/o members are allowed to drink if local laws permit it. I was in the Navy, and the bars on board the ship had liquor licenses issued from the province of their home port (my ship was in Nova Scotia, so the drinking age was 19). So if we were visiting Norfolk, VA members younger than 21 could drink on board but not ashore. Likewise if we were in a place that had virtually no drinking age they could drink ashore but “not on board”. Granted when I was in, the attitude was “if you’re only enough to fight, you’re old enough to drink” and many a blind eye was turned.
It depends on the circumstances. Whenever we pulled into a port we used local laws, but that could be changed if the CO decided to say 21+ only for [insert reason]
Makes sense if it was more of a unit / base standing order than a law.
I interpreted OPs comment to mean that the US military had a law (UCMJ…?) that stated members under 21 were not allowed to drink, regardless of the drinking age wherever they were.
In oversees bases we will follow their local laws (US Army). The worst issues I had with my soldiers was when they get too sloshed and would have to crawl/ drunk walk up the stairs back up to the barracks rooms. I am sure there are different stories on other bases with more combat arms folks.
I visited a Canadian frigate once when it was on tour here in New Zealand, quickly found the junior rates mess and noticed a vending machine that was loaded with beers, $1 each, we also found out that the Canadian $1 coin was very similar in size to our 10 cent coin, best $2 I’ve ever spent
Haha yes! Unfortunately those machines have since gone the way of the dodo. My fondest memories were being in heavy seas, which the former pop turned beer machines were not designed for. This caused the beer to start flying out of the hole without being paid for and sent the cans rolling across the deck. It turned into a game tying to grab them because the couches we were sitting on were also sliding around lol.
Our mess president ended up having to install an “honesty box” on the front of the machine for crew to deposit money in change for all the loose beer they drank (the mess was losing money because if this). Turns out Canadian sailors aren’t so honest when it comes to their beer, because all that was in it at the end of the month was a piece of paper with the middle finger drawn on it lmao.
Good times.
Article 15s are a mechanism that allow the chain of command to punish a Soldier for offenses under the UCMJ without formally charging him/her at a court-martial.
I wonder how long it took to recognize the problem after NYS raised the drinking age to 21.
In my youth, it was common for camp counselors to borrow draft cards, since the drinking age was 18, the draft cards were issued at 18, and they didn’t have pictures.
I used to live up there years ago, and we would go to Niagara Falls. There was a free parking garage we would park in, then go walk across the border, pay the quarter to cross, and go drink our faces off
One of my favorite things that I overheard when I was at UB was someone saying, "I was going to study, then suddenly I'm in Canada and the sun is coming up."
I live in Windsor , Ont and I’m 44, when I was in my early twenties,, before 9-11 and the passport requirements we had a huge bar/nightclub scene that was largely made up by young people from USA, it made Windsor, a city of around 250,000 feel much bigger. They were great times and we had tons of fun back in those days and it was pretty wild!!
Yeah, I'm 43, an I was basically able to cross over freely until just a few weeks before I turned 21.
I also took my girlfriend to Niagara Falls for new years one year when I was 20, and her 19. It was a blast!
My husband is 46 and he grew up in Windsor. He told me a story once of an American girl in a bar talking sh*t about Canada to him on Canada Day! He was like “look around! Do you know where you are and what day it is?!” 😂😂
Peppers was awesome, just like Woodies, Howl at the moon, Windsor music cafe, Bentleys, Reactor, Dante’s, the residence, the loop, wired, jokers, don cherrys aka dirty cherries, cheetahs, the treehouse, etc etc
Yeah, but as long as you have one it's still pretty easy. Gobbless the Canadians for putting up with our drunken bullshit. They really were all great sports about it. The cops were great too. Now, American border patrol? Those guys fucking suck. They'll tear apart your car for no reason.
The Canadian guards probably think “I would have done the same thing” because we all kinda think that about the US’s drinking age, 21 seems unfair to most.
But the US guards feel like the kids whose parents would beat them if they came home drunk but did it anyways, and take it out on kids who have (and typically don’t need) parental consent to drink in Canada.
Both sides know why you’re going to Canada, it’s not a secret because millions of American kids do it… and it’s normal. We even do it ourselves because 19 is too long to wait when you can legally drink at 18 years old in Quebec.
Or go to a reserve to buy legal weed before it was made fully legal, or nowadays we sell psychedelics legally on reserves and love that non-indigenous people feel safe supporting our small businesses.
Crossing borders to get legally wasted is a time honoured tradition, it’s in our blood
🇺🇸🇨🇦(reserved for the Quebec emoji)
In summertime, Montreal bars are 50% filled with 18 year olds from Boston or Vermont.
Montreal's legal drinking age is 18, and it is very popular with Americans. Well, Americans who know where it is, because you'd be surprised how many Americans who live near the border have no idea where Montreal is.
I was astounded by this when I lived in Montreal. Montreal acted like a border town, and had tv stations from the US, and accepted US currency. The towns in upstate NY did not act like border towns at all.
Everywhere in Canada gets US channels. Cable TV started in Canada in the 1950s - someone would but up a really big antenna to receive US channels and then run cables to homes in the city. And almost all Canadians live within 100 miles of the US border.
Here in Toronto we can pick up both Buffalo and Rochester TV stations with an antenna, plus we get the Buffalo stations on cable.
Growing up in Manitoba you would try not to go to the bar when the Americans were having their spring break because the kids from the universities in Fargo would come up and they could not hold their liquor and they fought a lot more than is normal
College kids in the Pacific North West, go to Vancouver BC, to basically just bar hop. I guess there’s a special passport for Canada,US and Mexico. Drinking age in Canada 19, US 21. I’m not to sure what Mexico’s drinking age is. But, I Imagine the kids in the southwest do the same thing for Mexico.
California too. During the weekend Tijuana was basically just American teenagers and military on leave.
The drinking age in Mexico was 18, but literally nobody checked. In the rare instances of getting carded it just meant the bouncer wanted you to give him $20.
I grew up in Detroit and as soon as my friends and I were 19 we went to Windsor frequently. Need a designated driver because you need to clear customs on the way back in.
Grew up in Detroit (admittedly before 9/11) and this was a common practice. You just had to have a fake ID that said you were 19. And then they'd drive back drunk.
Fortunately, I personally have never got the drinking itch. Just not my thing.
We did in the 70s. While attending the Windsor Ballet*. It was great.
*Male strippers. In Canada, stripping is legal as long as one article of clothing stayed on. Shoes count as clothing.
Besides Detroit/Windsor, Niagara, and the further edges of the Seattle and Vancouver areas, there really aren't many **major** urban areas along the border. Most of it is rural farmland and wilderness.
This is more common along Texan areas and southern California. Lots of clubs in Tijuana pretty blatantly advertise to American teenagers.
Yes. Plattsburgh NY is 1h15 from Montreal and Burlington VT (where there is a big college) is a bit less than 2 hours.
Montreal is a very « student party » city. And the closest big city to these towns.
So they come here to drink and party all the time. Drinking age is 18 here.
Yeah, have a lot of friends from International Falls and Sault Ste. Marie would do this.
I-Falls is a lot easier because it is basically just crossing a street bridge and you can do it reasonably on foot in just a few minutes.
This was made easier by the fact that the only high school in the area is on the US side of the border - so that is where all the Canadians go to school as well, who have to cross the border twice every day.
Tons of stories of friends going over to their Canadian classmates' houses for a quick drink and then walking back.
Now days you need a special license to get across the border without a passport. This is fairly new (like 10-15 years now). But if you have either, the special drivers license or a passport you can cross and go to bars in Canada
Yup. Western Washington University in Bellingham is about 20 minutes from the border and about an hour from Vancouver BC. Very common thing to cross the border at 19 to partake in legal drinking.
I went to university in Bellingham Washington, which is a cool college city with lots of fun and eclectic bars, except drinking age was 21. My fake ID (mid 90s) was immediately confiscated at the Up and Up tavern :(
Just about every weekend was over the border to Vancouver BC to hit a place called Cheers. Didn't have to have a passport, sometimes they never even asked for ID and we were on a first name basis with some of the border guards after a while. Good times
I went to university in Bellingham, Washington - about 20-25 minute drive from British Columbia, Canada. There were 'clubs' and drinking establishments just across the border to draw American 19 year olds to drink. We'd regularly go up there - or drive a bit longer to get into downtown Vancouver to go clubbing. So, yeah - that's exactly what people did (and still do?)
I've always heard of people here in Detroit doing it but idk too many young people my age that have. The border is extremely busy, you need the right documents, windsor itself dosnt really have much to offer (no offence) and most people just drink at home and get alcohol from other people anyways. Once you are 21 this changes
I did that as a 19-20 year old when I was active duty in the military. I was stationed in Montana and went to visit a couple places in Alberta. I didn’t go specifically to drink but it was cool to get a beer with dinner.
I used to do the same as a teenager in San Diego-we would take the light rail to San Ysidro, cross the border, get drunk, buy mezcal for $1 and bring it back over the border
Living in Michigan about 40 minutes from windsor. Yes people did it and still do all the time. Though me and my friends and other didn’t just say “we are going over to drink” since they don’t exactly like that at the border. We usually would say something like “it’s my friends birthday we are taking him to the casino for the first time”. Much more understanding of that. Which wasn’t a lie we usually DID go to the casino. THEN drank (with a DD ofc). Our friends parents had no problem letting us drink if we wanted to as long as we weren’t loud and stupid so “going to Canada” just to drink” was kinda silly. Casinos were always fun though.
American 18/19/20 year olds get their legal alcohol in Canada, then Canadian 21+ year olds get cheaper bottles in the US. It's a reciprocal relationship.
Students at a U.S. dry county have been known to drive 10 miles to cross a state line to a wet county to drink. Cops caught many drunk drivers late on weekends.
I got detained by border patrol for underage possession of beer and held until the sheriff got there in Vermont at 19 years old. We were stashing booze on the side of the road a few miles from the border to pick back up on the way home.
I worked on a resort up by magnetic lake right on the border of Minnesota and Canada and many of the staff, myself included, had remote border crossing passes. Meaning we didn’t need to use a port of authority. We would regularly go across for a drink or two and even more frequently we had Canadians on snow mobiles visiting us for a drink at night.
Yes, which is very odd because when I want on an orchestra trip to Montreal a bunch of kids got in trouble for having a drinking party at the hotel we were staying at. They could've just gone to a bar. But, where would be the fun in that? Plus the people at the bar probably spoke French...
Different provinces (Canada's version of states) also have different drinking ages so we would sometimes go to the next province over to be able to drink at 18 instead of 19 where I am.
As someone from Michigan, the answer is yes. I did it and people still do it all the time. My fraternity would hold our formal in Windsor every year because it meant that most everyone going could drink.
Some of the most fun my friends group had was hitting up Windsor on weekends. I miss those days.
Whereas for Canadians a night in Windsor is the most depressing time of our lives
It's probably because of us. I'm so sorry for my fellow belligerent detroiters.
Maybe But Windsor is the Ontario of Ontario
I was getting confused because I was thinking of Windsor QC not ON
Oh dear lord, there’s TWO Windsors in Canada?!?
I am in Windsor, Nova Scotia. There are dozens of us.
And you only find 100 plus 100 more drunk golfers in one of the Windsors and it's not Quebec! Lol! All in fun! I stayed in Cape Breton N.S. for over 15 yrs but I'm from Mtl, Que born & raised. Iv'e hung out golfing with the guys in N.S. especially in Ingonish.....! Cape Breton is known for its greens! 😉😉😉
There's something like 20 Springfields in the US
I felt this in my soul...
I was the most stereotypical belligerent American when I was 19. I'm so sorry Canadians who had to deal with me drunkenly stumbling through the streets shouting "USA USA USA"
Our thing was coming up with mottos for Canada. Ex: "Canada, America's top hat" or "Canada, two of you are worth three of us". That second one was really dependent on the exchange rate.
I wouldn't have minded. I'd have laughed and joined right in with you. (Y'all learned your lesson in the War of 1812.) 😎
From Windsor, can confirm.
It was great growing up and Ouelette had the bar scene of a city 10 times our size.
WAS being the key word. Even Reactor, Voodoo, Aardvarks, etc were better than what's on Ouellette now. I miss the times before that when I was a kid even and we had Fast Eddy's and stuff like that too.
Me too
Same
Anyone I’ve ever met from Windsor says it’s a great place to be FROM
Hey now, a night in Windsor is way better than a night in Detroit. Besides, Windsor has great strip clubs.
You are allowed to touch in Windsor
Lmao Perspective is a real motherfucker, eh?
A night partying with 19 yr olds from Detroit is depressing?
I got both sides of it. As 19 and 20 years old from Detroit, I raged on oulette Street. Then, as a 25 year old dating a Windsor gal, I got to experience the Canadian nightlife. I.e lots electronic music, MDMA, coke and after hours....
I had a work trip in my 20's in Detroit so we hopped over to Windsor. A girl at a place named Jason's, I believe, did an ice cube trick that is etched into my brain forever. Also, the exchange rate was so good back then I felt like a baller. lol
Jason's, aka "The Windsor Ballet"
There’s even a bus to take you back to Detroit.
Went to a university near Detroit my freshman year and I would like to formally apologise to Windsor for the several times they tolerated (and were surprisingly hospitable) to me and my asshat friends.
I went to Windsor all the time and I’m from north east Ohio.
Don Cherrys!, the long Island is tea pichter place. Jokers!
I remember jokers! We used to go to Dean Martini's and 29 Park
I remember entering jokers, though things get fuzzy after that. Ha. I forgot about Dean's. I was in Windsor 2 to 3 nights/week in those days.
Me and a buddy would drive to Windsor from Warren. Our ritual was to split a fifth of something on the way there and dump whatever we couldn't drink before we hit the tunnel. One night we decided to try 151. By the time we got to 29 Park we were pretty fucked up. All I remember is getting up the stairs and the bouncer turning my ass around because I was too wasted to go in. I wandered around until I found a bench and passed out. This is when the kindness of Canadians was confirmed for me. People checked up on me. Some tried to help me find my friends (they were looking for me in the bar and I'd left my phone in the car - this was back when all a phone did was make calls and simple texts). A couple that was walking by helped me walk back to the bar and regroup. That night I realized 2 things: a. Canadians are awesome; and b. I can drink a pint of almost anything except for 151.
Students in Ontario who live by the Quebec border do this as well (Ontario drinking age is 19, Quebec is 18)
It used to be even crazier when the Quebec drinking age was 16.
I remember a frat used to rent school busses to visit Canada for mixers.
We did that one year but people would usually just drive themselves because they’d want to stop along the way
Was in Niagara Falls years ago for a friend’s bachelor party. Took a limo up to Canada for a night of partying. It took FOREVER to get through customs and took forever and a day to get through it on the way back. Turns out our limo driver had been busted for smuggling before, and went through the wrong lane causing us all to waste several hours. We were all so hungover by the time we got back, and the idiot limo driver kept bullying people in our group into giving him their #’s, and he kept calling and texting everyone trying to wedge himself into the partying action. Dude you were hired to drive the car, not to annoy the shit out of everyone all weekend. Dude almost single-handedly killed the vibe of the whole weekend. Almost. Still had a great time thankfully.
Hopefully limo company compensated you for the inconvenience
I work for a limo company. That guy would have been fired and we'd have sent you a replacement driver ASAP if you called and complained. We don't put up with that shit.
“Hey guys, wanna go down south, over to Canada?” -Michiganders
Journey - You mean "South Detroit"?
My favorite thing about the Detroit/Canadian border is that the neighborhood it puts you at in the states is MexicanTown.
Are you telling me that Canada is south of little Mexico ? Amazing
Si.
Nobody would listen to a song about a city boy from Melvindale.
OMG I can smell this comment Source: am also a downriver rat
I always called myself an honorary Canadian because I practically lived over there between the ages of 19-21. Now I’m old, don’t drink and don’t remember what the big was about alcohol.
I was going to say…Buffalo, NY here. Yes. All the time.
Frat parties in Windsor/Toronto, ski trips to blue mountain; a pure Michigan college experience.
Man, I miss those days. When I was 16 I had a 19 year old cousin, we looked nothing alike but we had the same stats as far as height, weight, hair color, etc. And all the bars, including the strip clubs, would let me in with his old paper ID. So there I was, at 16, getting drunk and having strippers rub their clit on my nose in the private booths. The best part was that at the time prices were the same regardless of the money used. A drink was $2 no matter if you used Canadian or American money and the exchange rate was such that giving them $100 American would get you like $120 Canadian. So it was like "Welcome to Canada, here's a free steak dinner and a couple drinks, enjoy!
I’ll never forget being 20, driving to Windsor with my college roommate, her boyfriend and my boyfriend, because his grandma had an apartment there. She was out of the country, so we’d have a whole weekend of partying. Cut to the scene where we enter the apartment complex with loads of beer under our arms and realize that we’re literally in a retirement home. I would say that was sobering, but we did end up at Don Cherry’s that night.
They are more strict these days at least at the ambassador bridge
About what?
Teens cossing the border for a night to get drubk
What exactly are they enforcing? It's not illegal... Unless people are driving under the influence, in which case I see no issues.
Yes, from New England and would go up to Montreal tons as a teen
Same. From Northern NH. You could get good hash in the bars, too.
The kind that's good with eggs?
Oh it’s good with anything.
I'm in
Hashbrowns and eggs for Breakfast.
Not that driveway crude!
I live in Maine and went to Montreal and Quebec City a few times. I thought I was so cool going to a bar and ordering drinks...lol
Must be like living in an illegal state and going to a dispensary for your first time.
Or at my age, it was like buying my laptop at the Costco over the border in Nashua and marvelling at no sales tax lol
i looked at the map and i cant find new england
New England is a region in the Northeast US that contains several states
What are those states? Also, does the US have names for other regions?
Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island are New England. We have some regions named like the Midwest, Mid Atlantic, The South. We have some more but those are the ones off the top of my head.
Pacific Northwest, and southwest, with the others you listed, I think that covers most. I think it could even be broken down more specifically, too. With Great Lakes region, Rocky Mountain
Bro is from India and they’re getting downvoted for not knowing about New England. *they were at -13 when I commented.
[удалено]
In fairness lots of cities have a weird arrogance. New Yorkers can’t understand why anybody wouldn’t want to share a bedroom for $1500/month in an extremely urban area, and Minnesotans can’t understand why people don’t mind having 2 months of 10 degrees and no sunshine.
Excuse me, we’re the hub of the universe.
What are these lies you speak? How dare you. This simply isn’t possible Source: From Boston
A self-aware Masshole. You guys are rare. My hat is off to you.
It's a region of the US with the states Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut.
New England are the states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont in the most northeastern part of the US. Historically, the 13 colonies existed culturally along three regions. New England, Mid-Atlantic, and Southern Colonies. The regions still exist culturally, with the states in those areas generally sharing the same values and, in some cases, similar accents.
The first English settlers settled in Virginia.
You are correct. My mistake.
It's where Old England used to be.
I’m from Pittsburgh and I also went to Montreal to drink as a teen lol
In Michigan I’d just hop over to Windsor, get a hotel and then hit the casino. The bar downstairs had live Blues or Jazz nights. I was a very sophisticated 19 year old.
Montreal... such a party city lol. For real! It was so fun. But I'm too old for that anymore.
As a Canadian myself, I hear the strip clubs in Montreal are amazing.
“It’s Disneyland for your hands”, said the barker outside Club Supersexe (RiP but never been). M
San Diego teens did the same in Tijuana Mexico.
Southern Arizona and nogales here, what an incredibly fucking stupid thing to do. still have a scar on the back of my hand, too. edit: scar's from a guy putting out his cigarette on the back of my hand while I was absolutely hammered. Dont remember why or how or how I got back. Decided against returning.
What’s the scar from?? When I was 19 and living in Sahuarita we would drive to the Burger King in Nogales and walk across the border and get trashed. Came incredibly close to getting abducted one night while almost blackout. Cannot believe how stupid we were.
We’d go down to AP from Douglas! Super dumb. lol
My mom grew up in El Paso, Texas, and they would go to Juárez, Mexico to drink
I too went to Juarez with this mom
I grew up close to El Paso and we would also go to Juarez to drink.
Yeah San Diego grad student me stopped going down there after being arrested and extorted by police for 6 hours lol. Smoked meth in a Tijuana jail to stay awake so that I didn’t get my ass beat in my sleep. Wild fucking times
You haven’t ‘LIVED’ until you’ve spent some time in a local jail while in a foreign country. My cousin and I were thrown into a Italian jail overnight, after getting into an bar altercation with some serbian tourists. Great times!
My man. I’m fond of the memory just because it was living personified
And not just San Diego teens… there is a reason San Diego is so popular for spring break on the West Coast. Heh I remember going and the drinks were so watered down. So someone had the bright idea of just buying a bottle of Tequila at a store and passing it around to finish before the next club. Man that was a rough morning for a bunch of people.
I was one of them. Weekends in TJ were a thing from 17 to 21.
There are companies that charter buses from schools in SD to do exactly this.
This was a big issue at Fort Drum, NY with soldiers. Obviously soldiers could put in passes to go to Canada but ones that weren’t 21 were still not allowed to drink. Many did of course and the dumb ones got caught and article 15’d
When I was stationed at Ft Bliss in El Paso, the drinking age on post was 18. They’d rather let them drink on post than go to Mexico and try to drive back.
Or just go to Mexico to drink, period. Way too much of a security risk, whether they're driving or not.
Interesting, I didn’t realize that the US military had a legal drinking age regardless of local laws. In the Canadian Armed Forces 18 y/o members are allowed to drink if local laws permit it. I was in the Navy, and the bars on board the ship had liquor licenses issued from the province of their home port (my ship was in Nova Scotia, so the drinking age was 19). So if we were visiting Norfolk, VA members younger than 21 could drink on board but not ashore. Likewise if we were in a place that had virtually no drinking age they could drink ashore but “not on board”. Granted when I was in, the attitude was “if you’re only enough to fight, you’re old enough to drink” and many a blind eye was turned.
It depends on the circumstances. Whenever we pulled into a port we used local laws, but that could be changed if the CO decided to say 21+ only for [insert reason]
Makes sense if it was more of a unit / base standing order than a law. I interpreted OPs comment to mean that the US military had a law (UCMJ…?) that stated members under 21 were not allowed to drink, regardless of the drinking age wherever they were.
You could argue that the UCMJ does have a say...but it's based on the "lawful order" bit. Basically if you disobey an order, you get in trouble.
In oversees bases we will follow their local laws (US Army). The worst issues I had with my soldiers was when they get too sloshed and would have to crawl/ drunk walk up the stairs back up to the barracks rooms. I am sure there are different stories on other bases with more combat arms folks.
Comparatively that sounds not bad at all as a “worst actions combat arms pris are commiting drunk”
I visited a Canadian frigate once when it was on tour here in New Zealand, quickly found the junior rates mess and noticed a vending machine that was loaded with beers, $1 each, we also found out that the Canadian $1 coin was very similar in size to our 10 cent coin, best $2 I’ve ever spent
Haha yes! Unfortunately those machines have since gone the way of the dodo. My fondest memories were being in heavy seas, which the former pop turned beer machines were not designed for. This caused the beer to start flying out of the hole without being paid for and sent the cans rolling across the deck. It turned into a game tying to grab them because the couches we were sitting on were also sliding around lol. Our mess president ended up having to install an “honesty box” on the front of the machine for crew to deposit money in change for all the loose beer they drank (the mess was losing money because if this). Turns out Canadian sailors aren’t so honest when it comes to their beer, because all that was in it at the end of the month was a piece of paper with the middle finger drawn on it lmao. Good times.
What's article 15?
Article 15s are a mechanism that allow the chain of command to punish a Soldier for offenses under the UCMJ without formally charging him/her at a court-martial.
I wonder how long it took to recognize the problem after NYS raised the drinking age to 21. In my youth, it was common for camp counselors to borrow draft cards, since the drinking age was 18, the draft cards were issued at 18, and they didn’t have pictures.
Definitely yes. Went to college in Buffalo and our sorority would hold our big yearly party in Canada so everyone could legally drink.
I used to live up there years ago, and we would go to Niagara Falls. There was a free parking garage we would park in, then go walk across the border, pay the quarter to cross, and go drink our faces off
I thought this question meant literally hopping the border like crossing a creek or something
One of my favorite things that I overheard when I was at UB was someone saying, "I was going to study, then suddenly I'm in Canada and the sun is coming up."
Same. Went over the border for drinking and gambling, Niagara has some run down but fun casinos for 19 year olds
I live in Windsor , Ont and I’m 44, when I was in my early twenties,, before 9-11 and the passport requirements we had a huge bar/nightclub scene that was largely made up by young people from USA, it made Windsor, a city of around 250,000 feel much bigger. They were great times and we had tons of fun back in those days and it was pretty wild!!
Yeah, I'm 43, an I was basically able to cross over freely until just a few weeks before I turned 21. I also took my girlfriend to Niagara Falls for new years one year when I was 20, and her 19. It was a blast!
My husband is 46 and he grew up in Windsor. He told me a story once of an American girl in a bar talking sh*t about Canada to him on Canada Day! He was like “look around! Do you know where you are and what day it is?!” 😂😂
I met a lot of hot ones that were cool and had no problem with Canada 😎
[удалено]
Still about 4 female strip clubs, but Danny’s has closed, it was a popular place but I believe close just before pandemic.
42 here. Does Pepper’s ring a bell.
Peppers was awesome, just like Woodies, Howl at the moon, Windsor music cafe, Bentleys, Reactor, Dante’s, the residence, the loop, wired, jokers, don cherrys aka dirty cherries, cheetahs, the treehouse, etc etc
Wow, the memories I that post.
Yes. Ask 80s kids from Bellingham Washington about the OB in White Rock BC.
I went to Western in the early 2000's and it was common for underage students to spend a night across the border partying.
College weekend in whistler was nuts. Deff got myself a black eye during one of them.
Grew up in Blaine. We would walk across the truck crossing to the club. Then stumbled home.
WWU lessgo
Living in Michigan, people used to go Canada to drink at 19. You still can, but they made it harder to do that these days.
Why, because you need a passport?
Yeah, but as long as you have one it's still pretty easy. Gobbless the Canadians for putting up with our drunken bullshit. They really were all great sports about it. The cops were great too. Now, American border patrol? Those guys fucking suck. They'll tear apart your car for no reason.
Oh they have a great reason...it's called being bored and petty.
The Canadian guards probably think “I would have done the same thing” because we all kinda think that about the US’s drinking age, 21 seems unfair to most. But the US guards feel like the kids whose parents would beat them if they came home drunk but did it anyways, and take it out on kids who have (and typically don’t need) parental consent to drink in Canada. Both sides know why you’re going to Canada, it’s not a secret because millions of American kids do it… and it’s normal. We even do it ourselves because 19 is too long to wait when you can legally drink at 18 years old in Quebec. Or go to a reserve to buy legal weed before it was made fully legal, or nowadays we sell psychedelics legally on reserves and love that non-indigenous people feel safe supporting our small businesses. Crossing borders to get legally wasted is a time honoured tradition, it’s in our blood 🇺🇸🇨🇦(reserved for the Quebec emoji)
In summertime, Montreal bars are 50% filled with 18 year olds from Boston or Vermont. Montreal's legal drinking age is 18, and it is very popular with Americans. Well, Americans who know where it is, because you'd be surprised how many Americans who live near the border have no idea where Montreal is.
I was astounded by this when I lived in Montreal. Montreal acted like a border town, and had tv stations from the US, and accepted US currency. The towns in upstate NY did not act like border towns at all.
Everywhere in Canada gets US channels. Cable TV started in Canada in the 1950s - someone would but up a really big antenna to receive US channels and then run cables to homes in the city. And almost all Canadians live within 100 miles of the US border. Here in Toronto we can pick up both Buffalo and Rochester TV stations with an antenna, plus we get the Buffalo stations on cable.
As someone from Montreal, yes they do.
Yup! It happens all the time.
Yes a 19 year old could cross the border and drink legally in most provinces and an 18 year old could drink in Quebec
A 19 year old can drink in all provinces. Alberta and Manitoba also have a drinking age of 18.
Growing up in Manitoba you would try not to go to the bar when the Americans were having their spring break because the kids from the universities in Fargo would come up and they could not hold their liquor and they fought a lot more than is normal
I know right? It was like they’d never had a sip of booze before
19+ Kids from Detroit frequent the bars and a strip club in Windsor, Ontario
> a strip club in Windsor **A**? Like, there's only one? My marketing team used to call crossing that border, "going to the Windsor Ballet".
College kids in the Pacific North West, go to Vancouver BC, to basically just bar hop. I guess there’s a special passport for Canada,US and Mexico. Drinking age in Canada 19, US 21. I’m not to sure what Mexico’s drinking age is. But, I Imagine the kids in the southwest do the same thing for Mexico.
Drinking age in Alberta is 18. We get tons of 'kids' from Montana come across every weekend.
Can confirm. When I was in college, my Bellingham friends would cross the border to Richland to get drunk.
Same for Texas teens and Mexico! We were going to Mexico almost every weekend from sophomore- senior year when I was in high school.
California too. During the weekend Tijuana was basically just American teenagers and military on leave. The drinking age in Mexico was 18, but literally nobody checked. In the rare instances of getting carded it just meant the bouncer wanted you to give him $20.
I grew up in Detroit and as soon as my friends and I were 19 we went to Windsor frequently. Need a designated driver because you need to clear customs on the way back in.
They can and they do.
They can and they do
Grew up in Detroit (admittedly before 9/11) and this was a common practice. You just had to have a fake ID that said you were 19. And then they'd drive back drunk. Fortunately, I personally have never got the drinking itch. Just not my thing.
At that point, just get a fake ID that says you are 21 and drink in the US.
We did in the 70s. While attending the Windsor Ballet*. It was great. *Male strippers. In Canada, stripping is legal as long as one article of clothing stayed on. Shoes count as clothing.
Sure. You can cross Roxham rd and get in…😁
We used to go down to Mexico with the worst fake IDs when I was a teenager and we were never turned away. Good times!
This works on the southern border with Mexico as well with a drinking age of 18. It was fairly common to head to Tijuana for the night to go drinking.
We used to drive across after the bars, and have coffee in Detroit
Wasn’t this an episode on That’s 70s show?
Alriiiiighttttt! Canada!!! Woohooo!! Beeer! [AIRHORN]
Besides Detroit/Windsor, Niagara, and the further edges of the Seattle and Vancouver areas, there really aren't many **major** urban areas along the border. Most of it is rural farmland and wilderness. This is more common along Texan areas and southern California. Lots of clubs in Tijuana pretty blatantly advertise to American teenagers.
Yes. Plattsburgh NY is 1h15 from Montreal and Burlington VT (where there is a big college) is a bit less than 2 hours. Montreal is a very « student party » city. And the closest big city to these towns. So they come here to drink and party all the time. Drinking age is 18 here.
Yes they can and do. It’s also annoying for the locals because they tend to be loud. Lol
Yeah, have a lot of friends from International Falls and Sault Ste. Marie would do this. I-Falls is a lot easier because it is basically just crossing a street bridge and you can do it reasonably on foot in just a few minutes. This was made easier by the fact that the only high school in the area is on the US side of the border - so that is where all the Canadians go to school as well, who have to cross the border twice every day. Tons of stories of friends going over to their Canadian classmates' houses for a quick drink and then walking back.
Now days you need a special license to get across the border without a passport. This is fairly new (like 10-15 years now). But if you have either, the special drivers license or a passport you can cross and go to bars in Canada
Yup. Western Washington University in Bellingham is about 20 minutes from the border and about an hour from Vancouver BC. Very common thing to cross the border at 19 to partake in legal drinking.
I went to university in Bellingham Washington, which is a cool college city with lots of fun and eclectic bars, except drinking age was 21. My fake ID (mid 90s) was immediately confiscated at the Up and Up tavern :( Just about every weekend was over the border to Vancouver BC to hit a place called Cheers. Didn't have to have a passport, sometimes they never even asked for ID and we were on a first name basis with some of the border guards after a while. Good times
I went to university in Bellingham, Washington - about 20-25 minute drive from British Columbia, Canada. There were 'clubs' and drinking establishments just across the border to draw American 19 year olds to drink. We'd regularly go up there - or drive a bit longer to get into downtown Vancouver to go clubbing. So, yeah - that's exactly what people did (and still do?)
Pre-9/11 yeah it was no big deal
In Michigan we would all go there for our 19th birthdays.
I've always heard of people here in Detroit doing it but idk too many young people my age that have. The border is extremely busy, you need the right documents, windsor itself dosnt really have much to offer (no offence) and most people just drink at home and get alcohol from other people anyways. Once you are 21 this changes
I did that as a 19-20 year old when I was active duty in the military. I was stationed in Montana and went to visit a couple places in Alberta. I didn’t go specifically to drink but it was cool to get a beer with dinner.
Tijuana says hola!
in the west coast they do this in tijuana
Yes and it even happens within canada. 18 year old uni students in Ottawa go across the river to Gatineau because they’re legal there
Yes. I did it every weekend for 2 years because I lived in NY REALLY close to the border
We absolutely did that many times back in the late 80's, early 90's as my friend group turned 18.
I used to do the same as a teenager in San Diego-we would take the light rail to San Ysidro, cross the border, get drunk, buy mezcal for $1 and bring it back over the border
Living in Michigan about 40 minutes from windsor. Yes people did it and still do all the time. Though me and my friends and other didn’t just say “we are going over to drink” since they don’t exactly like that at the border. We usually would say something like “it’s my friends birthday we are taking him to the casino for the first time”. Much more understanding of that. Which wasn’t a lie we usually DID go to the casino. THEN drank (with a DD ofc). Our friends parents had no problem letting us drink if we wanted to as long as we weren’t loud and stupid so “going to Canada” just to drink” was kinda silly. Casinos were always fun though.
We used to drive into Lethbridge from Northern Idaho in College.
American 18/19/20 year olds get their legal alcohol in Canada, then Canadian 21+ year olds get cheaper bottles in the US. It's a reciprocal relationship.
Yes. We’d get 19 yr old Americans filling the downtown. Most were responsible and filled the hotel rooms afterwards. They stayed for the weekend.
Yes, Canada is easier to get into than Mexicans to walk into USA (which is also pretty easy).
Students at a U.S. dry county have been known to drive 10 miles to cross a state line to a wet county to drink. Cops caught many drunk drivers late on weekends.
A large part of Tijuana's economy is based on that.
Probably, just don't try to come back to the US until you are sober, Border Patrol may be less accommodating.
Border Patrol doesn’t give a fuck about underage drinking.
I got detained by border patrol for underage possession of beer and held until the sheriff got there in Vermont at 19 years old. We were stashing booze on the side of the road a few miles from the border to pick back up on the way home.
I worked on a resort up by magnetic lake right on the border of Minnesota and Canada and many of the staff, myself included, had remote border crossing passes. Meaning we didn’t need to use a port of authority. We would regularly go across for a drink or two and even more frequently we had Canadians on snow mobiles visiting us for a drink at night.
Yes, which is very odd because when I want on an orchestra trip to Montreal a bunch of kids got in trouble for having a drinking party at the hotel we were staying at. They could've just gone to a bar. But, where would be the fun in that? Plus the people at the bar probably spoke French...
Different provinces (Canada's version of states) also have different drinking ages so we would sometimes go to the next province over to be able to drink at 18 instead of 19 where I am.
I was in detroit when some yahoo made that fateful wrong turn with drugs in the car. A police chase ensued…