Parties 1980-1990

So many parties. Where to start?

I suppose the really big ones only started after the divorce, in about 1980.

We had a list, a phone list, a dirty little rag-sheet used to sit by the phone, or sometimes taped to the kitchen counter, above the sock drawer.

When a party beckoned (parents out of town, say), we would work the list. Big black rotary phone, crooked into the neck. Dialing, dialing. A short, machine-gun message. Sometimes followed by a short list of others to tell. Sometimes not. These parties could quickly get out of hand.

Consider the math: 6 kids (Isolde was out of it by then): Rebecca and Sue had 60 friends. Johnny and Cand had 40 friends. Cass and I had 30 friends. Their friends had friends.

We tried to keep the parties from spreading upstairs. Not always successfully.

Sometimes, it was invitation only. We had a bouncer at the door. Marc Perron did that, sometimes.

Marc made the mixed tapes. I remember the master-mix: he worked for weeks on that. But there was always an open DJ request session. We didn't have a mixer, so we had to flip the vinyl pretty quick. Seems to me we used to cut in with a tape, while changing the record.

There were the rare fights. Josh broke something in the basement, once. Something Marc made. He was forcefully expelled.

We eventually moved the stereo onto the back porch, to make more room for the dancefloor.

Sometimes, mum acted as the bartender. Those were more "official" parties. Somehow sanctioned, but no less raucaus.

We evolved a ticket system: your beer went into the fridge in return for tickets, so you could be sure to have them when you needed them. Those that didn't bring beer could buy tickets at near cost. We always had an initial investor to supply the start-up.

Stubbies: was it that American beer that finally broke the stubby monopoly? Thor always drank it. The frugal drank the gold foil beer, with 6.5% alcohol and a dark smooth flavour.

Invariably, it seems, Suzanne Mills and David Desken were the last to leave. The two of them, standing in the living room at dawn, chuckling and telling jokes, while I collected the bottles from the street and mantlepieces.

We always made a little bundle bringing the empty beer bottles back to Haines.