# What Did You Do On Your 18th Birthday? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 22, 2009, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-do-on-your-18th-birthday/486920 "2009-02-22T05:09:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Mr\_Buttons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@Mr\_Buttons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Buttons)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2009, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-do-on-your-18th-birthday/486920/41 "2009-02-22T19:26:20Z")
October 27, 1997 Went out bought porn, cigs, and a couple scratch off lottery tickets, then spent 3 hours at the semi-new off track wagering parlor in town. ---
**Author:** ![ASAKMOTSD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/919ad9/32.png) [@ASAKMOTSD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASAKMOTSD)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2009, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-do-on-your-18th-birthday/486920/42 "2009-02-22T19:35:30Z")
Brought home my first car. Waited for a call from my then-girlfriend who was in Egypt. Call never came because she forgot about me. (One of the many, MANY reasons why I am married to someone else all these years later). ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2009, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-do-on-your-18th-birthday/486920/43 "2009-02-22T19:55:43Z")
1. My two oldest friends (at the time and still) went with me to the post office. One has a birthday the week before me and one the week after. We registered for the Selective Service. There wasn’t school because it was during Winter Break. I don’t remember anything else about the day. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2009, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-do-on-your-18th-birthday/486920/44 "2009-02-22T21:49:56Z")
12/19/1966. Not even the vaguest memory of what I did. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2009, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-do-on-your-18th-birthday/486920/45 "2009-02-22T22:19:36Z")
Tended bar at a private party. Back then, the drinking age was 18. I’m officially the youngest person ever to tend bar legally in New York State. ---
**Author:** ![Lisa-go-Blind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Lisa-go-Blind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lisa-go-Blind)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2009, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-do-on-your-18th-birthday/486920/46 "2009-02-22T22:25:02Z")
It took me a while to remember (despite being only in 2003), but I think I was staying in a condo on a beach in Florida with my family and two of my best friends. It wasn’t a birthday trip, it’s just when we went on summer vacation that year. ---
**Author:** ![Proudest\_Monkey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/proudest_monkey/32/13257_2.png) [@Proudest\_Monkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Proudest_Monkey)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2009, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-do-on-your-18th-birthday/486920/47 "2009-02-22T22:39:02Z")
> [@Indistinguishable](#): > > I got in a minor argument with my parents and went to an unremarkable graduation party at a friend’s house. Not very exciting, but I appear to remember it… Got in a MAJOR argument with my parents. I wanted to attend an unsupervised, all night drinking party at a friend’s camp – they wanted me to obey curfew. My dad punched a hole in the wall; that was the only time in my entire life I ever saw him get violent. I went to the party guiltily, drank guiltily, had an unremarkable make-out session with a guy who died a week later when he crashed his motorcycle into a station wagon, came home and mended fences with my parents. Yeah, I thought I was an ADULT and KNEW IT ALL. Some 30+ years later, I am at least adult enough to know that I still don’t know jack shit. ---
**Author:** ![Katriona](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/katriona/32/113_2.png) [@Katriona](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Katriona)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2009, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-do-on-your-18th-birthday/486920/48 "2009-02-22T22:50:34Z")
August 1986 - I was participating in sorority rush week. ---
**Author:** ![ErinPuff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dbc845/32.png) [@ErinPuff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ErinPuff)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2009, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-do-on-your-18th-birthday/486920/49 "2009-02-22T22:51:01Z")
May 2004 - I spent the evening finishing an English paper. ---
**Author:** ![Snnipe\_70E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5a626/32.png) [@Snnipe\_70E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snnipe_70E)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2009, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-do-on-your-18th-birthday/486920/50 "2009-02-22T23:30:44Z")
I am lucky to remember what I did at my last birthday much less 1965. I would have just started jr. college. ---
**Author:** ![MOIDALIZE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@MOIDALIZE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MOIDALIZE)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2009, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-do-on-your-18th-birthday/486920/51 "2009-02-22T23:45:14Z")
My mother made these big plans for me to have a little party at my aunt’s house on my 18th. Unfortunately she never told me until the day of, after my dad and stepmom had purchased a cake, and my mom started crying when she found out that we had made impromptu plans because her careful planning was falling apart. I was put in an awkward position and was annoyed with my mom, and my dad and stepmom were pissed at me because I chose to go to my aunt’s instead of hanging out with them. I didn’t end up having a very fun day. ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2009, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-do-on-your-18th-birthday/486920/52 "2009-02-22T23:49:46Z")
> [@NinetyWt](#): > > Surely you’ve included your Darling Marcie in those plans. 😉 > > \ I haven’t discussed the plan with her; I hope to surprise her, but I haven’t any idea how one surprises one’s SO on such an occasion. ---
**Author:** ![Rico](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rico/32/3582_2.png) [@Rico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rico)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2009, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-do-on-your-18th-birthday/486920/53 "2009-02-23T02:29:07Z")
June 21, 1976. Monday. I had graduated from high school the Friday before. I started working at a new job on that day. In the stockroom. Doing inventory. Sucked, as my job while in high school was running batch jobs on an IBM Model 360/2. That company laid me off two weeks before graduation. Got home and found out my best friend had talked with my folks and put together a surprise birthday party for me and invited the entire gang over. Too bad it was at my house. No beer. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2009, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-do-on-your-18th-birthday/486920/54 "2009-02-23T02:34:20Z")
I enrolled on the electoral roll. ---
**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2009, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-do-on-your-18th-birthday/486920/55 "2009-02-23T02:50:55Z")
> [@LouisB](#): > > I haven’t any idea how one surprises one’s SO on such an occasion. Very carefully. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![palacheck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a88e57/32.png) [@palacheck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/palacheck)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2009, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-do-on-your-18th-birthday/486920/56 "2009-02-23T05:01:41Z")
I got a several-minute-long beating with a broom handle and a chair leg because I did something really foolish in a card game that involved money. Seriously. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_T-Cups](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Sir\_T-Cups](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_T-Cups)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2009, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-do-on-your-18th-birthday/486920/57 "2009-02-23T05:14:07Z")
A 2 liter of Cherry Pepsi, and a bag of Mini Oreos from a good girl friend of mine (I love and miss you Lauren) Also got sang to by an auditorium of people because I had a play performance that night ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2009, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-do-on-your-18th-birthday/486920/58 "2009-02-23T06:10:31Z")
Boosted a Lamborghini, robbed a bank, and led police on a high-speed chase to Mexico, where I did shots of tequila and lines of blow off of a hooker’s breasts. Okay, that’s what I wish I’d done. It’s either an indication of my age, or the impact my 18th had on me, that I can’t remember anything specifically special about it. I think I was allowed a couple of beers. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2009, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-do-on-your-18th-birthday/486920/59 "2009-02-23T08:13:17Z")
> [@ExTank](#): > > Boosted a Lamborghini, robbed a bank, and led police on a high-speed chase to Mexico, where I did shots of tequila and lines of blow off of a hooker’s breasts. That’s what you’re supposed to do _before_ you turn 18, so they can’t charge you as an adult. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2009, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-do-on-your-18th-birthday/486920/60 "2009-02-23T13:48:12Z")
June of '74 and I got a watch. It was my first watch and I forgot I had it on and jumped off a diving board into the pool (where I remembered the watch in mid-air). It wasn’t waterproof. ☹ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-do-on-your-18th-birthday/486920.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-do-on-your-18th-birthday/486920.md?page=4)