How did you spend your 21st birthday?

I have no idea.

Meh, none of those sparkling celebrations. Much like any other birthday back then. Enjoy it and use your youth well!

I had a steak with my mom in a steak house.

My friends have a tradition where you were required to drink anything that was bought for you on your 21st. They bought me awful drinks all night (e.g. 3 wise men: Jim Beam, Jack Daniels, and Jose Cuervo all mixed together—warm).

At home with my husband, watching movies. I was still very religious at the time.

The next year I was pregnant. The following year I threw a kegger.

I worked that day, went out with a couple of co-workers for a gin and tonic after dinner.

I don’t remember. It might have been the surprise party my roommate threw for me? Or, maybe I went out dancing? Or, maybe I stayed home?

I’m really not sure.

I went to a pizza place with friends… which is exactly how I spent every other Saturday.

It was three months ago. I was at home minding my business when suddenly a friend call me to come to the coffee shop. It was very sudden and I hadn’t had anyone planning a surprise party before. Turned out she was working part-time there and only knew about my birthday a few minutes before that party. There were only her and me but I was treated like a VIP (the shop was deserted and there was only her and the boss upstair). It was a pleasant day.

Other than that, I didn’t do anything special really. Just receiving digial “birthday cards” from other friends and enjoy my night with my family. But above that, I comsidered my birthday as another milestone of my growth. It reminded me that I have grown up a bit more and I need to further improve myself. Instead of stressing about what to do to celebrate, why don’t you use your birthday to cherish what you have accomplished and set more goals in the future? It’s a more memorable way to cerebrate your growing up. After all it’s your birthday right?

I think we had a bit of a family get-together. My favourite aunt was there and we had a few too many drinks together.

Sleeping. I had just finished a one-day 750 mile hitch-hiking trip. (Made better time than the bus, too!)

That was over thirty some years ago, I can’t remember.

Went out to a bar with my boyfriend to get a drink, then I had rehearsal for a musical I was in, then we went out to a bar after that. The next day I started a job as a camp counselor. That sucked.

I don’t remember. I don’t think it was anything exceptional. I remember my eighth birthday better, and that was a really long time ago.

A nice brunch at a restaurant with my family and a friend and then, a night of bar hopping and partying, Rights of passage.This was 35.5 years ago, in Dec. of 1980, damn, I’m getting old. haha
Now, my daughter who is now 28.5, well….I went all out for her.

Surprised her with a 2 hour sunrise launch hot air balloon tour with champagne galore. We had so much fun. The ultimate high, champagne at 1,200 feet. haha
Yes, we had a designated driver/

The night before, at midnight, I went to the bar I had been going for a few years and asked the waitress, (who knew me) to check my ID. She said I didn’t deserve the usual free drink.

The next night I went out with my fraternity brothers and got drunk.

I got ready for a wedding. Had a migraine. Probably had champagne at the wedding. Can’t really recall. I was already drinking legally in New Zealand so it was no big deal.

I don’t remember but I’d say probably my mom invited me over with my boyfriend at the time, and cooked dinner. Maybe another possibility is we went out to a restaurant.

I was on a work term with the Ministry of Environment in northern Ontario. I was part of a water-monitoring team. We were working around Manitouwadge on my 21st birthday. The evening of my birthday we went back to our motel in Marathon, had dinner and then went to play pool and have a couple of brews. There was a re-run of the episode of Happy Days on the tv near the pool tables. It was the episode where Mork was introduced.

I mostly remember my 21st birthday as the day I fell in love with Robin Williams.

Probably for those of us who could drink at age 18, 21 is much less of a thing. I could drive less than 30 minutes and be in DC, where it was legal at 18. I didn’t drink even though I could at 18, so 21 wasn’t really a bid deal.

It happens that the state I lived in when I turned 21 (I went to college in Michigan) was a state that required you be 21 to legally drink, but everyone around me drank like fishes and were under 21.

People older than me likely had to be 18 to drink legally. The big shift to 21 happened during the 80’s.

I was talking with a neighbour about the moving target of the drinking age the other day. When he was a young man, the age of majority was 21. It went to 18 just before I turned 18. Then it was bumped to 19 and then back to 18, where it has stayed since 1990.

My parents had been offering me wine or beer at special occasion meals since I was about 12. Since I don’t like wine and I didn’t like my dad’s beer choices, I rarely took advantage of that. When I found better beer at 18/19, things definitely changed. By 21 the excitement of legally ordering beer at a bar was over – though I had to show my age of majority card for a couple of decades.

I do not remember. That was literally aeons ago.

My boyfriend at the time put together a surprise party for me. It was really awkward because I’m a huge introvert and surprise parties don’t fit my personality well at all. It was a nice gesture, but I never want another one.

Let’s see, that was over a half century ago, but I can only go by events I remember. My first son was born in August of my 20th year, and my divorce was final on his first birthday, so I guess I was living with my parents and had a fairly quiet birthday.

I gave my sons and grandsons a free night at a casino so they could legally gamble on their birthday.

I was living in NYC so I’m pretty sure I did something fun. The only thing I recall is that I was excited to now be eligible to vote for the the next US president the following month. He was LBJ.

I can’t even remember, but most likely miserable and alone.