25 Years Ago - Spring Break in the 80's

This video shows Spring Break in Fort Lauderdale, Florida in 1985. I remember there used to be news stories every year in the 80's about spring breakers heading down to Florida. Plus, MTV always covered spring break.

Fort Lauderdale used to be THE spring break destination for college and high school students. By the late 80's, few young people vacationed in Fort Lauderdale for spring break anymore compared to the high numbers that used to go there. Students went to Daytona Beach for spring break instead. I don't recall why students made the switch to Daytona, but I think maybe it was because the laws and rules weren't as strict in Daytona. 

I lived in Dallas during my teen years, and I recall that most of the Texas students flew or drove all day to South Padre Island for spring break. Students would always come back to school wearing the ponchos they had purchased, and they would share stories about how everybody got "sooooo wasted". And everybody got sunburned. And everybody got sick. But, it was, like, totally the best time ever. (???)

I wouldn't know. I wasn't allowed to go when I was in high school, and by the time I was in college, I had no desire to go. I had heard enough stories of people puking on motel carpet to turn me off from the whole experience. 

My  high school senior year spring break began with a Cocteau Twins concert, followed by a drive to Galveston with a couple friends where we toured historic homes. We didn't wear hats that had beer cans tucked into them with long straws dangling into our mouths. Nor did we lather ourselves in oil. I'm sure we were wearing hairspray though, and lots of it.

Thank you to EstelDillon for posting this 80's spring break video on youtube. Party on! ;-)