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After Dark
Tom Leininger / KANSAN
Many students think finals are an occasion to drink, preferably in large quantities. Local bartenders say patrons drink to celebrate finals just taken and to forget finals to come.Regardless,many people ignore their drinking tolerance at the end of the semester.
Students prefer whiskey to beer after surviving pressure of finals
Jane nursed her mug of warming beer as she eyed the bottle of Cuervo Gold. She set the half-empty mug down and pushed it aside. She remembered the last time she had drank hard liquor and had vowed not to do it again. She thought of the physics final she had finished an hour ago.
"People tend to throw back shot after shot trying to forget the test they just took and try not thinking about the one they have in two days," said Matt Rinehart, a doorman at Johnny's Tavern, 401 N. Second St.
Local bartenders said when finals came around, students had a tendency to drink a lot of hard liquor.
Joshua Martin, Lawrence junior and a bartender at the Granada, 1020 Massachusetts St., said students usually drank beer or mixed drinks.
Many KU students probably have experienced this same scenario.
Placing $2 on the bar, she slurred,"Another shot, please."
But that all changed during finals, he said.
"Kids aren't coming in to socialize," Martin said. "They come in and head straight to the bar and start pounding back the hard stuff."
Women are more prone to ignore their tolerance levels and try to keep up with their male peers, Rinehart said.
Ashley Parker, Denver senior, suffered alcohol poisoning last December and was rushed to the hospital, where she had her stomach pumped.
Her blood alcohol content was 3.0.In Kansas,the legal content level is .08.Parker attended three alcohol awareness meetings under her doctor's advice.
Parker said that she usually went out about twice a month and rarely drank more than two or three beers. But that night she drank more than 20 shots of liquor, from Cinnamon Schnapps to Jack Daniels.
Lawrence Police Sergeant Richard Nickell said he didn't notice any change in the number of DUI's issued during finals and the department was not called to more bars for security purposes during that
Sharon Robinson, a paramedic at Lawrence Memorial Hospital, said she didn't see a significant difference in the number of students brought in for alcohol poisoning during finals than she did at any other time.
time.
"Kids call frantic, wondering what to do with their sick friend," Robinson said. "We tell them to bring them right down, but half the time, the friend is either drunk or worried about getting in trouble and won't even give us their name."
However, the hospital did receive many phone calls.
Robinson said this created only more problems.
"Most alcohol victims choke on their vomit in the night," Robinson said. "It's like getting shot. If you had a bullet in your stomach, wouldn't you get it taken out?"
The bartenders said they usually could tell when customers had reached their drinking limits but usually do nothing about it unless they know the person.
"Sometimes, people just get
so bad that we ask them to leave or ask a friend to take them home," Rinehart said.
Business was slow for a few days after finals, bartenders said.
The local community keeps the bars alive while students are on break, and the winter vacation is Lance Routledge's favorite time to work.
Routledge, a bartender at Harbour Lights, 1030 Massachusetts St., said he enjoyed the laid-back atmosphere during the break.
He said local patrons tended to be more subdued than the college crowd.
"One of my best tip nights was on Christmas at Louise's Downtown," Routledge said. "I got one tip for $180."
Other bars weren't so lucky. Louise's West, 1307 W. Seventh St., had to compensate for a drop in business. Denny Richter, a bartender at Louise's West, said the bar cut down on staff during the break and usually sold specially designed Christmas T-shirts for extra revenue.
BY MOLLY JAY
16 Hawk Holidays
= Hill • December 6, 1995