It was supposed to be the last field party of this Indian summer, but the girls said it was cancelled because it was too cold to stand outside drinking beer around a bonfire.

Their next best option: sitting in a car eating some food in the parking lot of the West Genesee Street Taco Bell after a night of driving around.

It is not unusual for ‘Sarah,’ ‘Allison,’ ‘Katie’ and ‘Mandy,’ four Bishop Ludden Junior-Senior High School students whose names have been changed to protect their identities, to find themselves in this position on a Saturday night.

The girls are not bored or frustrated with the way the night turned out, because this happens quite often during the spring, summer and early fall months.

As upperclassmen in their small school, as well as prominent leaders and students, it is their job to throw field parties for themselves and their friends. Sometimes their plans work out flawlessly; sometimes, like Saturday night, they do not.

These girls are not the first to plan field parties. They are part of a legacy of high school students in the Syracuse area who, through word of mouth, assemble on Friday and Saturday nights in Passes Field, located in the Tipp Hill area, to socialize and drink alcohol.

‘We used to hear about them from the older kids, but now we start them,’ said Sarah, 17, a senior. ‘It’s hard for people to have parties at their houses. With field parties, it’s easier to clean up; no one’s parents need to go out of town and if the cops come, you can just run.’

Allison, 16, a junior, said she has been going to field parties since she was in eighth grade, but the other girls said they started attending the upperclassmen gatherings as freshmen in high school.

Sarah, who’s had parties at her house while her parents were out of town, said the outdoor parties are a lot easier to control. The girls all agree that the isolation of the field is a benefit for both crowd control and their illegal consumption of alcohol.

Passes Field is one of several secluded spots around the Syracuse area that high school students go to drink and hang out.

‘It’s basically to get really drunk – that and, like, being with your friends, right guys?’ Sarah said to the others as she threw a pillow back into the passenger seat at Allison, who rolled her eyes and made faces at her friend.

Sarah said people at the parties are students from their high school, or other local high schools. She generally knows everyone in the group that usually ranges from 30 to 50 people at a single party.

‘It’s never like, ‘Who the hell is that?” she said.

Even though field parties have a good mix of boys and girls, and there’s always alcohol, it’s never an excuse for open sexual activity. The girls said parties are about hanging around a bonfire, and not about hooking up with each other.

‘Everyone thinks that it’s raging and sex, but it’s not,’ said Mandy, 17, a senior. ‘It’s standing around drinking. It’s chill.’

Since they are still teenagers and far from the legal alcohol consumption/purchasing age of 21, the girls find a variety of types of alcohol and ways to obtain it.

‘It used to be Beast, but Keystone is cheapest,’ Allison said of the beer they buy for the parties.

The girls usually get a 30-pack of beer to share in a small group. Parties used to feature kegs; however, students find that if the police show up, it is easier to run away with cups and cans.

Allison said if they get beer themselves, they usually go to the local Mobile station in their community because the employees do not check their I.D.s. She said attendants know who they are and know their families, so they consider letting the girls buy alcohol a ‘friendly favor.’

‘There was a girl with really big boobs, so we’d make her do it,’ Allison said, while giggling to the three in the car.

Employees at the Mobile gas station on West Genesee Street declined to comment.

However, Officer Michael Piston of the Camillus Police Department said the girls are correct in saying that local gas stations, bars and supermarkets sell alcohol to underage high schoolers.

‘There are certain neighborhood markets that the police have come to know that sell to minors,’ Piston said.

Piston added that sometimes the selling of alcohol to minors is because employees at these establishments are teens themselves and are friends with the patrons. Also, he said, sometimes if a teen looks older than he or she is, the employees may not ask to see an I.D.

The Camillus Police Department does year-round checks in bars, stores and gas stations around the town to help prevent minors from buying alcohol.

The girls said while they drink alcohol, they do not do hard drugs such as prescription medicines or narcotics at the parties. However, they do smoke marijuana.

‘Well, ya know, of course we drink, but we smoke too,’ Allison said laughing. ‘Smoke cigarettes? Oh no. Chronic.’

While the four agree that drinking and smoking are fun activities, those substances are not the sole purpose of throwing field parties.

‘There’s nothing else to do,’ Sarah said. ‘It’s not like we’re all about getting drunk all the time.’

The parties are very low-key; attendees sometimes play drinking games, but they usually just stand around and talk to one another. The four concur that there is never fighting among the party-goers.

‘Fights? No. I’d pretty much say that everyone is calm,’ Sarah said.

‘I’d say there’s verbal disputes,’ Allison said, correcting Sarah with a hard but playful glance.

‘Well, I haven’t really seen that lately,’ said Katie, 18, a senior.

‘We try to control them,’ Mandy said.

‘When someone gets too drunk or out of control … we just take them home for the night,’ Katie said.

It was agreed, however, that no one has ever been injured, sent to the hospital or assaulted at any field parties the group has planned or attended.

‘We’re not bad people; we’re just looking to have a good time,’ Allison said. ‘Everyone does it.’

The girls find nothing wrong with field parties because of the control over the familiarity of the locations and attendees. They said they think adults are either oblivious to the parties, or they turn their heads to the students’ actions.

‘The cops always tell us we have shitty party places,’ Allison said. ‘They say theirs were better.’

Parties start later at night (around 10:30 p.m.) because more often than not, they get broken up by the police almost immediately.

Piston, who works the 3 to 11 p.m. shift regularly, said field parties have lost their popularity over the past few years. He said they usually take place mostly in the fall and spring; times when the weather is warm and teens can plan the parties in school.

‘Every field party I’ve been to that the cops have come, they just let us go,’ Allison said. ‘I think the cops just don’t want to take the time to write out the tickets.’

Katie said she’s only been caught by the police once, and even then they let her go home without a warning, citation or ticket.

‘We’ve been at the right place at the right time,’ said Mandy.

Piston said the police department is very committed to breaking up underage drinking parties, but not necessarily arresting or ticketing minors. His main objective is to break up the crowd, call in the parents and get the alcohol away from teens before they leave in vehicles.

Each party is handled on a case-by-case basis. He said the police’s reaction to field parties is based around the officers who respond to the scene, the circumstances of the party and the cooperation of the teens.

Piston makes the teens pour out their alcohol right in front of him. He said it is a harsh punishment having them watch their money literally get poured out before their eyes.

The girls said they feel like the parties are not a big deal because of the feedback they have gotten from their parents.

‘I say, ‘I’m going to Passes,” Sarah said. ‘They obviously know. We’re seniors.’

The girls said even though their parents may not approve of their drinking parties, they understand that their actions are age-appropriate.

‘They can’t control our whole lives,’ Katie said, laughing. ‘We’re too smooth.’

Published on October 6, 2005 at 12:00 pm