High School Parties in the Desert

Growing up in El Paso, there were a lot of ways for teenagers to get into trouble.  We could go across the border and drink (back when it was safer to do so) or go out in the desert and drink.  Basically what I'm getting at is that there were plenty of opportunities for minors out there to drink.

El Paso is right on the border with New Mexico, so when there were huge groups of teenagers out in the desert, it became tough for law enforcement to know who had jurisdiction to break up the party and issue citations or perform arrests.  

To solve this issue, the New Mexico and Texas State Troopers formed an alliance called "The Wolf Pack" that would roll out to the parties together.  That way, once they figured out which state the party was in, the appropriate team could do the work. This task force was typically comprised of a helicopter that would spot the parties and then a few SUVs that would actually drive out to apprehend the violating minors.

Luckily, I was only ever at one desert party where I happened to be present when it was broken up by the cops.  It happened this way:

My group of friends, probably four or five in total, had driven out to the party spot in a friend's vintage Jeep.  We were one car of probably 30 or so, so I'd guess there were in the neighborhood of a hundred kids out in the black of a desert night.

We would do the old cliche of everyone tuning their car radios to the same station (KLAQ most likely, El Paso's "New Alternative") and leave our doors open or windows down so that anywhere in the mass, you'd hear the music.  

We'd also always have a keg, though I'll be damned if I ever knew where it came from.  I'll describe my own various exploits to get beer another time.

To combat the darkness, we'd inevitably build a bonfire that would consist of pallets, railroad ties, old fence boards, and whatever brush we could find... which, being in the desert was plentiful, and also probably a terrible idea.

I'd like to note at this point that whenever we had any of these parties, I never knew whose land we were on.  Surely if you're out in the middle of no where and in danger of being busted by the cops, you're not on the land with someone's permission.  

So, just to tally the potential criminal offenses thus far, we have criminal trespassing, drinking under age, and potential arson, depending on the prevailing winds.

This particular night, all activities described above were in full swing.  Everyone had been out at this party for about  an hour or so when a spotlight suddenly broke out of the dark sky to illuminate the festivities.

In my head, this was very cinematic, the dust blown by the rotors, swirling in the spot light, and the music blaring.  My memory can't recall what song was playing, but this was the late 1990's, so let's assume it was Silverchair or the Goo Goo Dolls or something else we loved at the time but in retrospect is fucking horrible.

When you're a teenager, even one that respects authority, your number one job is to make it appear to your peers that you absolutely don't.  You must look cool above all else.

Everyone at the party, doing their best to comply with custom, started flipping off the helicopter and laughing with one another as they screamed obscenities at it.  Everyone was "cool" for about three seconds, then a panic broke out.

Kids hauled ass to their respective vehicles, dropping beers and trampling lard-asses as they went.  We hopped in our Jeep and tore into the desert.

The advantage of an old jeep is that it was built for off-road and is usually already so beat up that you don't care too much about beating it up more.  My friend got off the main dirt road that led back to the highway and drove through brush and sand to find a back way out onto the paved roads.

Thankfully, we never saw the SUVs though I have to presume they were either on their way, or already out on the main road which we avoided.  Not sure if that means we also need to add  evading arrest to our list of potential charges.

This is the kind of stupid risks our parents always warned us about.  Now that I'm a grown up, I'm forced to look back and think these types of things, while incredibly fun, were dumb as shit.  I wouldn't change them, but I cringe to think of where I might have ended up if I'd made a wrong move along the way.  Thankfully I grew up at a time where not every dumb thing I did was committed to video or the internet.