1970 – 2001

 The kids from both high schools in the valley had one thing in common, they loved to party on the weekends and would go to just about any length to accomplish that goal.  The local police and sheriff enjoyed breaking up the festivities just about as much as we enjoyed trying to outsmart them and thus began a decade’s long game of “cat and mouse.”

 The parties began innocently enough in people’s homes on the outskirts of town.  They were far enough away so as not to bother the general population and subsequently attract unwanted attention from the constables of the valley.  It was not long before they began to know which homes got the reputations of playing host to these events and the police would often stake them out on the weekends waiting for the first sign of an ensuing party.  Long before the parties ever got started we were being sent in all directions, thus preventing another weekend soirée.

 Not to be outsmarted, the teens would soon start taking the parties in to the hills and out of the town’s city limits.  At the same time and Aspen Police began to recruit the help of the Pitkin County Sheriff deputies to stop our fun. 

 Locations like McLain Flats or down on the old “race track” worked for a few of the events before we were chased from them and permanently banned.  The next locations took us even further out of town and often required the use of four-wheel drive vehicles or dirt bikes.  Up the Midnight Mine Road or on Smuggler Mountain worked for a long time.  In the early 1970’s the police traded in their Ford Torino 4-door “rear wheel drive monsters,” for the trendy SAAB 90’s.  We saw an opportunity and took it.  There was no way those SAABs could bother us even though officers like Michael Chandler were willing to try and did a few times without success causing damage to the SAABs in the process.

 Often these parties included numerous kegs of beer with a minor cover charge to get a cup.  Later on, Jimmy Palazzi would go to the parties in his “supped up” purple pick-up truck, the back loaded with cases of Jack Daniels, tequilas and other bottles of “hard alcohol.” For a king’s ransom we could all get as drunk as we wanted courtesy of Jimmy.

 There was a very unfortunate side effect to the parties moving further out of town, one step ahead of the law, and that was when it was time for us to go home.  Every year we lost a friend or two due to drinking and driving.  Some say it would not have happened if the local law enforcement was not so anxious to break up our parties.  Others felt we tried too hard to go get drunk and would have no matter where the parties were held.

 After losing many of Aspen’s teens the local parents and law enforcement came up with strategies to make the parties safer and not so far from town.  Some parties were actually sanctioned by the parents with “key masters” to ensure none of the kids who got drunk got behind the wheel.  In 1979 for the first time in years, no kids were lost due to the affects of alcohol and driving.