It has come to the attention of this
writer that a certain event before Thanksgiving happens every year in Chicago.
The day is known as ‘Black Wednesday.’ It is the culmination of college
students, young upcoming professionals and other unspecified demographics of
partiers congregating at bars and clubs to make a mockery of any civility they have.
Since many do not have work or anything the day before Thanksgiving it is a
seen as a prime opportunity for debauchery. This piece will attempt to identify
patterns, trends and (hopefully) statistics that will garner a better characterization
of this emerging event.
First off, if one were to do a simple online
search, without the aid of scholarly databases one would find a particularly
strange occurrence: This is a real Chicago holiday. In fact, the first result
tends to be an Urban Dictionary submission:
“Nov 22nd Day in Chicago
where all the students come home from college for the holidays; the Biggest
College Party night of the year.”
Now, this submission was
made in 2006. Clearly this date would be adjusted to suit the last Wednesday of
November, but I will not scorn this user for his lack of common sense. Then if
one does a search for news regarding Black Wednesday, results from “Metro Mix,”
and other party and event publications present where the best places are to go.
Certain bars run “Blackout Wednesday,” specials. If one tries to his or her
best ability they may find a story in Washington State about “Black Wednesday,”
but other than that this event seems to be strictly regulated to Chicago. We’ll
take it.
Indeed there is a propensity for Chicago to
stretch its muscles in terms of drinking. In a piece for Examiner.com, Maryellen Grady
compiled some fascinating statistics, one of which included “A study done in 2007 by the U.S.
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) said, of the 15
largest cities in the country, Chicago topped the list for binge drinking. The study reported 25.7 percent
of Chicagoans are binge drinkers, well over the national average.” This Black Wednesday was made for Chicago. It quite honestly is the perfect
storm of circumstances for bars, and especially the beer producers of Chicago,
Pabst and Goose Island see this as a positive externality of Thanksgiving.
Chicagoans propensity to drink doesn't end with
that. Take for instance if you will a fine Sunday in November, the fourth of November
in this 2012 calendar when the Chicago Bears played the Titans of Tennessee.
The Bears destroyed the Titans with a score of 51-20 and as it happened the majority
of attendees at the game may have been mostly Bears fans, "They've traveled well. Hats off to our fans, it's
been a fun year -- Dallas, Jacksonville, here it's been crazy to watch the
Bears fans take over," Cutler said
after the game. "You know
you have a ton of fans when you're in an away stadium in the red zone and I'm
trying to get the crowd to hush up and they're responding. They got quiet
in a hurry, so it makes it fun." Cool story bro, what’s the point?
Well, after the game the Chicago fans went to celebrate and drank Nashville dry! This is no
exaggeration, according to NBC Chicago “Nashville wasn't quite prepared for the
many Bears fans who descended on its town, as bars ran out of the beer. The Paradise Trailer Park Resort, just across the river from the Titans
stadium, was out of bottled beer by Sunday evening. The Whiskey Bent Saloon had
just two brands of beer left by the time the Chicago contingent left town.” Chicago doesn't mess around, I guess.
What motivates the youth of this fine city to
create such a valid stereotype? Why does Black Wednesday have so much steam
behind it? According to a report filed by the Center for Prevention Research
and Development, Chicago’s youth starts early when drinking. “Within the City
of Chicago, alcohol is the most prevalent drug among youth. The prevalence of
alcohol use is more than double that of any other drug,” (CRPD 2008).
They
even included a graph:
(CRPD 2008).
So Chicago starts early. This imprint of binge drinking doesn't end there. What follows the unifying theme of the night is a very
strong shattering of demographic factions, that is, those who chose to go to
clubs, those who chose to go to bars, those who chose to go to specific
hipster-esqe bars, and those who stay at home and are part of the 17.2 percent
of all grades in high school who smoke marijuana.
Having asked some of my
fellow Chicagoans about their procedural experience of the event there were a
few stipulations: “it
seems like people want to start earlier on Black Wednesday so they have time to
explore their options throughout the night. Also, I know some people like to
start earlier tonight so they're able to do things in the morning w/ family… People
go to pregames earlier and stay there longer to get more liquored up before
going out,” said Loyola Student Stas Moldavskiy. He later went on to describe
that people aren’t as separated like mentioned earlier: “I think people are
typically in the mood to do bar then club. The bar part is more of a
continuation to the pregame. While the club part is the ‘now that I'm liquored
up, I can dance.’”
There does exist a contingent of
individuals that fiercely guards their right to saying they were her or there
in terms of hipster dynamics. I cannot begin to explain this strange
phenomenology of the hipster here, but needless to say, the place where the
hipster ends up and why is very, very complicated.
ANYWAY, the necessary empirical
observation here is the local bar. A vast majority of people in the greater Chicagoland
area will not be going to the city and partying like a rockstar turkey
(although there may be a sizable and notable amount of individuals gettin’
stuffed like turkey’s, (alcoholically and sexually)), rather they’ll be
visiting the local watering hole and running into that kid in high school whose
name you can’t remember but face you can. It’s like an unofficial homecoming or
high school reunion. It is a peculiar place to find yourself in. It reminds this
writer of ACT I of a dramedy where the main character goes home and runs into
all those people that remind him or her what made them… them. It’s cliché, but
you can actively experience that this evening at your hometown establishment
and you should embrace it. It can create a sense of density and meaning in a
world that can seem to lack it.
There is perhaps no real valuable thing
that can be derived from Black Wednesday, unlike the next day. Should one find
him or herself in the bar a couple miles away from their childhood home perhaps
they could ponder over the moments and memories created in this hometown of
theirs.
One final thing, of all the research
compiled for this short report, I could find nothing on what the South Side
does. That’s a whole other Chicago that rarely gets mentioned, but this fact
should be disclosed.
Happy Thanksgiving, and enjoy your
Black Wednesday!
(If you have something to add, feel free to comment!)
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