When the parents are away the kids will play (or party in this case).

Being a teenager in Westren Mass. in the 1980's was like anywhere else I figure. And so it will come as no surprise that no matter how many times your parents tell you, "No Parties!", you're going to do it anyway. So, once again my parents would leave for the weekend.

But, when my cousins and I got together we always had a "plan". Now we have had our share of "blowout parties". We even went as far as to have a live band in the Kitchen once. But, we ALWAYS had a plan for cleaning up afterward and everyone was good enough to chip because they wanted to do it again.

This party was no different than any other. Except we decided to go with bottles this time instead of a Keg. Now, everyone had a great time. We listened to all our favorite tunes, we watched to see who would end up with who THIS weekend, I think we even voted on the "Friday Night Video Fights" on MTV that weekend. Then the next day would be the clean up:
My job was to sweep and mop the floors.
My cousin Jimmy and the girls would patrol outside for any evidence of a party (bottles, cans other trash) and my cousin Paul would vacuum and drag the buffer out for the wood floors.
The place would look as good if not BETTER than when my parents left.

So, in comes my parents the NEXT day and they're tired from their trip and happy to be home. later that night my father is sitting in his chair manning the TV remote as always when his snack bag falls off the table behind him. It falls back behind the table where a heating/ AC vent is. As he goes to grab it he sees a beer bottle cap wedged deep in the vent. He brings it to me and reads me the riot act about having parties while they're gone.

So, after all that scrubbing and cleaning and vacuuming and removing of trash & bottles... it's one lousey bottlecap that gave us away and did us in.