Colleen Stein

Because many incoming freshmen originate from little Midwest podunk towns, they expect to suffer from the same lack of nightly social opportunities when they begin college at SDSU.

To be under the legal drinking age in a college town is like having your mouth sewn shut and being invited to a feast. It is torture if you are seeking good old-fashioned alcohol-induced fun without the consequences of handcuffs and court dates.

Fortunately, Brookings offers a few options for students under twenty-one who crave a healthy dose of nightly tomfoolery.

The Prairie Lanes Bowling Alley offers Galaxy Bowling on Fridays and Saturdays from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. For $10, a bowler can play as unlimited games including shoe and bowling ball rental.

Country Kitchen restaurant is open 24 hours a days, Thursday through Saturday. Conversing over pancakes and Mountain Dew at three in the morning beats sitting alone in your dorm room watching reruns of The Anna Nicole show.

For those who yearn for a little quality time outdoors, the campus greens are ample grounds for social gatherings as long as the noise level is kept to a minimum.

Once the Super Wal-Mart opens, the extended store hours will provide the option to take your posse shopping in the wee hours of the morning. Instead of catching up on some much-needed sleep, you can dig through the DVD bargain bins and then revisit your childhood by trying out the new shipment of waffle bats in the toy department.

Along with Cinema 5’s cheap night every Tuesday and three video rental stores in town, finding something to keep the night alive is not as hard as it used to be in high school. Until the miraculous day when the age of 21 falls gracefully upon you, visit some of these hangouts before resorting to your back-home amusement methods of cruising the loop and cow tipping.

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