The news just keeps getting worse
March 4, 2022Oceans and Sand
June 8, 2022Spring Break is upon us and given the different schedules it will last for roughly six weeks. For college age students it is the opportunity to get away from studies and have some fun. Mostly they travel to Florida and the Gulf Coast states and for the well off all the way to Cancun. They seek sun and surf for sure, but then members of the opposite sex, alcohol and drugs. Not all seek the latter but no sex and no alcohol would be a bummer. So as long as the day, and night, last a good time can be had by all. Unfortunately beer and testosterone can be a bad mix and fights and even deaths occur. This is the downside of the break that brings local police to the beach to tidy things up. Some of the visitors will return to campus with more than just a hangover.
As far as the beach communities are concerned the students are a mixed blessing. Six weeks of additional tourism that fill the hotels, motels, bars liquor stores and restaurants is a boon. Local businesses can always use an extension of the winter or summer season. Towns get an extra flush of taxes that keep controllers happy. On the downside are the drunk and belligerent students that require policing and jail time depleting the town coffers. Occasional riots have caused some towns to swear off Spring Break as murder and rape are just not worth it. Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach tightened up the rules and regulations the better to control large numbers and violence.
As long as the school year grinds on, a break at the beginning of spring will continue. Escaping campus and the professoriate are just too powerful motives. For their elders one can enjoy the experience at a distance by tuning in on the 1960 movie “Where the Boys Are,” which is still the best of the Spring Break movies.