Fake IDs

I actually shared an ID with a friend. It was a real one we'd gotten hold of. My name was Lance Price.

 

Took a road trip with a couple of buddies to Chicago when we were 17 and hit one of the many ID shops on California Avenue. Paid $15 or something, filled out a form and got an official-looking Illinois ID card.

I'm sure it helped that I lived in another state and then went to college in another state, but there was only 1 time in the next four-plus years that it didn't work. At most I got the "Is this a driver's license?" question. I explained I lost my license and this is the ID card I was issued, and all was good.

 

I started working at a bar when I was under 21 as a DJ/barback. Since it was a cash-under-the-table type of job, I never filled out paperwork and they just assumed I was of-age so I would always have a few after work and go in on my nights off as well.
By the time I turned 21, I knew the owner well enough to spring it on her and him that NOW I was legal...they thought it was funny and never got mad.
The only other time I drank in a bar underage that wasn't my "home base" and got away with it was on June 7, 1997...Game 4 of Stanley Cup final. Was in a hick-town 30 miles outside of where I grew up. Packed to the walls with Red Wings fans...no one gave a shit who was drinking, as long as they had cash.

 

I had my brother's license during my entire time in college. We don't look that much alike, but the bars weren't that interested in turning you away.

 

Worked the door at a bar on occasion years back. Whenever the ID seemed sketchy, and especially when I knew the person was using someone else's, I'd ask for their birth date. The kids never bothered to check the pertinent info on someone else's ID and without fail they'd end up stumbling over some excuse/begging me to let them in. Good times.

 

Had one in college but it didn't involve any doctoring. Just gave an older guy in my dorm a case of beer for his old ID.

One trick I never tried but some friends had success with worked like this:

My home state issued laminated IDs & DLs back then so they would cut their photo off their old ID with an exacto knife and do the same with an ID from a guy who was legal. Marry up your photo with the older guy's ID, apply a hot iron to glue the two together and, presto, new ID. It was damn near foolproof as long as you cut right along the edge of the photos.

Eventually the state added a watermark to the lamination and then a signature along the edge of the photo before they finally went to the "credit card' style license.

 

In my younger days bouncers at the many of the clubs here were trained to ask their astrological sign. Most people knew their birthdays.

My fraternity brother had a BAD fake ID that was confiscated at a bar-restaurant when we went out to dinner. The fake made him look Mexican. We teased him that he was using a Fernando Valenzuela baseball card as an ID.

 

Better than Manny Mota. Only baseball card I was scared of as a kid.

 

Exactly, especially at some of the smaller bars out in the country. You needed a Sheriff's Card for the more popular bars because they didn't want to get popped for underage drinkers. Sometimes you could borrow a friend's DL, but that was always a little risky. I got my Sheriff's Card the day I turned 18.

Drank in a bar in Hamilton, NY, at 16 while visiting a friend at Colgate. The Old Stone Jug. Drank at Potsdam and at Oswego at 17 while visiting friends.

One you got in, if you kept a low profile and weren't an asshole, you generally were golden.

 

BOOGITY BOOGITY!

 

Never needed one.

My usual bar offered a free drink on your 21st birthday. The owner threw me out when I tried to collect by saying "You've been coming here for two years now!" Took him a month to let me back in.