When my friends from out of town stop by College Park for the night, I’m always faced with the dilemma of which bar to take them to. Generally speaking, Thirsty Turtle is my last choice. Call me an old soul, but the prospect of fighting our way through an army of sweaty drunks grinding on one another like it’s prom night just to wait 20 minutes for one beer doesn’t exactly tickle my fancy.

When I was roped into going out to Turtle this weekend, I was initially dismayed, but I must say, I was pleasantly surprised.

The first thing you’ll notice when attending the bars in College Park during the summer is the obvious lack of attendance. This is just common sense, but for someone like me, who likes to actually be able to hold a conversation with people rather than simply panting and sweating on them, fewer people equals less noise, which equals more fun.

Aside from the lack of a crowd, however, you’ll also notice the bargoers are of a different demographic in the summer. You know that feeling you get when you meet a nice girl at a bar and, for some reason, you fear she may be 15? Well, at Turtle that’s often a real risk. But in the summer, the freshmen have fled to take their laundry home to Mom and Dad, leaving only us devoted upperclassmen to hold down the nightlife scene.

I don’t want to take anything away from the underclassmen party people. These kids have their fun, and that’s all well and good, but all I’m saying is it’s nice to not have them around for a while. I spent a whole night at Thirsty Turtle on Saturday and not once was a drink spilled on me, nor did I have to step over a passed-out teenager just to get to the bathroom.

The point here (if it isn’t obvious enough) is that I’m happy to see a little class for a change. The bar scene in College Park is limited, and the fact one of our bars so quickly turned into a sloppy mosh pit is a bit of a shame. Any respite from the chaos is a welcome change – and summer brings just that.

Surely when fall arrives, the hordes of drunken fools will return, and my pleasant evenings will cease. But for now, I plan to enjoy my quiet nights in College Park, and I hope you will join me. Just do me a favor and keep it down.

Mike DiMarco is a senior English major. He can be reached at dimarcodbk@gmail.com.