"A lot of kids get caught drunk driving down here," says Melissa Birkemeir, a bartender at Penrod's Nightclub. "So the big saying here is 'come down on vacation and go back on probation.'"

Life on the Ft. Lauderdale strip is always exciting, Birkemeir says. And the scenery is certainly unusual.

"Outside we wear Bikini bathing suits and inside we wear skimpy, French suits. They're pretty revealing," Birkmeir says. "The guys are all obnoxious and crazy. I get hit on almost 500 times per night and once in a while, I have to call a bouncer cause some guy pinches me in the butt. Nonctheless," she adds, "I can make $300 in one night during spring break."

Life in the bars may sound rowdy, but the hotels are even worse. "Every year two or three people try to take a swan dive off the fifth or sixth floor balcony into the pool below. Unfortunately most miss," says Sergeant Jim G. Ferrel of the Ft. Lauderdale police department.

"I can remember some guy who fell off his upper-level balcony. He was playing basketball the next day," says Risbergs of the Riviera Hotel.

And Ferrel described an incident last year where a young man grabbed an outdoor elevator at the Pier 66 Hotel. He rode it up to the sixth floor, lost his grip, and fell to his death.

Despite these grisly tales, some local residents say vacationing college students in Ft. Lauderdale are respectable and well-behaved.

"These stories that two or three people die every year are not true. They are a total lie and the police are not well informed," says Susan Migdall, co-owner of the Summers on the Beach nightclub. "The college kids down here are so nice these last few years that they even put trash in the baskets. It's not crazy dangerous down here, it's just crazy fun."

Despite the debate on whether Ft. Lauderdale is dangerous or fun, all seem to agree on one thing Ft. Lauderdale is crazy!

James B. Stovell '90 and Owen O. West '90 went to Ft. Lauderdale last spring, and they have fond memories of their trip. "We were down there hanging out, cruising around, and girls were all around us. Needless to say, we got four blondes in one day. That 's the way Owen and I like them," Stovell says.

Although the hordes of college students bring lots of money into Ft. Lauderdale, the clink of the cash register is often accompanied by the crash of breaking glass.

Many hotel managers say they take the precaution of removing any breakable furniture during the months of March and April. "Hey, its spring break, people like their beer and things break when kids are tossing around the pigskin," Risbergs says.

Cleaning up after the onslaught is often quite a chore. "Besides having to clean up the usual leftovers of beer cans, maids often discover the unwelcome sight of human leftovers," says Risberg. "The number of complaints from maids increases proportionately with the number of teenagers down here."

Sometimes the garbage moves out of the hotels into public spaces. "One of the most embarrassing problems down here is the problem of kids...relieving themselves biologically on the streets," Risbergs says.

In part of an effort to control--and profit from--the vacation traffic, local officials and bar owners plan a host of special activities. The Anheuser-Busch brewery is sponsoring an event called "Glazer Chase" on the beaches of Daytona and Ft. Lauderdale.