Fast Times on Teen-Age Weekends: Shop, Cruise, Party

When the last school buzzer rings on Friday afternoon, freedom is at hand. From then until Sunday night teen-agers across the city will hit the shopping malls, trip the black light fantastic at dance clubs, dine at restaurants, work and maybe squeeze in an hour or two of homework.

Contrary to popular stereotypes, not all teen-agers become mall sloths on the weekends. Teens interviewed for this article said they do spend a lot of time in shopping malls, but doing serious shopping--often with Mom and Dad’s credit cards, and running up a respectable bill. They’re not just playing video games or tearing up and down the escalators.

Crashing and Cruising

The nights are reserved for a number of activities, from dance clubs that cater to an under-21 crowd to over-21 dance clubs that the students try to crash with fake ID. Westwood, Hollywood, Melrose Avenue and Ventura Boulevard in the Valley are havens for teens cruising in pairs or packs, in cars or on foot.

Then, of course, there are parties. Flyer parties are de rigueur at several high schools, including University in West Los Angeles, Burbank, and Polytechnic in Long Beach. In the typical version, a large party promising beer, bouncers and a parent-free house is advertised on student-designed, photocopied flyers that are distributed around school a couple of days in advance of the event.

There is another way party information is passed around: at the local meeting place. For Uni High it’s the Jack-in-the-Box at Santa Monica Boulevard and Veteran Avenue in West L.A. “That’s our hangout,” confirmed Jill Ullman, a 17-year-old Uni senior. “No one really eats there, we just go to check out what’s happening, what the parties are. And we throw a party there, just hanging out in the parking lot.”

Burbank High students congregate at the local Bob’s on Glenoaks Boulevard, or Tommy’s hamburger stand on San Fernando Road, lingering till 12:30 or 1 after a Friday-night football game, according to Kristi Bertrand, a 17-year-old senior.

Here--in addition to the litany of comment about the opposite sex, homework, parents, teachers, cars and clothes--weekend plans are discussed.

Saturdays are often spent at football or baseball practice (most actual games are on Friday nights) or in malls--with the Westside Pavilion in Los Angeles at Westwood and Pico boulevards, the Beverly Center and the Glendale Galleria getting a lot of teen business.

Trendy Merchandise

Stores like Express, Contempo Casuals and Judy’s cater to younger shoppers with their trendy, affordable window merchandise, but they’re not the only ones that attract teens.

“There exists this stereotype about teens and shopping centers that doesn’t seem to be borne out here,” said Gayle Kantro, marketing director for the Beverly Center. “All you hear is that they come to shopping centers and they sit around in the food park area and they . . . start relationships, shall we say.”

“We do have teens spending

money here,” Kantro said. “Some of the merchants are surprised that the kids come in with their own credit cards, even gold cards. But we expect teens to behave themselves, and when they do misbehave, we enforce the rules with security.”

The Glendale Galleria is a favorite haunt for Denise Dossen, a 15-year-old Burbank High sophomore, and her friends. On the average shopping trip she’ll spend $25 to $50, mostly on clothes from shops like MGA and the Limited. Money either comes from her parents or as gifts; “My friends (and I) are pretty good at collecting money,” she said. “We always seem to have enough.”

If they ain’t misbehaving at the malls, there is the potential for cutting loose at Saturday night parties. Teens tend to band together for nights out, even on dates. “It’s more fun that way,” Dossen explained. “There are more people to talk to, and you have a better time. It’s nice when it’s just the two of you, but we’re a really close group of friends, and most of us have known each other since elementary school.”

Flyer parties at Uni tend to attract a sizable crowd. “The keg (of beer) is the draw, and sometimes they’ll charge a few bucks to get in,” Jill Ullman of Uni said.

Who obtains the beer? “Somebody’s brother, or some people have fake IDs,” she said. “The parties usually go late, till about 1:30, 2, or until it’s broken up. Sometimes the police will come because the neighbors report it.”

“I have heard of monumental parties,” confirmed Keiko Hentel, assistant principal at Uni High. “One student has it down to a science--he puts away everything valuable and has quite a number of students over--50, 60 kids. Very often the parties occur when the parents are out of town, but they’re not very destructive, surprisingly. They just tell their parents they’re going to have a few friends over.”

Wild in Burbank

Parties that Burbank students throw are “usually wild,” Bertrand said. “They’ll hire disc jockeys, and there will be about 100 people there.”

And dance clubs. Teens flock to the under-21 clubs, but there is a special thrill in gaining admission to a 21-and-over place. At Uni High, say some teens, out-of-school contacts provide baptismal certificates with phony names and birth dates, which are then taken to the DMV to obtain identification cards.

Said Jill Ullman of Uni, “To get into the over-21 clubs you get fake IDs or just know people at the door.” At one Westwood village club, according to Ullman, “9 o’clock is when they start kicking people out who are not 21. So you hide in the bathroom until it’s safe.”

Rick Gladden and his buddies say they never have much trouble getting into over-21 clubs. Gladden, an 18-year-old senior from Hamilton High, is casual about the reason: “We all look pretty old. . . . We’re pretty big guys. We just walk in. . . .”

Saturday nights, Elizabeth Diamante can be found at Network, a Glendale 21-and-under club where black is always worn because “white looks fluorescent under the black lights. It’s something like a death rocker club,” she explained. “My best friends are, like, hard-core mods, and I accompany them, help them stay out of trouble.”

For students who are on varsity teams or otherwise into sports, weekends offer nonstop action. Pedram Maddahian, a 17-year-old senior at Uni High, is on the gymnastics team but also finds time to swim, play tennis and bowl at UCLA’s student center. Cricket is the game of choice for Roger Marshall, a 13-year-old eighth grader at Rosemont Junior High who practices almost every weekend. “My father is from England,” he explained, “and he taught me how to play. I’ve been playing about six years, and we belong to a cricket club. My friends say, ‘What’s cricket?’ ”

Agile Jugglers

In fact, counselors say many students are becoming amazingly adept at juggling activities while maintaining decent grades. Opher Haramgall, 13 and in the ninth grade at Palms Junior High, sees his Jewish Big Brother every other Saturday, practices the flute so he can be prepared for concerts with the Junior Philharmonic and works on the science-fiction novel he began last year.

Chris Sambar, a 13-year-old eighth grader at Rosemont Junior High, has been working for a local orchid grower since last year. Sundays are spent watering the flowers for $3.50 an hour. Zevi Kvitky, a 14-year-old ninth grader at Palms Jr. High, uses his weekends to perform magic shows at private parties, go on weekend camping trips with his Boy Scout troop, attend meetings of the Junior Statesmen of America, tinker on his home computer and hang out with friends at the Beverly Center.

For many students, weekends constitute the biggest chunk of time they have available for a paying job. Jill Ullman works part-time at a clothing boutique in the Westside Pavilion. Elizabeth Diamante balances her social life with 20 hours a week working at the Viktor Benes bakery at the Irvine Ranch Farmer’s Market in the Beverly Center.

Erin Grey spends 20 hours a week selling in a Westwood clothing store. The 16-year-old Hamilton High senior said the majority of her friends also work, “Because it (provides) a sense of responsibility that you need. . . . And it’s nice to have the money.”

Denise Dossen used to work in her father’s dental office and baby-sit occasionally--but no more. She found she had trouble managing those jobs with school, her boyfriend, drill team and the spirit squad. “It gets confusing,” she said. “It gets a little crazy. You live for weekends, you really do. Weekdays there is really no social life, so you count the days until the weekend. My problem is that I have too much planned. But you just want to have fun after working hard all week.”

Uni’s Hentel isn’t thrilled with the idea that so many students work. “Most of them don’t like the jobs they have,” she explained, “and none of them feel that this is something they want to pursue as a career. I don’t know why they feel the need for so much money. And they do miss out on a lot of school activities. They learn good work habits, but they can learn them in school, too. They end up giving up a lot of their childhood.”

Clothes and Cars

Anne Maben, a biology teacher in PACE (Program of Additional Curricular Experiences) at Long Beach’s Polytechnic High school, said her students “either juggle work, school and outside pleasure time, or they sink. And somehow they do it. I know that the vast majority of students work on weekends. I think they do it for money to take care of their cars, to buy clothes and things they want.”

But not every moment on the weekends is spent living life in the fast lane.

“My family is close,” said Lidia Estrada, a 14-year-old ninth-grader from Le Conte Junior High. “I go shopping with my mom and sister a lot. Sometimes we’ll go visit relatives in Glendale, or we’ll watch movies together and order food in. Sometimes my friends ask me to go out with them, but I think it’s more fun with my family. Most kids my age are not close with their family at all. I think it’s good not being far apart from them.”