NYC Theatre Trip - One Flew Over Cuckoo's Nest

Does anyone remember the bus trip to New York City to see the play, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest? I can't remember which teacher organized it but it must have been our senior year.

I loved the book and the play, especially the character of mean nurse Ratchett. However, what I remember most about the trip was that when we got off the buses in the theater district, we split up into small groups to get lunch before reuniting to at the appointed time to take our seats in the theater. At least this is how I remember it, someone please correct me, if I have this wrong.

It seems amazing to me that we didn't have chaperone's. It is also amazing that we actually found our way back to the "off Broadway" theater in time for the start of the play. But here is the most important part of this memory. In 1971, the drinking age in NYC was 18 years of age while in Delaware it was 20 or 21. I turned 18 in February of that year and I suppose that some others were 18 already as well. I am trying hard to remember who was in the group I went to lunch with but I can't right now.

Anyway my group found it's way to a restaurant named "Der Weinerwald". Although we were nearly rubes off the turnip truck, I think that we knew enough about German cuisine, to know a key ingredient on any German menu. Yes, that's right. . . beer! Well I think a couple of us ordered beer and maybe someone ordered a glass of wine. I can't remember. However, I do remember someone ordering a martini which really surprised me for some reason. We didn't get drunk but I felt like we were really getting away with something forbidden. As I remember, no one ever asked us for ID.

The theater was "in the round" and the play was good. But there was a thrill to be high school students ordering alcoholic beverages in a restaurant.

Does anyone else remember this trip? Did your groups have chaperones? Did you by alchol?

If I remember more, I will come back and edit this post.

m. m.