Twenty-first birthdays may be an exciting time for celebration, but not everyone has the same experience, especially when it comes to professors.

History professor Paul Newman said that the drinking age was 18 when he turned 21.

“It was May 28, 1986. My friends took me to Georgetown in Washington, D.C., to a tavern that had over 300 beers, one from every continent.

“I had a Panda beer from China, a Fosters from Australia, a Guinness from Europe, a Moosehead from North America and I think a Skol from Brazil.

“Then we went to a joint on Connecticut Avenue called ‘The Four Provinces of Ireland’, and I sampled one beer from each.

“This was over a six-hour time period; mind you, I was not using a funnel. 

“I miss being 18, and my friends from that time in my life,” Newman said.

“We’ve lost touch completely now, but I’ll never forget the fun we had.

“If I drank that much in one night now, at 50, I’d be dead. Youth is wasted on the young.”

Mathematics professor Elizabeth Hoffman said her 21st birthday was a relaxing one she had spent with her husband.

“During that time in our lives, we loved water- skiing. If I were to guess, my husband and I were most likely camping on the shore of the Youghiogheny River and waterskiing all day,” Hoffman said.

“I have no drunken tale to report.”

English instructor Brian Burke said that, although he was raised in a dry family, his parents helped him celebrate his 21st birthday by getting him gag gifts.

“Some of the milder ones included a 12-pack of toilet paper and a box of Ex-Lax,” Burke said.

“There was also a wig and a bottle of Rogaine involved.”