College Road Trip

During my college days the words began with a whisper but grew to the swelled rumblings that echoed through a dorm or frat house. "Road trip!!!" we cried. What usually ensued was a trip to Canada for Brador beer (much higher in alcohol content--or so we thought) or maybe to a big city like Boston to visit our wayward friends at places like Wellesley or our friend who played Magenta in "Rocky Horror Picture Show". (A story for another time...)
Nowadays the term "road trip" has come to have a new meaning. Instead it means the beginning of the journey with my son to figure out where he would be most happy studying, learning and generally growing up. We have now visited about 5 colleges. One of them was at a State University where we visited the son of a dear friend. We took him out to dinner and had him show us his school. He was very proud. It was thrilling to see his newfound adulthood and how proud he was of the fraternity he pledged and the fact that he will undoubtedly be the next social chair.
It was exactly as I remembered it. He was nervous to lead us into the frat house but we assured him we had seen plenty in our days at school. As the heavy door creaked open, he led us from the bright sunlight into the dank and dirty boys club and the unmistakable smell of days old beer spill hit me. It was such an unmistakable odor. It smelled of "day after".
He led us to their "party room" and apologized for the state of the place. He will improve it and add a lot to the health and beauty of the place, to be sure. It certainly was not the worst I had seen and I wanted my son to see it, and to see it without the romance of loud music, dark lighting and beautiful sorority girls to cover up what it was. He will have to make his own choices soon. But I was thinking, maybe if he sees it in the light of day, in the light of the day after, he will think too.