Final Parent's Weekend

There’s no doubt that many fathers vicariously live through their sons and there’s no question I’ve sort of attempted to do that on my visits to Penn State University where my 22-year old son Brandon is a senior. Now that he’s of legal drinking age I will admit that I’ve enjoyed the ability to hoist a few with him and his friends and that’s what I did this past weekend when his Delta Chi fraternity hosted their annual Parent’s weekend.

There were over 400 people packed into the frat house for a dinner they hosted and my wife and I enjoyed socializing with the “brothers” and their parents. We got bits and pieces of quite a few spring break stories but of course we’re only getting the “G” rated versions and maybe we’re better off not knowing all the details. However while having fun is certainly a large part of Greek like Brandon’s fraternity had reason to be proud of their house GPA and the more than $130,000 they raised for Thon…Penn State’s multi-million dollar dance marathon that raised over $6.6 million in February for the battle against pediatric cancer.

As the night wore on my son informed me that I was going out with them afterwards to visit some of the downtown bars and clubs so after taking my wife back to the hotel I rejoined the posse. A couple of the bars were so jammed we couldn’t move and left quickly and one would not allow me in, are you ready for this….because I didn’t have ID. I’m 52 years old and while I wanted to be flattered it had nothing to do with my youthful looks and demeanor but was club policy. We finally found a place in which I knew after an hour it was time for me to leave. So I stopped for a cup of coffee and then walked the 10 minutes back to our hotel and enjoyed strolling through the campus.

We woke up early Sunday, had breakfast and then took off knowing that in six weeks Brandon will graduate and that will be our final trip back to Happy Valley. Sure I’ll still attend football games but it won’t be the same as when your child is a student. However my 16-year old daughter is at least considering Penn State so all may not be lost.