I spent this past weekend down in sunny (and wet) Florida, visiting family and also attending the parent’s weekend at my youngest daughter’s college – the University of Central Florida.

Back when I was a Florida resident, UCF was just a small commuter school (think the size of Hagerstown Community College), but over the past twenty years, it has grown by leaps and bounds, now boasting the largest university population in the state with over 70,000 students.  The construction on campus in that time has been almost biblical, and the campus boasts all of the amenities one would expect with a large, southern university – including a Division 1 football team, the UCF Knights.

We visited my daughter’s sorority and then headed on over to the festivities that were taking place before the day’s home football game.  Now, when I say “festivities”, I mean that with a capital “F”.  I’ve seen some big crowds in my time, but nothing prepared me for the onslaught of over 30,000 students and parents jammed together on open spaces around campus to “tailgate” prior to the big game.

A summer rainstorm had just occurred prior to the afternoon events, so all of the open green spaces were a muddy mess, but that didn’t stop the revelry and party atmosphere.  We jammed into one area where all of the fraternities were celebrating, and it was a huddled mass of hot, sweaty college kids (and parents), mingling, playing drinking games, and congregating under large tents where the cheap beer and seltzers were being passed about as if the world were going to end in an hour or so.  There were people traveling about with open twelve-packs tucked under their arms, chatting with friends or swaying to the pulsing music that emanated from each tent.

Back in my day, we used to “shotgun” beers, but the college kids of today have taken the sport up to new levels.  Here, they lift up there companions and dunk them into a large vat of cold water (head first).  When they come up for air, they get aggressively slapped across the face – then they shotgun their beer to the roars of onlookers.  Ahhhh, youth.

Large puddles that had formed on the sidewalks were strewn with submerged electrical cords.  One of the parents leaned over and said to me, “do you think that’s safe?” to which I replied “I guess we’ll find out” as I gave the whole situation a wide berth.  The lines to the port-a-potties were long, the smells of grilled sausages and burgers filled the air, and the sights of barely clothed co-eds made me feel my age.  The police presence was also very much in play, keeping everything at the level of a controlled riot – and the game was still three hours away.

It was definitely a memorable experience, and a rite of passage that every college kid should take part in at least once in their lives.

Although, next time, I think I’ll be happy to just watch the game on television.