My son rushed a frat. Here's how I survived.

For starters, I started tracking him via his phone's GPS

A scene from Animal House.
(Image credit: REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo)

The phone rang at 4 a.m. I naturally assumed the worst.

But then I heard my wife murmuring into the receiver and remembered the call we'd been expecting. Our son, 800 miles away at college, was being recruited by yet another fraternity, driven by bus to sample the bar scene in some other town. He promised to let us know when they returned, no matter what hour.

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Allan Ripp

Allan Ripp is a former journalist who now runs a press relations firm in New York. He has contributed essays and personal commentary to The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Atlantic, Forbes, Time, AdWeek, the New York Observer, and the Tribune News Service.