“College Years: The only vacation a boy gets between his mother and his wife” was a popular saying in the 1950s and was a “Daffynition” (jocular or “daffy” definition) in 1959. The saying was cited earlier, in a 1956 newspaper:
 
“And, by the by, you know what the College Years are, don’t you?—Why, they’re the only vacation a fellow gets between his mother and his wife.”
 
A similar saying was cited in print in a 1964 newspaper:
 
“COLLEGE. A young man’s interlude of freedom between subjection to his mother and submission to his wife.”
 
 
5 April 1956, The Sun-Standard (Blue Island, IL), “Linnea’s Line-up” by Linnea Peterson, pg. 17, col. 3:
And, by the by, you know what the College Years are, don’t you?—Why, they’re the only vacation a fellow gets between his mother and his wife.

16 June 1956, Dallas (TX) Morning News, “Down to Earth” by Dr.John F. Anderson Jr., pt. 1, pg. 1, col. 1:
THE HONEYMOON is over for most of the couple who used Commencement Week to commence married bliss also. SMU saw more than one pair walk down the aisle to “Pomp and Circumstances” on one night and to “Wedding March” on the next, confirming again the fact that college is merely the vacation a man has between his mother and his wife.
 
1 September 1956, Kokomo (IN) Tribune, “Just Checking, Thanks!“by Marge Bancroft, pg. 5, col. 7:
Who said college years are the only vacation a boy gets between his mother and his wife?
 
29 November 1959, Seattle (WA) Times, “Daffynitions” by Paul H. Gilbert, pg. 22, col. 3:
COLLEGE YEARS: The only vacation a boy gets between his mother and his wife.
 
Google News Archive
18 March 1964, Pittsburgh (PA) Post-Gazette, pg. 1, col. 4:
Comic Dictionary
COLLEGE
A young man’s interlude of freedom between subjection to his mother and submission to his wife.
 
Google News Archive
13 March 1965, Daytona Beach (FL) Morning Journal, “Lopez Lowdown” by Dan Hogan and Jim Grubiak, pg. 19, col. 2:
TYPICALLY CORNY JOKE OF THE WEEK: College Years: The only vacation a boy gets between his mother and his wife.
 
Google Books
14,000 Quips & Quotes:
For speakers, Writers, Editors, Preachers, and Teachers
By E. C. McKenzie
Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House
1990, ©1980
Pg. 53:
College is the only vacation a boy gets between his mother and his wife.
 
Google Books
20,000 Quips & Quotes
By Evan Esar
New York, NY: Barnes & Noble Books
1995, ©1968
Pg. 152:
College is the interlude of freedom a young man has between subjection to his mother and submission to his wife.
 
Google Groups: alt.quotations
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11/9/97
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College is that bright interlude of freedom a young man has between subjection to his mother and submission to his wife.
 
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nilesh kumar soni
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@dinno @aDeSe @unitechy College is tht bright interlude of freedom a young man has between subjection to his mother & submission to his wife
1:21 PM - 11 Apr 2009