The Prom

I didn’t go to my high school prom. My recollections of those days are rather fuzzy…I tend to delete memories that don’t make me happy…but I do remember an awkward young woman who didn’t think she was pretty or talented. No wonder no one asked me…I wouldn’t have asked me.

Fast forward many years. I believe in myself. On most days. I’m married to the best guy in the world. We’ve found a fabulous sport that keeps us active and together. So what did I need a prom for?

I didn’t need it, but I did very much enjoy the Indy Singles prom night last Saturday evening. It wasn’t fancy, but the music was good, the people friendly, and the food delicious. When they passed out corsages I found myself feeling a little misty. When Gary escorted me to our table I felt it even more. We danced the night away in the midst of decorated trees filled with twinkling lights.

You can’t go back. It doesn’t do any good to wish you were something you weren’t, or mourn for how things could have been. It would be nice though, to give my 16 year old self a big hug and tell her things are going to work out just fine.

More than fine…wonderful.

Prom Time

June is coming and with it the time when flowers and young love bloom. June is prom time, the goodbye to the old high school and looking forward to a college career or job. In a way, I guess prom is a dress rehearsal for a wedding. The young couple all gussied up, swaying to the music. For me, prom brings back memories of a rented tux and bad music. I don’t remember where the event took place but I do remember the prom’s song was something by Phil Collins that I’d be embarrassed to listen to now. This is why all proms should be held once you reach the age of about thirty. It would keep you from wearing a pink cummerbund or slow grooving to Sussudio.
I did a little research on the origins of the prom. According to Time Magazine, the prom’s origins can be traced back to the co-ed banquets that 19th century American universities held for each year's graduating class. Youth culture moved the prom into the teenage world and by the 1940s the prom as we know today had taken hold with its themes and corsages.

Tomorrow we’ll be participating in another, more recent phenomena: a second chance prom. We’re heading to the Indy Singles prom to enjoy a simple banquet and a little dancing. There’s something nice about the adult version of the prom. There’s no peer pressure, no king and queen, and no being an awkward wall flower. But the biggest plus is that I get to dance with the girl I really love.

Goin’ to the Prom

Ah, the Prom…one of life’s coming of age moments, at least in the Western world. Say “prom” outside our borders and I’m not sure many would get it, let alone understand the trials and tribulations associated with the event here in the USA.

The term “prom” comes from the word “promenade,” meaning a march of guests into a ballroom to announce the beginning of the dance. The first proms could be seen as middle class replications of the high society debutante balls. Proms were created around the 1930s as less elaborate affairs where average teens could meet in their finest duds to eat dinner and dance, practicing the social etiquette needed to launch them into marriage and life in the ‘burbs. The Prom is still a chance to get gussied up, but I don’t believe today’s young people would see it as a rehearsal for adult life. But…it’s still a big deal.

I never went to my high school prom…or any other major dance for that matter. Back then I thought it was because I was ugly. Now looking back, I think rather it was because I was 1) rather different, and 2) stared at my feet. I’m sure from a young man’s perspective I appeared standoffish and weird.

Not going to the prom when you are 17 or 18 is awful then, and a non issue now. I can’t remember my classmates, let along the prom’s theme. And now that I enjoy dancing at all sorts of lovely venues the idea of a missed prom seems so yesterday. But yet, there’s always been a bit of wistfulness. It is something you can never go back to…what’s gone is gone.

Or is it?

Last night Gary and I attended the Senior Prom at the Indianapolis Roof. By “senior’ I mean the Indianapolis Senior Center sponsored this event. My parents, members of the club, invited Gary and me to come along.

The crowd was mixed; young, old, and in between. The band was good (Tony Barron Orchestra), the food excellent. As always, it was so sweet to see my parents twirling around the dance floor. I danced a foxtrot with my dad. At seventeen, I would never have done this. Here we are:



Also at seventeen I couldn’t have dreamed I would someday meet a man like my Gary. And to be truthful, just like dancing with my dad would have been decidedly un-cool back then, my high school self wasn’t near ready for the kind of man Gary is.

Adult proms are special. It was so romantic to be at the Prom with the date of my dreams. How many girls can say that? Sigh.