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I went to the Junior/Senior Prom both years. My mother made my dresses for both. The theme of my dresses was "pastel and modest"....LOL. They were pretty, but definitely not what I saw my granddaughter wear for her proms.
Of course, my proms were back in '64 and '65 and if a girl had showed up in one of the "hoochie-mama" dresses I've seen lately, she would have been marched right back out to the parking lot and sent home for a sweater or maybe a bathrobe. Strapless was about as daring as anyone got. My mother would have never let me out of the house in a strapless dress.....
The boys wore white dinner jackets mostly; a few wore tuxes. Corsages were a necessity, with a matching boutonniere (boy, did I have a hard time spelling THAT) for the guy. Extra points for the guy who knew to get a wrist corsage and not a pin-on-the-shoulder one. Mostly they were rosebuds and carnations, but if the guy had seduction in mind, he'd get you an orchid. I mean, that cost at least $5 more, y'know. One of my dates got me a lovely gardenia corsage that looked like a limp brown rag by halfway through prom. Note: stay away from gardenias when choosing corsages.
Boy picked you up, Mom took photos, Dad glared at boy. Depending on the boy's parents, it might entail a trip back to the boy's house for photos. Prom started at 7 and was over at 11:00. Cookies and punch were served (there was always an attempt by some of the guys to "spike" the punch but the chaperones were pretty wise to all the shenanigans after all those years and it was seldom successful). The prom was at a local somewhat-seedy ballroom. It was at least better than having it in the gym.
You went out for something to eat afterward if you could find some place open that late that wasn't White Castle. None of this "all night at the beach" for us....uh-uh. Parents would have never put up with that. Of course, even with all that, there were quite often quick weddings a couple of months later and "little surprises" that showed up nine months after the prom (refer back to the orchid corsages....)
I went to the Junior/Senior Prom both years. My mother made my dresses for both. The theme of my dresses was "pastel and modest"....LOL. They were pretty, but definitely not what I saw my granddaughter wear for her proms.
Of course, my proms were back in '64 and '65 and if a girl had showed up in one of the "hoochie-mama" dresses I've seen lately, she would have been marched right back out to the parking lot and sent home for a sweater or maybe a bathrobe. Strapless was about as daring as anyone got. My mother would have never let me out of the house in a strapless dress.....
The boys wore white dinner jackets mostly; a few wore tuxes. Corsages were a necessity, with a matching boutonniere (boy, did I have a hard time spelling THAT) for the guy. Extra points for the guy who knew to get a wrist corsage and not a pin-on-the-shoulder one. Mostly they were rosebuds and carnations, but if the guy had seduction in mind, he'd get you an orchid. I mean, that cost at least $5 more, y'know. One of my dates got me a lovely gardenia corsage that looked like a limp brown rag by halfway through prom. Note: stay away from gardenias when choosing corsages.
Boy picked you up, Mom took photos, Dad glared at boy. Depending on the boy's parents, it might entail a trip back to the boy's house for photos. Prom started at 7 and was over at 11:00. Cookies and punch were served (there was always an attempt by some of the guys to "spike" the punch but the chaperones were pretty wise to all the shenanigans after all those years and it was seldom successful). The prom was at a local somewhat-seedy ballroom. It was at least better than having it in the gym.
You went out for something to eat afterward if you could find some place open that late that wasn't White Castle. None of this "all night at the beach" for us....uh-uh. Parents would have never put up with that. Of course, even with all that, there were quite often quick weddings a couple of months later and "little surprises" that showed up nine months after the prom (refer back to the orchid corsages....)
Enjoyed your post, I graduated in 1965, did not go to the prom. My husband (then boyfriend) thought we should have....doesn't matter now, have been married nearly 50 years.
No. I wasn't dating anyone at the time, didn't feel like asking someone out just for that dance, and thought it would be lame to go with a bunch of my friends. Don't regret it at all.
I was a prom protester. I thought it was a preamble to marriage, had to be asked by a guy, escorted, and then attend the obligatory party and getting laid after, and was pretty outspoken about it. I was raised in a small town where the prom determined if you were alive or not. It was also during the years of feminism and the whole prom thing didn’t sit right with me on principle, just like voting for a Homecoming queen didn’t. I was class of 75, and was asked to go, but I had no intention of going. Tickets only cost $4 a couple in the high school gym. It was not a financial hardship. I even had a dress that my dad had bought me earlier in the year for other dances. I deliberately got in trouble the weekend before so I would be grounded and had an out. The guy was someone I was not comfortable with and had never dated him and it was a very last minute request. I told him no early, so he was not let down at the last minute, but I knew I didn’t want to go. I suppose if I was dating someone steadily it would have been fun, but not otherwise, and I know things have changed since then with kids going as singles or in groups. I just did not feel obligated to pair up because of a tradition. I thanked my parents for grounding me. I still talk about it with my dad and we have a laugh about it!
First prom I went to, I was a sophomore but a junior asked me so I went, and we had a blast!
He was an Elvis Costello look alike - one of those guys who is gangly and nerdy but also cool and funny. I remember people saying "Oh, you're going to the prom with HIM?" and being surprised because he was a Science Club sort of guy and I was a Homecoming Court sort of gal. (Never the queen, but always on the court - LOL.)
But get this - he paid for six weeks of dance lessons - this was during the disco craze (1978). Now I get it - he also got six weeks of dates with me but so what - it was fun! My parents bought a dress for me, and he drove out, picked me up, gave me a wrist corsage, took me to Steak and Ale (yes, those were around!) first, and then we drove to the hotel where we were having prom - and we danced and danced and danced and danced and danced - it was a BLAST! No drinking, no sleeping together, just good clean fun! It was great. He was not my boyfriend but he was a good friend, and also a perfect gentleman. (He ended up being an Arthur Murray dance instructor!)
The next year I was a junior - but right before prom I was in a wreck, so though I wasn't badly injured, I was banged up and didn't feel like going, so though my date was the football captain that year, I canceled with him. No big deal - I honestly didn't want to go to prom with him because I was afraid he'd try to kiss me, and he had blonde eyelashes on one eye and brown on the other and I was afraid I was going to laugh if he tried to kiss me!
So I already had that prom dress and I wore it my senior year to a Valentine's dance, so when prom came around, my dad thought I should WEAR THE SAME DRESS to prom as well! What? No. Girls didn't do that. So I found a dress, but my dad wouldn't buy it. Long story short, he did surprise me with tickets to a Willie Nelson concert, and so I made a bet with him when we were there - I bet him that I could get up on stage, kiss Willie, and then exit the stage without being thrown off by security - and if I did all that, he had to buy me that prom dress (I remember that it was $75 and that was a BIG DEAL back then!). So he agreed - and I got on stage, got my Willie kiss, and got my prom dress!
Oh and when we went to get the dress, it was marked down, so DOUBLE SCORE!
So my senior year, I went to the prom with a guy who had graduated the year before. I asked him. He was the brother of a good friend of mine, and I knew he had a crush on me. I was never one to have steady boyfriends during high school, and I rarely even dated anyone from my high school (though I did have short term boyfriends and dates from other schools or other places like the local military base, the mall where I worked, etc.). He was also a gentleman, and though we did stay out all night, we didn't sleep together or get drunk together or whatever - we went to a friends' house who had a prom "after party" which included a big breakfast spread, a pool, etc. and I got home just as the sun was coming up.
I am friends on social media still with both these guys, and they are still great guys (and are now single, ladies!).
I was highly unpopular in high school. Also notably bald by junior year. Definitely a woman repellant had no chance of ever findjng a date unless i put a coursage on my wrist. I did graduate with honors
Never went to national honor society meetings was all bull****. Also didnt walk at graduation didnt want to be in drowd oc people who i had no love for and had no love for me. I was working day and night on a charter boat making 200 300 a day back in 1987 so didnt want to go to stupid graduation and lose a days pay. Did go to college graduation i was proud of that.
Sophomore year I got to go to prom, because I was dating a senior...bad experience. Broke up shortly thereafter. Blue dress borrowed from someone and it was a bit loose fitting.
Junior year was an okay experience. Went with a different guy who was a senior as friends, because I had another experience not good with someone else. I saved up and bought a black dress.
Senior year was lows and a high. Nobody asked me....it felt like everyone was talking about no one asking me....friends made me go in a group....wore the same dress....but then probably a dozen or more guys asked me to dance once there...including the boy I've liked for years, but was dating someone else. I swear I could feel his heart against mine.
I went to both. It was more common at my high school to go in groups of friends than to go specifcally with a date, so that's what I did both years.
It was small town. Prom had always been held at the school itself, but by the time my turn rolled around, the community had built a small but nice civic center with a small "ballroom" venue that was primarily for wedding receptions, and that was where the prom moved to. We also had an overnight afterparty that was intended to cut down on drunk driving, because cruising around from town to town was a common pastime, and kids were always getting killed. After the dance, there was a caravan/parade of vehicles to the local Elks lodge, a couple of miles away. There, a teacher (usually the most popular, cool teacher of the time) was the "red carpet emcee," and would announce and talk to people as they arrived and went up a red carpeted ramp into the building. Parents and younger kids would always come out to see the dresses, etc. It was fun. The trend was to try to top, in either ostentatiousness or sheer goofiness, what vehicle you arrived to the post-party in, which was valet parked by the teachers. We had people in borrowed classic cars, horse and carriage, and a bunch of guys who went as singles in my class arrived on riding lawnmowers, wearing yellow work gloves with their tuxes. Once you got there, you surrendered keys, and spent the night dancing, shooting pool, bowling, playing cards, eating, etc. and got released to go home at 6 the next morning. The post-prom was actually more fun than the prom.
I guess hate is a strong word, but I definitely did not have a good history with most of the people I went to school with and about the last thing I would want to do is spend time around them when I wasn't forced to.
My feelings exactly. Didn't go to prom. I was probably watching a baseball game instead. LOL.
No regrets.
Sure, I asked a date to both. They were essentially class dances, whereas other dances sponsored by a class were open. Those kids who did not have dates were encouraged to come, and some of the class advisers I noticed paid a lot of attention to these kids, talking to them, asking them to help them to do things.
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