Prom Time

Chaperoned the prom last night. Most people go to one or two proms in a life time, possibly a couple of sorority formals or maybe a cotillion or two. That's it. High school teachers, though, we attend a lot of proms!

Life may come and go, swine flu attack and then ebb (looks like the aporkalypse isn't gonna fell us after all and we'll have to just stick to a slower demise by the dying economy until the next craziness leaps up and pokes us in our collective assi), but the prom - it stays pretty much the same as you might remember it if you're beyond prom age. Fabulous dresses and tuxes and make up and limos for some. Dinners out and ice sculptures and a buffet that is mostly consumed by the chaperones. ( loved the mini cheesecakes and the mini empanadas; less fond of the meatballs; didn't try the carved steamship round of roast beef) Lots of picture taking and dancing; even the requisite crowning of the prom king and queen. Tons of angst and emotion and yes, the usual amount of expectation about after parties and what may or may not occur on this night of nights. It's heart-achingly sweet to watch. Everything on the cusp for them - they're about to leave the nest and it shows in every single way even when they think it doesn't. (Yes, some kids are always hyper-sophisticated and this is really small potatoes for them. Some don't want to go; it's not their thing. But most - even if they won't admit it - really like this party in their honor, even if they only stay for the photo op and go on to the after party before the real event has barely begun. It still is a demarkation of sorts. Even if it's like the menu item you never order. You know it's there.)

I barely remember my own prom. Went with my high school boyfriend at the time - the same one I unceremoniously broke up with the following new year's eve because it was time to move on. I seem to remember that we had a live band not a DJ. We didn't stay long. We were more interested in going out afterward to dinner and to Second City. Different place. Different times. We drove downtown with the other people in our group, riding in my date's father's Buick. I like to joke that I didn't ride in a limo until my father's funeral, and honestly, it's true. But i still have the little souvenier booklet they gave out. And the pictures of me in my long floral dress and him in his tux. I was not a big school event girl back then. Honestly, I mostly despised high school and could hardly wait to leave. But even with that, I'm glad I went.

Son of mine had a much more high brow prom. Party bus and photo ops and a prom group with parental organization that topped D Day's. Very fancy restaurant meal and a girl in his class had actually won a contest from Seventeen Magazine and so Nick Lachay (as in Nick and Jessica, a big deal back in 2004) actually came and sang at their prom! Crazy, eh?

So since I'm feeling all promish and sentimental today, please, please, comment and tell me your own prom memories. Good, bad, ugly... I'm in the mood.

Til next time...