Show and Tell: Prom

Oh my!  This week, Andrea prompted us to think back to our prom nights.  Wow! It's hard to believe that my first prom was 14 years ago.  My prom nights were fun, (I went to three proms during high school) but it's not like they were the most memorable moments of my high school years either.  I wasn't the type of girl to spend a lot of money on my dresses.  In fact, out of the three proms I only bought one dress, and even that one was purchased off a sale rack.  Don't get me wrong.  I did love high school.  I had great friends, and I was very active in both school and community activities.  My high school wasn't one of those large city, full campus types, but it definitely wasn't small either.  We had about 1300-1400 students enrolled between grades 9-12.

My school has a proud history, originally opening in 1918, (the blue outlined building) with an amazing football stadium, known as the bowl that was built in 1921.  So, as you can guess, we also love our football, and I have more memories there than I do my prom.  Honestly, I don't remember a lot about my first actual prom.

I remember that a group of us girls all got together at a friends house, where she she had someone over to fix our hair and we all got ready together.  I don't remember if my group of friends did anything special for dinner, or if everyone did their own thing.  I also didn't take hardly any pictures that evening apparently.  I do know who I went with.  Here's my date and me at the start of the evening.

This guy was my boyfriend at the time.  We had started dating sometime our freshman year, I'm guessing in the spring since I know we didn't go to the Christmas dance together that year.  So, we had been dating about 2 years by this time.  Prom that year was held at the Coliseum downtown, the building below.

Since prom is always planned by the junior class, even though I don't remember helping at all, my mom must have helped decorate since I found these pictures of the amazing parents hard work.  I know these pictures are bad, but again, these non-digital pictures remind me of just how long ago this was, and how old I'm getting!

I also found my picture of Junior girls.  This obviously isn't all the Junior girls, but these are the girls that ran around together with my group of friends.

I know there was also an after prom party, put on by the PTA, I believe, but I don't remember anything about that.  It was possibly at a bowling alley, as I know that's where it was senior year.

I do seem to remember a little more from senior year, but not a lot.  For this one, I don't remember getting ready, but I do remember going to someone's house to take pictures among their landscaping.  I don't remember whose house it was, and I don't think it was a friend's, but maybe a friend of one of the parents who just knew they had a pretty setting for pictures.

This is my best friend and me with our boyfriends of the time.  Yes, I had a new boyfriend this year.  I was such a rebel this year, thanks to my mom.  She absolutely loved this dress, (it was the only prom dress I bought,) even though it technically wasn't allowed by school rules.  We weren't suppose to wear mid-drift type dresses, but my mom made this matching wrap to wear as I entered past the teachers and administration, and no one ever said anything.  Here's why she loved this dress.

After our little photoshoot at the possibly stranger's house, a large group of us went out to dinner at a fancy restaurant that I've never been to again.  This year, the dance was held at the Scottish Rite building, still downtown.  I don't remember the prom's official theme, but different movie scenes were set up around the room for photo opportunities.

My school also always started the prom off with the senior waltz.  This was a nice idea, but everyone that participated had to be a senior and attend rehearsals.  Therefore, I did not participate in this since my boyfriend went to a different school and I didn't really feel like asking anyone else in my class.  The girls picture is a lot smaller this year, but in all honesty, even out of the smaller group, I only ever talk to one of the other girls in this picture.  She was my best friend then, and she still is today.

I do love these girl pictures though, just for the dresses if nothing else.  It's fun to see the different styles and what was popular each year.

Again, after prom was held at the bowling alley, and I actually remember being there for this year.  I remember having fun hanging out with all my friends.  I think it helped, that I seemed to be friends with more students in the class below me than the one above me.  Or maybe it was just a senior thing.

Like I said earlier, my boyfriend from senior year didn't go to the same school, so I also attended his prom this year.  

I think we went out for dinner with a group of his friends, but as with the other dances, I don't really remember much.  Here's the formal picture of us with his group of friends.

I'm sure I had a lot of fun at each of these dances, even though I don't really remember them that much.  It's interesting to think about, but I wonder if kids these days will remember their prom nights better just because I'm sure they all carry their phones with them and take many pictures.  Whereas my generation, I think I may have carried a disposable camera in my purse that rarely was taken out, if at all.  Regardless, it was fun to look at these pictures again, even if I couldn't remember as much as I thought I would.