Prom 2012

So after much boy drama, my boys are gone to prom and the house is quiet.
Here's Spencer, 18, and his date.

Here's Tucker, 16, and his date.

But I know everyone really wants to see what the girls are wearing to prom, so I'll include a few pictures of the group so you can see for yourself.

I'm pretty sure girls were not this beautiful when I was in high school.

And Grace went to formal last night, so here's a shot of lovely Grace in purple with a cute, dimpled date, Tom, standing in the scenic hallway. Well, I wasn't there to direct the pose.

Formal Dances

I was working at my computer in my office (hallway) when Spencer came in from school yesterday a little later than usual.
"Hey. Where've you been?" I asked.
"Working on bio," he said. He's taking a biology 2 class, which isn't as challenging as his chemistry class.
"Good day?" I asked, my eyes half on the computer screen where I was grading papers.
"I got a date to prom," he said.
That got my attention.
Then Earl walked up and asked if Spencer would help him move something heavy at the neighbor's house.
"Who is it?" I asked as they walked toward the back door.
"Claudia," he said as they left. She's a girl his age. One of those startlingly pretty girls who didn't seem to exist when I was in high school, but who seem to fill the halls these days.
I wanted more details but I would have to move slowly rather than bombarding him with questions.
A few details trickled out. They were leaving bio after school when he asked her.
"Did you feel like Harry Potter?" I asked.
He smiled. My family has read and listened to Harry Potter enough that he knew exactly which scene I meant.
The scene in Goblet of Fire where Harry has to have a date for the ball. He blurts out to Cho Chang, "Would you go to ball with me?" running all the words together so she can't understand him. I can hear the voice of Jim Dale, the Harry Potter narrator, saying the words.
Spencer smiled. "It's embarrassing, but that's just what I was thinking."
But, her friends had already let him know that Claudia would go to the prom with him, so he wasn't as nervous as Harry Potter must have been.
The experience made me think back to my own prom days.
When I was a sophomore, I was a last minute date for a guy named Brad whose date got sick. I wore a cream-colored dress with ribbon straps on the shoulders, and Brad brought me wrist corsage of white carnations tipped in brown. I know. Couldn't we just have waited a few days for them to wilt to get the tipped in brown look?
We lived in a small town about 30 minutes from Cincinnati, so the prom was held at a fancy hotel in Cincinnati. I don't remember where the after prom was, but I know Brad asked me if I wanted to start dating. I can't remember if I said yes or no, but we didn't after that anyway.
Then my junior year I went to prom with one of my best friends, Bobby. When I couldn't find a prom dress I liked, my mom made me a dress of dusty rose material. It has a drapy look over the front and Mom, following the pattern, had to put a weight in the material to get it to drape correctly.

Here we are sitting on the couch for a prom photo. Love the hair -- both of us with our wings flying out. Isn't he a cutie!

We were driving to Cincinnati for prom and first went through the drive-through at McDonalds to buy Cokes to mix with the rum we had brought along. We were such bad teenagers. A lot of the couples got rooms at the hotel where we had the prom. They were even naughtier teenagers.
Going with my friend Bobby was much more fun than an actual date and he kissed me at the door as the sun rose.
That afternoon, for the AfterProm, we all went canoeing. Bobby canoed us right under a tree where a snake was dangling from a branch and I screamed at him. He continued to be my friend for years after that.
I graduated after my junior year, so I never went back for a senior prom.
Do you have any fun or horrible prom memories? Do they have prom where you live?

Let's Dance

When our French friend Marie visited, we found out that things we take for granted are really foreign in other countries. She was flabbergasted to learn that high schools actually had musicals. She couldn't believe that marching bands actually existed. I'm not sure what she would have said about prom.
So, how to explain prom to those who aren't familiar with it. It's a dance - a formal dance for juniors and seniors in high school. That means most of them are 17 or 18, but they can invite the younger high schoolers.. The kids get dressed up. The girls have manicures and sometimes pedicures and sometimes up-dos for their hair. Some groups of kids will rent limousines and travel to prom in style. All the better to drink and not get caught drunk driving. But those were the kinds of things I thought about during prom.
Here's a picture of Grace and me, her short mother, without a fancy dress or an up-do. Her dress was fairly risque, but she loved it and she looked gorgeous.
Grace and her date went to prom with a fairly innocent group. Her date Sean is a very nice guy who she knew she could count on to dance. A lot of high school guys are uncomfortable dancing. And the best thing about Sean is that he is 6-feet, 3-inches tall, so Grace could wear heels and not tower over him. You can see from this group picture that she and Sean are by far the tallest.
After the parents insisted on interminable pictures, the group went to dinner at Buca di Beppa then to the dance. According to Grace, the music wasn't great and there were way too many slow songs rather than dance songs. After prom ends at midnight, they all go to afterprom, which was held at the Ohio State rec center. It includes basketball courts and big fields of turf, a climbing wall, movie rooms, and a place for card games. Those are the things I know about. The kids stayed there until 3:30 a.m. Then they all went to a friend's house and crashed on couches and chairs and the floors.
They fixed breakfast this morning -- bacon pancakes, and some of them still appeared perky after so little sleep, and a little ice cream cake to give them a sugar rush.

Livin' the High Life

Here's Grace coming home from her usual Sunday afternoon outing.

Well, truthfully, it was a special occasion in celebration of her friend Anna's 16th birthday. Her parents rented a limo to take 16 of them out to dinner. They drove around Ohio State and "partied" according to Grace. To clarify what this meant, I asked, and she explained they danced in their seats. She's a wild one, my oldest daughter.
But limos are a reminder that the prom season is sneaking up on us, so while I was shopping for vacation clothes yesterday, Grace searched for a prom dress and found this one.

I thought that it was too risque and that she was bound to feel exposed. The v is criss crossed with ties, but comes down well below the place a bra should be. She said she didn't feel exposed.
Her friend Emily pointed out that some boys might see down the neckline.
"Who'll see it besides boys who are actually taller than me?" she asked. Then ticked off on her fingers who that would be: "Jude, Chase, Sean."
After she'd tried on a dozen dresses, she returned to this green one.
"I really like this one," she said.
"You smiled the whole time you had it on," Emily added.
Now that's a good friend. The one who notices what makes you happy. I paid for the dress and took it home while the girls continued their shopping adventure. They didn't come home in a limo, but Em's Volvo isn't bad transportation.