A night to remember

Prom night brings back terrible memories

     I may have told this before.  If so, I apologize.  But seeing all the kids in their prom outfits recently made me think back to my prom.
     I did not have a driver's license, so my dates had to be with another couple or on a bus.  For prom, four of us decided it would be fun to rent a station wagon.
     I asked a girl to go, although I really wanted to go with a different girl who happened to be a junior.  But his girl was a senior, and she seemed nice, so we were a pair.
     When we pulled up to the prom location, which was a fancy in its day hotel, the eight of us clambered out of the car.  We probably looked like a clown car at the circus.  All we needed were big shoes and red rubber noses.
     My date was a little taller than me, but that night she had on heels and a beehive hairdo.  By the end of the night my neck was sore from looking up at her.  I don't remember her eyes, but I always got a good view of her nostrils.
     We ate, did the obligatory prom photo session, but we didn't dance.  For one, I couldn't.  For another, she didn't want to.
     Our tradition was to go on a picnic the following day.
     We all agreed to go to Powers Lake in Wisconsin for a day of swimming and picnicking.
     Except when we got to my date's house, she was still asleep.  Tossing stones at her window didn't work, but honking he car horn several times did.  She claimed I never told her about the picnic.  In hindsight, that is a possibility.
     The eight of us were merrily riding up to the lake in the station wagon.  I was all the way at the back, the girls were in the seats.
     Bob, the driver, was kind of a macho guy.  He was strong and tough.  And he smoked.  Camels.
     As we were driving along, he pulled out a smoke and said to the rest of us,    "Anyone else want a cigarette?"  No one smoked.  But that didn't stop the chief idiot in the bunch....me.
     "Sure," I said and he passed one back to me.
     "I didn't think you smoked," he said, but in a way that was a sneer and a challenge or a dare to be a he-man.
     "I don't smoke them, "  I said.  "I just eat them."  And I took a huge bite.
     I have never before, or since, tasted anything as vile and disgusting and sickening as that cigarette.
     I think John told Bob to pull over, because I was now a shade of green that indicated something worse was about to happen.
     Some fresh air and a lot of spits helped the situation.
     My date was not impressed.
     When we finally got to the lake, we unpacked the car and the girls decided to take a nap.  John and I were the only two awake, so we took a walk around the lake.
     No one missed us.
     I still have the prom pictures.  The girl with the purple dress and the two foot hair, and the skinny boy with a polka dot face in an ill fitting tuxedo.
     Yes sir, a night to remember.  Or at least, never forget.
Peace and Love