Prom.......

 Let's talk a little about prom

    It was prom weekend locally and Jackie and I enjoyed looking at all the pictures on Facebook.

    Got me thinking.  According to History. com, the word prom was first mentioned in 1879 in reference to a dance.  It surged for a while in popularity, then waned, but in the 1940s it grew again. 

    Now it is estimated it costs $919 per person to attend a prom, figuring attire, limo rental, dinner, flowers, photographer......holy cow!

    President Kennedy attended a prom while president.  He was at a fund raiser in the same hotel and stopped in afterward to greet the youngsters.

    Nancy Ford hosted the only  prom ever at the White House.

    My prom history is a little convoluted.

    I did not plan to attend, but all my friends were going.  Well, I only had 3 friends, but they were going.

    So I asked a fellow senior and she said yes.  This was not what I would call a romantic event.

    Some people double date for a prom.  Some even triple date.  We quadruple dated.

    The Leader of thePack rented a station wagon, and the girls sat in the seats while the guys sat in the back end.

    When we pulled up in front of the venue we looked like a clown car at the circus.  People kept getting out.  And out.  Just when onlookers thought we were done, another cramped body tumbled out.

    I was going thru an acne stage, which lasted from age 16 to 3 days ago.  (My unofficial nickname was Spots)  My date was about 6 foot to start with, but had her hair in a bee hive which made her top out about 7'3".  The official photographer had a hard time getting both our heads in the picture.

    But we made quite a pair:  Kid who looked like he had measles with girl  who looked line a Martian. Standing on my tiptoes I came up to her armpits.  (Another reason to avoid a slow dance.)

    I still have the pictures somewhere.  I never gave her copies.

    The dance was totally not memorable.

    We had  planned to picnic at a lake in Wisconsin the next day.  I told Prom Date we would pick her up about 7.

    We got to her house and she was nowhere to be seen. .  We honked.  We yelled.  We threw stones at a window.  I don't even know if it was her window.

    She finally appeared, completely puzzled by why the hell we were there.

    She insisted I never told her about the picnic.  In hindsight, that is something I have frequently done in life....made plans and then did not told people what was happening.  It has cost me a friendship or two.

    We all piled back into the station wagon, all 8 of us, and headed north.

    The Leader of the Pack was a smoker.  Camels.  Kept them rolled up in his t shirt sleeve.

    As we were driving along somewhere in Wisconsin he asked if anyone wanted a cigarette.

    Everyone said no.  Except me.

    "I'll take a smoke." I said, from the tail end of the car.

    "You?" he questioned as he passed a sCamel back to me.  "I didn't think you smoked," he added.

    "Oh, I don't smoke," the idiot that I am replied, "I eat them."

    With that I took a huge bite out of the cigarette and began chewing.

    Within nanoseconds I  turned multiple shades of green and yellow and purple and the car was pulling over to the side of the road because people were yelling that I was about to hurl.  I quickly got out of the car and got rid of whatever the hell was  now in my mouth.

    I don't think I actually threw up, but I spent several minutes spitting and gagging while 7 people inside the car wondered about my sanity.

    And believe it or not, that was the highlight of the picnic.

    I just hope today's kids had more fun than I did.

Peace and Love