Year One – As a sophomore in high school she saw the value of dating a senior. Sometime in the winter months she began searching for the guy who would get it all; the date, the foreplay, and the whole banana.
Her father took her out to buy a dress. She thought her mother would do this, but with the rest of the kids being babies, and the constant rebellion she was facing from her eldest daughter, Mom palmed it off. Besides her dad was the one with the money anyway and maybe she could sweet talk him into something more desirable than her aunt’s old formal gowns.
Audrey Hepburn and the movie Breakfast at Tiffany’s was popular. The styles of formal dresses available mimicked the clothes from the movie. She ended up with a long sleeveless empire waist pale yellow chiffon floor length gown. The bodice was yellow satin covered with lovely white lace.
It wasn’t the low cut navy blue number with sequins she tried on in the process; the one that showed off her cleavage and made her look like a real woman. It was the dress that made her look classy, sophisticated, and virginal. Her dad talked her into it telling her how elegant she looked and how hip the style was at the time because of the movie and all…
She got yellow satin heels dyed to match the dress and a pair of long white gloves that buttoned at the wrist. Her grandmother bought her a single white pearl to wear on a gold chain for the occasion and paid for her to get a manicure and up do at the beauty parlor.
As she was sitting in front of the mirror at the beauty parlor, she noticed a red rash spreading all over her neck and face. The hair dresser commented on it thinking that maybe she was having a case of the hives before the big night.
At home with her hair done up like Martha Washington, her mother took her temperature and called the doctor. He diagnosed her with measles and said,
“Go ahead and send her to the prom anyway, she probably won’t feel that sick and maybe she’ll infect whoever hasn’t had them yet.”
The senior boy she had chosen to cull out of the herd was a kind, funny, geeky looking guy who wrote poetry. He was in the photography club, and couldn’t believe his luck in landing such a hot girlfriend when he was such a dork. He was devoted to her and presented her with an elaborately mixed bouquet of yellow roses, Shasta daisies, and gypsophila – her favorites – as well as a traditional wrist corsage of baby yellow roses.
She did look beautiful and her date looked as handsome as he could in his black tux with the yellow bow tie and cummerbund to match her dress. They went out to dinner at a fancy restaurant where they ordered a fancy meal that she didn’t feel much like eating since she felt kind of sick.
They showed up to the dance, which was held in the gym, when the party was in full swing. Lots of pastel gowns and black tuxedos swirling around to music that would have made their parents happy. Big Band music from the forties. Big whoop. Shouldn’t they be having The Stones, or the Beatles, or Martha and the Vandellas?
They danced a few dances in the formal way they had been taught, had a glass of punch, and got their picture taken. Then they headed up to The Point to park and drink the Lancer’s her date thought to have chilled in the trunk. They chugged the cold fizz from the bottle, began to make out, and then screw. Yeah, now they were having fun! #PromScum
(First published 5/24/12)
