Memory Monday #47

      Another high school memory...Freshman year. A tradition which still goes on today is prom.  Prom has taken a bit of a different meaning now, but when I was a kid, prom was a "going away" party/dance, hosted by the Junior Class in honor of the graduating Seniors. It was in the spring...underclassmen could come by invitation of a Junior or Senior.  The Junior class would choose the theme, decorate accordingly, etc. Even the Prom Queen was a Junior...(Homecoming Queen was always a Senior).

(Not my prom, but certainly could have been...we all looked just like that!)

      Prom took place in the town's largest building...the American Legion Hall.  After the hall was decorated by the Juniors, tables set up, the Queen's throne/dais decorated, snack table set up..(the moms would usually make all the snacks)..the prom attendees would arrive.  Juniors would have spent days decorating..and some nights! Then the day of prom, everyone was a tither with anticipation...no one but the Juniors would know what the dance looked like...and that evening as the attendees came in, many of the townspeople would line up to see everyone in their formal attire!  Then..another tradition, after the crowning of the queen, the band would strike up a song to which all the dance participants would line up in a promenade led by the queen and her court and their dates. After the promenade, the townspeople would leave and the dance would proceed.

     The year I was a Freshman, my sister was a Junior...so her class was hosting the prom.  One of the nights the Juniors were supposed to be decorating, my gang was having a birthday party at one of our houses.  Several of my friends were dating Junior boys who were also at the party...sometime in the evening, the Junior girls all showed up to drag all the boys away to help decorate!

    One of my friends' boyfriends drove a Jeep...and he had left it there while going to decorate...my friend and two others who dates had also gone to help decorate, decided to take a little joy ride in the Jeep! (Of course none of us were old enough to drive..legally!) So the three of them crammed into the front....I decided at the last minute to go along and jumped in the back!

Again..not the actual Jeep, but very similar!

     She gunned off...me hanging on for dear life bouncing around in the back!  We roared out to the edge of town...turned around then came roaring back...I doubt if the vehicle could go over 40 miles an hour...but at the time it seemed pretty wild!  The house where the party was sat on a large lot with a long gravel driveway.  The driveway ended in a circle around a group of trees.  As we came down the drive, we "zoomed" around the circle..once...twice..then on the third time...going a little faster each time, my friend lost control..we went crashing through the wall of a garage/barn next door!

     By then the guys were back from helping decorate...and our CRASH! certainly brought out the entire neighborhood!  The guy who owned the house next door was not very happy with us wild teenagers!  I guess by today's standards, we would have been considered real juvenile delinquents, but again, small town...everyone knew everyone...we were just lucky none of us were really hurt!  We really learned our lesson!  Sometimes innocent fun which turns into disaster can be a real life experience...none of us were ever involved in anything so stupid again!

    I think if I remember right...none of us went to the prom that year!!!  The Junior girls won that event over the Freshmen girls!!!