Mocha With Linda has begun a weekly meme called Flashback Friday. She’ll post a question every Thursday, and then Friday we can link our answers up on her site.

This week she writes:

It’s spring. And for many high schoolers, that means PROM!

Share your prom memories. Did your school have a junior prom or just a senior prom? What did you wear? Was there a party after the prom? Did you go with a date or with friends, and if it was a date, was it a one-time date or a boyfriend/girlfriend scenario? Did you go to more than one prom (like, being someone’s date at another school or year.) Where was your senior prom held? Any particular songs come to mind when you think of prom? As always, pictures are great!

I went to a conservative independent Baptist high school my junior-senior years, and we didn’t have proms. We had Spring Banquets instead. There was a nice catered meal, usually in a hotel meeting room, skits, music, and a speaker. We did “dress up” and could date, but dating wasn’t “pushed” — in fact, whole families could come. My dad and brother went with me my senior year, circa 1975:

I am sorry the photo is so washed out. I dearly loved that dress — blue with pink roses (I liked those elements even then…) My dad rarely wore a suit, and when he did he always wore some kind of western-type tie. I don’t think I ever saw him in a conventional tie except at my wedding.

I was dating a guy at this point, but I don’t know where he was or why he didn’t attend.

I don’t have a photo from my junior year, but I wore a green dress that had the type of sleeve that puffed out at the top like a bubble and then straightened down the rest of the sleeve. I don’t know what you call that — it was something like this, only more puffy at the top, and the rest of the sleeve was straight. Anyway — I thought it was so elegant. I had not read Anne of Green Gables at that time, but I think I would have thrilled at having puffed sleeves like Anne.

I don’t have many specific memories of them except that I was in a skit my junior year (an I am so not good at that kind of thing!) and I had to speak at the one my senior year, but I forget in what capacity. I just remember having trouble figuring out how close to be to the mike and one of the musicians loudly whispering, trying to tell me, and me not getting it and getting all embarrassed, then deciding just to get through whatever it was I had to say whether anyone heard me or not so I could sit down. 😳

I was invited to the prom my sophomore year in a public high school, and I don’t remember much about it except the impression that we were playing dress up. We met at some girl’s house beforehand for refreshments, and it seemed funny rather than fun to me to see all the girls with their hair up and wearing formal dresses. It’s kind of sad to me that proms tend these days towards too-adult dress and situations. Of the two I much preferred the banquets: they were something fun we did as a group rather than as couples or individuals, and, of course, in a Christian school, there were not the problems with drinking or the expectations of the wrong kind of behavior.

The school my boys attended used to have a spring banquet, but they haven’t in the last few years. I am not sure why, but I miss having that big end-of-year event. At the school here they also included reading the senior will and things like that, and it was greatly anticipated each year. They always liked to go bowling or play putt-putt in their formals afterward. 🙂