School Story:
I just finished a story this very evening about our High School Prom...for the current book I am writing called "Climbing Memory Mountain". I'll include it as a "favorite story". The names have been left out to "protect the innocent".
002.13 – My High School Prom Date
As my High School years came to a close, one of the things I learned was that there is a dance called a Prom, held in celebration of the end of the K-12 years. I didn't know much about things going on in the rest of the world, so it was news to me. I just did a Prom Google and found that.....
The word prom comes from the word promenade...which means
a “leisurely walk”.....where the word Promenade is both Latin for
“pro” or “forth” and French for “minaret”, which means “to herd”.
The French word “minuet”. which is a descendent of “minaret”, is
a slow or stately dance.
So..... the word prom essentially means to “ go herd”...or “go forth and dance”. Having been raised on a farm, I was familiar with herding cattle and pigs and such, but I had never once even thought about “going forth and dancing” in my entire life up until my Senior Year. It was the farthest thing from my mind until a girl approached me one day toward the end of the high school part of my life.
I was minding my own business in home room...working on my homework. She walked up, sat down, and stared at me. Having a girl sit down and stare at me was something very unusual in my experience up to that time. She was petite, had very black, short beautiful hair that framed her face. She was very noticeable in a crowd. Based on my prior, quiet observations out of the corner of my eye, she was notorious for speaking her mind. As she sat there staring at me, she took a deep breath and proceeded to give me the third degree with a bunch of questions that I remember as being something like....
Are you going to the Prom ? If yes, when are you going to ask someone
to go with you ? If no, why not ? Don’t you realize that there are
more girls in our senior class than there are guys...and that there are
going to be girls who won’t be able to go to the Prom unless somebody
asks them ? Don’t you think about such things ?....that there are girls
who will be left out of the most important event of their entire school
experience ? Is there something wrong with you? Don’t you like
girls ? ????
I was stunned. My mind raced to figure out what I was going to say... as my inner self began to encourage me to think of some excuse as to why I had to leave.
My response was one of confusion. My mind is blank about exactly what I said, but it came out as something like.....
What is a Prom? Are you going to it ? Why are you talking to me about
this. Do I like girls ? No....I mean Yes...I mean I don’t know....I mean
they scare me. I don’t know how to act around them...sometimes they
say things that don’t make sense to me. I didn’t know that girls felt this
way about things like this....I don’t know what to say. I don’t know any
girls that would want to do anything with me except maybe work on
homework together.
She calmed down and we talked for a while. She explained that there were girls who would go the Prom with me...but that I would have to ask them...that I needed to think about all of this before it was too late. She got up and left...and I sat there contemplating what had just happened.
It began to occur to me that there was one girl that was different than all the rest. She and I were both hard working high school students that got good grades. We would talk about our homework. She never giggled or acted goofy around guys like most of the other girls. I started to notice her more and more in the classes that we were in together....and began to go out of my way to walk with her between classes...I even carried her books when they looked like more that she could handle. She responded in a way that felt comfortable....and I began to think about her more and more. I began to fret over the fact that I didn’t have the slightest idea of how to be with a girl...let alone holding her close like the pictures of people dancing that I had seen in a Life Magazine or someplace.
I thought about it so much that I even had a nightmare about going to a party and embarrassing both of us by pretending I knew how to dance. We even talked about the Prom thing. I asked her if she ever went to dances....and what it was like. She indicated that she had gone to a few dances and that she was curious about the Prom.....but that it looked like she wasn’t going to be able to go.
The bottom line to it all was that I ended up not asking her to the Prom. I don't know whether she ended up going or not. I was miserable for weeks after the Prom for not having the courage to ask her to go with me, something that I suspect she might have agreed to do. It never occurred to me to ask her out on a date as part of working up enough courage to ask her out to the Prom....or even just on a date whether we went to the Prom or not.
She graduated first in our class.....and it seems like I tied for something around second place. After graduation, she went off to college and I ended up being contacted by General Motors for their college work co-op program. I never saw her again. I have never forgotten her. It is my prayer that she ended up with a happy life with someone who still appreciates her for the wonderful person that I found her to be.
It seems like the young lady that first approached me about all of this did go to the Prom with some guy. I remember wondering if she has a good time, but I never had the courage to ask her about it. I have never gone to a high school reunion. I wonder if my wife, my sweetheart, would go with me to a reunion if I can find out if they are still having them ?
