Butch Recalls The High School Prom In The “Old Days”

Do you baby boomers remember your high school Junior-Senior Prom? It was a rite of passage and a milestone event in a high school student’s life. The proms at Darlington High School were similar to the ones held at all of the other little schools in Montgomery County. The Junior class members spent countless hours decorating the gym for the big event. Wires were strung from wall to wall, and crepe paper was then hung to create a dance ballroom. My yearbook describes our “Moonlight Magic” prom, which was held on the first weekend in May, 1966…”An exotic atmosphere was created with a touch of the Orient lent by thousands of orange blossoms and colors of ice blue and turquoise. Guests entered through a garden featuring an actual miniature waterfall in which swam real goldfish. Daisies, daffodils, and violets luminated the garden with an array of colors. Descending onto the dance floor, a gazebo attracted everyone with its dainty latticework, which took on the many colors of its rotating light wheel. Another garden was found at the opposite end and displayed a tiny bridge with an artificial brook.” Well, no one would have known it was our basketball court…that’s for sure!

I honestly don’t remember any of those details, but I’ll bet that most of the girls in my class remember all of it! For a boy and a girl who were already a “couple,” the prom date was a certainty. For those currently “unattached,” it could be a nerve-wrecking time…hoping and praying they would be asked by someone special…or avoiding anyone not so special. Parents often insisted that “you will be polite and go with whomever asks you first!”

Once the prom date was chosen, there were other details to work out. I could not afford a tuxedo, so my only option was to borrow my cousin’s white sport coat, which he had worn to his 1958 prom. It fit perfectly, but was it really necessary to wear a bowtie and cumberbund? According to my mother…yes. All of the girls chose great looking gowns, with some being strapless and cut surprisingly low at the top…Holy Cow! And the girls really got “dolled up” with generous amount of eye shadow, mascara, lipstick, and blush…also adorning themselves with fancy earrings and a necklace, and of course their hair coiffed by local beauticians and sprayed with layer upon layer of hairspray. The boys shelled out money for a corsage, and the girls reciprocated with a boutonnier, which they pinned to our lapel.

What about a cool car? I knew that my gal was not going to be impressed by our family Chevy station wagon, but unfortunately that was it. A few boys had sporty cars or were able to borrow a “hot” car from an older relative or friend. At many high school proms, the boy took his gal to eat at a fancy restaurant beforehand, but at our prom, the mothers prepared the meals in the school cafeteria, and the freshmen served the dinners to us. Many of the high school teachers and their spouses attended the prom, and it was always hilarious to watch them dancing. Have you ever seen your teacher or coach dance “the pony,” the “watusi,” the “mashed potato,” the “jerk”, or the “twist?” It is a moment never to be forgotten! And I can still see Emerson and Mabel Mutterspaugh, along with Don Hannon and his wife, doing the “bunny hop” and “the stroll” at the prom when I was a junior. Coach Smith even tried the “limbo!” Some of my classmates were quite depressed to see their parents show up as chaperones, who of course wanted as many photos as their Kodak cameras could muster. Most proms played 45 or 78 rpm records for the dance, but a few were able to hire an actual band, usually a local group of complete unknowns who entertained for a mere pittance.

During the course of a three-hour prom, I surmise that most couples actually danced less than an hour during that time. A few boys would absolutely NOT dance at all, and instead, sat there and made fun of all the boys who danced with two left feet and stepped on the toes of their partner. I don’t remember anyone bringing alcohol to the prom, even though there were rumors to that effect. The next day, many couples spent the day at Turkey Run, Lake Shafer, or an amusement park.

And what do I remember the most about my senior prom? Well, it was dancing cheek to cheek…slow dances of course (the best song being “Moon River” by Andy Williams)…with my steady girl…and becoming intoxicated…not with alcohol…but with the smell of her enticing “Shalimar” perfume and

Aqua-Net hairspray…and thinking someday that she might be my wife. And that summer, after we had graduated, when we were still both seventeen years old, I proposed…and she said “yes”…and I wore that same white sport coat to my wedding. “Shalimar” does it every time!

John “Butch” Dale is a retired teacher and County Sheriff. He has also been the librarian at Darlington the past 32 years, and is a well-known artist and author of local history.