Prom. If you talk to ten different people they will all have different memories, stories, and feelings about prom. My experience with this event from when I attended, to when my daughter attended, to those I have planned span decades and are as varied as fashion, hairdo’s, and locations can be. Depending on the city and era, prom could consist of dinner and dancing in one location, dinner as a group then dancing somewhere else, or dinner on your own, maybe with a few friends, then dancing. Prom could be hosted at a high school gym, a convention center, hotel ballroom, nice restaurant, or even paddle boat (as was the case my senior year).
I’ve seen dresses go from full-length, layered, hooped skirts to the ones of today that I feel barely cover the important parts. I wonder how ladies intend to sit down wearing these barely-there fabric tubes. Dare we talk about the dancing itself? Chaperones used to walk around with a ruler to make sure there was plenty of space between us, and these days it looks like a gyrating, leg-workout, exercise move.
How did the concept of a prom begin? According to History.com, the foundations of prom or promenade can be traced back to ancient Greece where elite men were celebrated at a banquet or symposia to mark their transition into adulthood. Ancient Romans followed suit with a convivium, and later in the 18th- and 19th-centuries, ladies joined the fun with debutante balls. History.com goes on to state that it is unclear exactly when or how the tradition came to the states, but in the 1930s and 1940s, a high school dance in the gym at the end of a school year quickly became the norm and morphed into a luxe affair at hotels and banquet rooms.1
For many years, particularly around the 1980s, prom was synonymous with drunk driving, an increase in auto accidents and injuries, teen promiscuity, and other inappropriate behavior and oddly parents seemed to look the other way. When MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) and other intervention groups didn’t seem to have the impact they hoped for, the idea of the Post Prom Party was born. Schools started to plan a fun, themed gathering after the prom that went into the wee hours of the morning where students could enjoy some good clean fun, eat all night, stay safe, and walk away with terrific prizes.
Post prom parties weren’t a thing when I went to prom, but I have been part of the planning team for one of our local high schools for a couple of years. This event is just incredible. We’ve been under the sea, on the gambling floors of Vegas, to the beaches of Hawaii, to Mardi-Gras, and to a random old-school board game-focused trip to CandyLand. The amount of donated sandwiches and pizza and ice cream and candy could feed a small town for a year. For this event, I represent the side of the venue. We look forward to hosting 600+ students, providing them with a safe space to enjoy the last of their high school experience.
The project manager representing the school has had so much fun, he’s continued to lead the school’s team even though his kids have graduated and gone off onto college. One of his kids has even graduated college and returns every year because she remembers this event fondly and understands the value of providing a safe space for students to celebrate this momentous occasion in their lives. She also studied criminal justice and serves on the security team.
The parents and local businesses are so generous it blows my mind. Students can win prizes like flat-screen TVs, iPads, scholarship money, the latest video game systems, just about every electronic on the planet, and gift cards to any place you can think of. For hours they play games, jump around on inflatable obstacle courses, get stuck to Velcro walls, dance, sing, and challenge each other for first place until around 2:00 am when bleary-eyed parents swing by to pick up their student and the unexpected 60″ smart TV they just won.
Our team usually has another 6-8 hours to flip our spaces for the daytime events rapidly approaching; deflating bounce houses, packing up leftovers, and tidying up restrooms. Every year, hoping that we managed to get all of the confetti cleaned up so a random piece doesn’t blow onto a guest speaker the next time the heat kicks on.
I enjoyed prom. I went twice. I know I would have loved to go post prom where I could hang with friends, play games, eat, and win prizes. Knowing I could win something just for walking in the door and leave with a backpack stuffed with swag, candy, money, pictures, and memories sounds like a great night to me.
What is your prom experience? Share it here or send me an email,
I’d love to hear your story!
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1.History.com. How Prom Traditions Have Evolved Through History. Leslie Kennedy. April 28, 2023. https://www.history.com/news/prom-invention-traditions.
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