This hub includes a few mild references to such awful things as teenage alcohol consumption and premarital sex. If any of these disgust you, please turn away now. However if these things intrigue you...then by all means, keep reading!

Senior Prom. Memories, fun, dancing. HA! Ok, so there was some dancing, and there was some fun, and I do have some memories. Was it all good? No. Was it all bad? No. Would I go back and do it again? No. Or at least I would change the course of things a little.

You may have a few questions about my Prom experience.

For Instance: Did I go with a date? Yes.

Did I ride in a limo? No.

Did I get lucky? No.

Did I have a good time with my friends? Mostly yes.

Yes, my senior prom theme was the title of a Richard Marx song. How proud I am, let me tell ya. Please keep in mind, it is the junior class that does all that crap every year. They pick the theme, decorate and order all the souvenirs. When I was a junior, our theme was waaaayyy better, by the way. The color scheme was black and silver and I still have the tickets, and all the little souvenirs you can purchase. I wore a floor length powder blue sleveless gown and wore my hair up. Even had fake fingernails to boot.

My prom was held on May 6th. A Saturday evening. In a civic center in a neighboring town just slightly larger than our own. My entire class of 42 (yes I only had 42 people in my graduating class--small town life.) and our dates, and the junior class and their dates, and the chaperones, and all the parents who think they have to take pictures when their kids walk in all dressed up in prom attire, all crammed into this building for the dance. And before you ask, no, my mother did not show up to take pictures. She'd shown up the year before and I begged her to stay away this time.

As I said before, I took a date. Or he took me...whichever. We were not dating, however. We were just friends. the guy I had been seeing at the time hadn't wanted to go (should have seen that as a sign...) so I went with a guy friend who had recently broken up with his girlfriend. We went in a big group. We went to dinner first. Ruby Tuesday's.

Dinner was fun, the group was mostly fun...except the part where one of the couples in the group included the date I had gone to the junior prom with and his new girlfriend and I had to watch them be all lovey dovey all evening and...But, I digress.

The point is, it was a pretty fun time getting to the prom itself. Once we arrived at the venue, things continued to be pretty fun for a while. I took a lot of pictures with all my good friends (and yes, I still have most of them. The pictures, I mean) and laughed and chatted for a good portion of the night.

My best friend, we'll call him Walter, had been in the group as well. He'd already asked another girl to be his date long before my personal debacle came an=bout, so we weren't able to go together. Probably should have, considering both of our dates disappeared almost immediately upon our arrival and were not seen again until we left the place.

At one point, Walter and I were joking around with a couple of other friends, laughing it up and having a good time. We were standing near the table our group had been occupying. When the couple we were conversing with left, Walter and I both looked around the room, looked back at each other and said at the same time, "Where are our dates?"

Yes, where are our dates, indeed. I have a prom video. Yes, I still have it. It is on VHS if that tells you anything. I have watched it once or maybe twice. You do see me. In a class of forty-two, it's not hard to get some air time. You do not however see me with my date. Nor do you see Walter with his. In fact you rarely see our dates at all. Perhaps they were having their own fun somewhere else??

I did dance. I danced with friends, male and female and had fun. We danced the Electric Slide, the Macarena, YMCA, Shout and various other group dances.  But, eventually it was time to leave and we all headed out. Then it was on to the party.

I will spare you the details of the raucous teenage party we went to. Mostly because I do not remember them. I know I had a good time, until we got home. Then it was not so fun.  Hangover city.

All in all, prom was ok. I had a good time with friends. Not such a good time with vodka and beer, and learned a life lesson or two along the way.

I still laugh about the events of that night with Walter. Prom was, and always will be, an event that I will never forget. A small blip on the radar of my life, but memorable nonetheless. Whether it was good or bad, most of us remember our prom for some reason. There is something about it that will stick out in our minds long into our years. We may even tell our kids and grandkids about it. Well, maybe not all of it.... :)