By Erin Spencer, Staff Writer
Prom is the holy grail of high school dances due to its exclusivity and fascinating tales of years past. A night so important must be planned to a T and heaven forbid anything go wrong. From the dress or the tux, to the pictures and the limo, prom just would not be the same without its traditional outdone nature.
Some would argue, however, that tradition is the wrong word to use when talking about today’s proms.
A hundred years ago, prom was nothing but a “social tea” and a cotillion while dressed in your Sunday suit. There was no after party, no anticipation and no drama. This continued until the mid 1940s, when prom began to be recognized as the most important school social event of the year, easily pushing past homecoming and seasonal holiday events.
During this time, going to prom with the “right date” became important, and girls began the search for the perfect dress rather than wearing a garment formerly owned. A few years down the road in the late 1950s, proms ditched the cliché gymnasiums and cafeterias to take on more sophisticated locations like ballrooms, country clubs and convention centers. Along with the new venues came the hefty prices all upperclassmen know too well in this day and age.
By the 1980s, as the first formal event in their lives, the prom became the ultimate coming-of-age party for high school juniors and seniors, thus inspiring the movie industry to create films centered around the event, such as “Pretty in Pink” and “Never Been Kissed.” Also during the ’80s, proms had live bands as opposed to today’s DJs.
Mary Bergstone, Reynolds class of 1980, gets nostalgic when she thinks about her prom experiences. It’s hard not to: Her date as a senior was a guy named David — now her husband.
“Our band was not very good, so we waited in between sets to dance. But we also stayed for the entire time,” said Bergstone, who is organizing this year’s prom along with English teacher Emily Satterfield and art teachers Ashley Hurst and Amy Cruz. “By my senior prom, I was old enough to drink because the legal age was still 18, so there were many people using that power.”
The proms of the 21st century show that many things have changed, but many things remain the same.
Art teacher Amy Cruz, who graduated from West Forsyth High School in 2006, remembered that “everyone wore floor-length gowns, and most all of them had a lot of sequins and shine. Some people even started getting ready at 10 in the morning.”
As for after-parties, Cruz found her way of letting loose through a messy foods party.
“We all went to my friend’s house whose parents had prepared all kinds of messy foods for us, which was great because the whole night we were all worried about ruining our outfits, but by the end of the night we were ready to just put on sweats and be messy,” Cruz said,
Many things change over time, but the big picture is still the same. Prom is a night of memories, glamor and young love that most high school students look forward to.