Dance Memories

Loralee is calling for prom stories for a blog interview she'd like to do. While reading her post and the comments that people had left I started reminiscing about my own prom/dance memories.


Technically I didn't go to my prom. The only prom we had was Jr. Prom (but sophomores/Junior/Seniors were all allowed to go -- it was just called Jr. Prom because the Jr. Class put it on).


The dances we had in High School were:
Homecoming
Morp (prom spelled backwards - our Halloween dance - girls choice)
Sock Hop (Christmas dance not really a date dance)
Sadie Hawkins (girls choice)
Jr. Prom
Senior Ball


I didn't turn 16 until just before Homecoming my Junior Year of High School. In my family we weren't allowed to date until after we were 16 (of course my little sister got to break this rule but only because I fought and complained about it). I was also taught that is a boy asked you out on a date/dance you should go with the first person who asks you because it's the "nice" thing to do. So my Junior Year I got asked to Homecoming. But it was by a guy that I only knew from a class and his friend had a locker near mine and I really didn't have a thing for. But I said yes anyways. As the date got closer I really wasn't looking forward to going to the dance with this guy. He was shorter then me and honestly we didn't have anything in common. His friend that I had a locker near was a good friend of mine and he had gotten asked by a girl he didn't really want to go with either. But of course he said yes too. So here we were, both of us going on a date to Homecoming with someone that we didn't really connect with. We tried to switch our dates so my date went with his but they wouldn't go for it (yes, we were that mean). The only upside was we were doubling together so if we had to go with someone we didn't want to be with we'd do it together. I don't remember much about the dinner; the only part I really remember about the dance was while slow dancing with my date he only knew how to turn in circles really fast. So when the song was over and we left the dance floor I fell over because I was so dizzy from being spun around for 5 minutes! After that we pretty much didn't dance again. I'm sure we called it an early night and never talked again. Pathetic huh!

The next memorable dance experience I had wasn't as bad as my homecoming dance. It was the girls choice Morp (Halloween dance). We had a large group of friends and most of our dates all were friends. The dinner plans were left up to one of the girls and she came up with this brilliant idea to eat at a restaurant called The Roof. It's located downtown Salt Lake and has an amazing view of Temple Square from it. It was fairly new at the time so I didn't know much about it. She said it was buffet and casual dress. Since the dance was the Halloween dance naturally we all dressed up in our costumes. Our group was going for the Western look so the guys dressed up as cowboys and the girls dressed up as saloon girls. Classy right! When we arrived at The Roof we quickly found out that the price wasn't $30 per couple it was $30 per person. This should have been the first red flag of the night. I hadn't brought enough cash with me so my friend had to spot me some extra money. Which also meant that she'd have to pay for my dance pictures as well. When we were seated it we noticed that the dress wasn't as casual as we were lead to believe. Everyone was dressed really nice and there was a guy playing the piano wearing a tuxedo. Even the waiters were dressed nicer then us. And the buffet wasn't so much "chuck-o-rama buffet" it was gourmet foods. 1/2 of what we ate or put on our plates we weren't 100% sure what it was. I'm sure that even the guys left the restaurant hungry that night. I'm sure the dance was fun because we all got along so well in our group. The only hiccup was the dinner, which we were incredibly under-dressed and under-prepared.

The last "dance" story that I have doesn't really involve going to the dance. This one I truly regret. My Junior year of High School I was in a Art class. The entire year I sat next to a foreign exchange student from Spain and a Hockey Player. We had a lot of fun in that class. Javier and I were always joking with each other about different things. He was always making me laugh! Towards the end of the year as Junior Prom was getting close Javier brought up the dance during one of our Art Classes. Since we were always joking with each other about getting married or running away together or drawing what the others dream house would be; I honestly thought he was joking about going to the Prom with me. So I automatically laughed it off. And it was never brought up again. The dance came and went and I of course wasn't ask or didn't go. I did get together with a bunch of friends from the swim team for a anti-prom party which was a blast! Javier and I kept in contact after our Junior year and he went back to Spain. During that time our only means of communication was by snail-mail. In one letter he wrote about all the memories we had that Junior year and the only one that he regretted was being turned down BY ME for Jr. Prom. I felt horrible. As I mentioned I honestly didn't know he was serious. Of course I apologized and told him I would have gone with him but I didn't know he was serious -- I was so naive back then! We are still friends to this day; My husband and I even went to visit him when he was living in Rome. But I do regret not going to the dance with him that year.

So those are my most memorable dance stories. I did go to other dances but most of them were uneventful.