Junior Prom

Herself took Offspring the First out to purchase a prom dress this weekend. The outing had potential to be quite fraught, as Offspring the First is a tiny young lady with a similarly difficult-to-dress figure as Herself (an abundance of cleavage, but narrow hips). Fortunately, the Gods of Formalwear smiled down upon them, and an appropriate garment was indeed found and mercifully agreed upon by both Offspring and Herself.

While Offspring the First wrestled with the various selections in the dressing room, Herself had ample opportunity to reflect upon her own junior prom, twenty-six years ago.

Herself had a crush on a boy who attended the brother school to her all-girls' school, and was delighted that he responded in the affirmative when she summoned her courage and asked him to escort her to the prom. Herself's grandmother, an extremely talented seamstress, made a beautiful dress for Herself. As neither her date nor Herself could drive, her date's mother provided transportation.

Ah, but the potential of the prom shriveled even more quickly than the corsage that wilted on Herself's wrist. While the particulars of the event have faded in Herself's memory, one moment stands out in its ability to summarize the tone of the evening:

On the way home, her date sat in the front seat with his mother, while Herself sat alone in the back seat.

Over a quarter of a century later, a bit of age and wisdom have taught her that her wretchedly uncomfortable date was well out of his element that evening, and she thinks of him fondly for agreeing to escort her despite his unease. While her buried teenage self still wonders whether it was her unattractiveness that caused the problem, her current self thinks that is unlikely - she hopes.

All she truly knows, though, is that she would not want to suffer the slings and arrows of adolescence again.