Throwback Thursday: Prom

September 1, 2022

Throwback Thursday: Here I am at age 18 at the West Islip High School Senior Prom in June 1979 at the Narragansett Inn in Lindenhurst, Long Island, New York. The white tuxedo and the hairstyle are an homage to The Beatles in the 1967 movie Magical Mystery Tour, when they sang the song "Your Mother Should Know." I wanted to wear tails and a black carnation like Paul McCartney did in the movie, but my mom said "no" to both of my requests. My date was Christine Malloy. The edge of the ruffles on my shirt were green to match her dress.

(By the way, the Narragansett Inn was destroyed by fire in 2001.)

Trivia for my West Islip High School classmates: I first asked Linda Kelly to the prom and was promptly rejected. She told me that she already had a date and said that if I had asked her sooner, she would have gone with me. It was nice of her to say that, even though it may not have been true. I was far from popular with the girls, although I found out decades later from a female classmate that I had an (unknown) "fan club" of five or six girls who liked me during high school. They would drop their books in front of me in the high school hallways because they knew I would be polite and pick them up for them. I just thought they were all clumsy. LOL

Anyway, I then decided NOT to go to the prom. My dad told me that I had to go or I would regret it for the rest my life. OMG !!! So, rather than risk another rejection, I asked Chris Malloy's father Joe if she had a date for the prom. He said that she didn't have a date and enthusiastically urged me to ask her. He was the golf pro at Southward Ho Country Club in nearby West Bay Shore, where my parents and I were members. I played a lot of golf there. About three weeks before graduation, I received a varsity letter for my efforts on the high school golf team.

The next day, while at my locker in the high school, I looked to my right, and there was Chris with huge eyes and a huge smile on her face,  looking at me. She asked me, "Do you have something you want to ask me?" Obviously, her father had told her the previous evening that I wanted to ask her to the prom. So, I asked her to the prom; she said yes; and then she ran away, all happy, down the hallway. I then got this combination feeling of happiness and queasiness, and I felt kind of floaty.

We had a great time at the prom, although she would not allow me to dance with any other girl, and she became angry when I was looking at my classmates instead of looking at her while we were slow dancing. Hey, I was 18 years old, and that evening, she was my first date EVER !!! I didn't know how to do dating.

My mother had that same complaint (me looking around) during our mother-son dance at my wedding reception on February 4, 2006. Sorry, Mom. I guess I didn't learn. 

The day after the prom, Chris and I took the Long Island Rail Road to New York City to see the Broadway musical Beatlemania at the Winter Garden Theatre, which was actually just a Beatles tribute band with several costume changes and background images.

After the show, we were supposed to meet several classmates for dinner at Mamma Leone's Italian restaurant, but she decided that we should go early so that just the two of us could enjoy dinner together. So, to those classmates, I'm sorry we ditched you. It wasn't my idea.

After graduation a few weeks later, I never saw her again.