HW # 58 - Prom Interviews

Interviews: People’s feelings about proms

My age group
1st person – soccer teammate
I am not going to my prom. There isn’t anyone I
I felt that strongly about inviting. The whole thing is too
organized for me. It’s also too expensive for what it is.
I am a more spontaneous type of person and don’t really like
getting dressed up.

2nd person – another soccer teammate
The day that was the deadline for going to the prom I asked a
girl if she wanted to go and she said, “Not really.” So that was
the end of that. I didn’t even feel that strongly about asking
that girl, and there wasn’t anyone else I wanted to spend that
much time with. A group of us are going to a movie and getting
something to eat afterwards instead.

People in their 20s

1st person
I went to my prom with a girl whose parents were friends of my
parents. My mother said that I should go or I would regret not going
later in my life. I can tell you that it was a long night and at the end
we drove to a beach on Long Island. The girl I was with got cold and
asked me for my jacket. Then when it was time to leave she couldn’t
find it. My mother was so angry about my coming back without my
jacket that she actually said that proms were a waste of time and money
and that I should never have gone. My answer was, “That’s what I said.”

2nd person
Like your brother I was the only minority guy in my class. There were two
“minority” girls so the teacher in charge of the prom informed me that I
should take both of them. Actually, this took the pressure off,
and we all laughed about what was expected of us for a long time.

Older people

Friend from my mom’s office
I did go but it was not a memorable evening. There was only
one black guy in my class, and there were three black girls. I
was one of them. It was expected that he would take one of us and
that probably the other two of us wouldn’t go. One of the girls was
way too hot for him, and there was no possibility of her saying yes.
The other girl was shy and serious so he asked me, but he told me that I
would have to buy my own flowers if I wanted them. I said I would think
about it. My mother was so mad at me for saying that. She said that I
had to go and have pictures taken or I would regret it later. At the party
another guy asked me to dance and we ended up on the floor on our knees
shaking our shoulders. My date said that what I did was really embarrassing,
and he hardly spoke to me afterwards. I took a taxi back home to the Bronx
by myself.

My dad
I was 6 feet six in high school and there was one girl who was 6 feet one. My
mother forced me to take Big Betty, as she was known, to the prom. Big Betty
did not dance, but she loved to eat. She didn’t mind my dancing with other people.
I remember her saying, “You go dance. I’ll just have a little more chicken.”


It seems to me that we should have dealt with the “prom” subject in Normal is Weird
before food, birth, and dying. If we had, I might actually have considered going. I think I’m beginning to understand that the reason it is important to go is for its storytelling
value in years to come. And the weirder or worse a time you have the better your story.

It isn’t surprising that there are so many funny stories. The prom seems to have been started as a middle and lower class alternative to coming out society parties. Those parties no doubt were miserable for a lot of people too. In parts of the black community the prom really is considered a coming out into society as a respectable social person who can wear a suit other than to church. Thanks to pressure from mothers, teachers, and peers, many people go to their proms against their will but end up with a great story to use for the rest of their lives. It seems as though minority kids in a school have been expected to go with each other even if there are only two of them. Of course they should like each other that much. Or else they should be good sports and pretend that they do. Hearing about two people who are like each other going to the prom and having a great time has no good story value at all. Hearing about people being forced to pair up against their will has movie-making possibilities.