i'm not sure how i got talked into this, but aliblog is celebrating all things prom by encouraging folks to post their photos. sarah, erin, becky and gidge are all playing, too.
 | here i am at my very first dance ever. it was a "turnabout" dance, where the girl asks the guy. the date on the photos is march 10, 1984.
this fellow's name is greg, and i remember having a vague crush on him, but i also remember that he used a curling iron on his bangs. those two things don't compute. i can't remember a thing about this date, other than it was strictly platonic. i think greg had a girlfriend at the time, actually. i have no idea why he was there with me. pity, perhaps. i recall that blouse of mine with such fondness. red & white candystripes with big honkin' white cuffs and collar. snazzy. |
 | i've already blogged about fred. fred was the first boy i really, really liked. when things went south for us i cried buckets of tears.
the things i love most about this 1986 photo are the starry background, my denim dress, and the plastic string of red beads i'm wearing. oh, and let's not overlook the red heart-shaped earrings. very classy. |
 | so this is the real deal. senior prom, 1987. i wasn't dating anyone at the time, so i just went with my friend, fred. he didn't know he was gay yet.
i remember i spent months in a tanning bed, though, trying to get my skin tone to match his. looking back, i have no idea why this was so important. i mean, the prom wasn't important enough for me to actually go out and buy a dress -- this one was borrowed from gidge. to be honest, i remember very little from that night. i think we triple-dated with two other couples and went to the old spaghetti factory for dinner. i barely even remember the prom itself. i don't think fred and i danced or anything. we probably just stood around thinking, "why on earth are we here?" aah, good times. |
You and Fred look like you could be brother and sister.
Posted by: Alison at November 8, 2005 09:05 AMWow, Xta, so cute! But the 80s-ness of it is a teeny bit cringe-inducing. A curling iron on his bangs? Yikes. Well, I had a rattail for a short time in the 80s but at least during that decade I finally got over the feeling that I needed to have a perm. Are perms coming back? God I hope not.
I never went to a prom. I have no professionally-shot pictures of me with boys until the one I married. Unless you count my brother.
So the Fred in the middle and the Fred on the bottom are different Freds? I love the end of Fred's note in the old post you linked to--"PS. I hate Prince." Hee!
Posted by: minty at November 8, 2005 09:31 AMI also had one of those pink dresses with the lace ruffle under. That off the shoulder was SEXY!
Posted by: erin at November 8, 2005 10:56 AMOh my god I just noticed that Fred McLinn's pants are partially unzipped........bwaaaaahaaaaa!
Posted by: gidge at November 8, 2005 11:12 AMoh goodness... you know, it never occurred to me that two of those guys are named fred.
yes, fred with the partially-unzipped pants (ha!) was a bonafide boyfriend. fred with the dark complexion was not-yet-gay fred.
Posted by: christa at November 8, 2005 11:39 AMGreg Seiter was going with a girl in the band who was in our class, I forget her name, but they had broken up (they were part of a pair of couples, Matt and Tonya were the other one - who were constantly breaking up and getting back together all four years of high school) and anyway, they broke up and you asked him to TURNABOUT.
Greg Seiter was in that stupid play with me my freshman year, and he kissed me in the wings on opening night - WITH TONGUE - and was not broken up from his girlfriend at the time!
Oh that dress reminds me of a garden :)
I am playing--saw it at Ellen's.
Posted by: running2ks at November 8, 2005 01:36 PMthe last school dance i went to was in 8th grade. i went stag and wore my brother's "disco sucks" t-shirt, which was a hoot among my friends but got me kicked out by the principal.
Posted by: ray can dance if he wants to ubinger at November 8, 2005 01:53 PMNo prom for Joe. Prom Bad! Bad! No dates. No S.O. Geeks weren't cool yet. In fact, the word "geek" wasn't even in common use. And now, things are so much better. I'm proud of being a geek. All that other shit's still fucked up though. :)
Posted by: Joseph H. Vilas at November 8, 2005 08:13 PMI love that first picture. You two look so cute together.
Posted by: Lucy Stern at November 8, 2005 10:04 PMThose pictures are so cute. I went to my Homecoming and Prom. Both were curtesy of my friend Katie. I went with friends and had a much better time at both than I'd ever have suspected. I suppose because I went with a full glass of irony in one hand and a bottle of Boone's Farm in the other.
Love the candy-striper shirt. At that age I'd have been all over it too. "classy"
Posted by: Becky at November 9, 2005 05:07 PMyou know, I just keep clicking back here and enjoying the pictures more and more.
you look like that actress...that one from the eighties...the cute one from She's Having a Baby.
that's a really good movie.
and you are so cute.
like that actress.
I almost bought a plumber's snake today.
And I thought of you.
Elizabeth McGovern?!? I look like Elizabeth McGovern?? Wow!
Someone once told me (in the same era these photos were taken) that I looked like Annette Funicello, but that's the only celebrity I've ever been compared to.
Mostly people just say, "Oh, you look familiar." Or "You look just like my friend, ________"
But wow... Elizabeth McGovern. A real celebrity. :-)
Posted by: christa at November 9, 2005 11:33 PMAwwwwwww! That last one with not-yet-gay Fred has a real "Donnie and Marie" vibe. I have the red plastic beads and heart-shaped clip-on earrings too--someplace? I think the beads are in our Christmas tree decorating box, now.
NO proms for me--too geeky.
Posted by: Penny at November 10, 2005 09:24 PMHow interesting it is to see what people have to say about you 21 years after an event.
The curling iron comment seems very interesting to me...not sure where that came from. My hair in that picture is feathered--look at it. Blow dryer, YES. Curling iron, NOPE!
My "girfriend" referenced by Gidge was Amy Engle. We're still friends to this day. Matt (Mueller) and Tonja are married and have two children together.
I would also agree that Greg didn's use a curling iron on his bangs. I spent a lot of time thinking he was sort of cute, so curling Iron would have been noticed.
Now Tim Crowell.......HE used a curling iron his bangs.
At least when WE went to prom he did.
LOVELY picture that.
Posted by: Gidge at June 22, 2006 11:29 PMI didn't say it was a BAD kiss either Gidge! ;)
Thanks for the curling iron support. Now, I wish I had enough hair to curl. It's not all gone but it's certainly not what it was in the 80s...oh well.
Posted by: Greg Seiter at June 24, 2006 09:11 AM