When I was in ninth grade, I was chosen to be a punch girl at the prom along with my friends Carolyn Scheffler, Susan Skrien and Marilyn Maw. We each bought dresses and did our hair for the event. My dress was a baby blue knee-length with cap sleeves.
The gym was decorated with lots of streamers, balloons and a live band for the dance. We punch girls served beverages and cake. It was our job to protect the punch bowl from spiking…not an easy feat in 1979! We had so much fun. It was a night I will always remember and the start of event organizing for me. I wanted to be on the prom committee every year.
For my 10th-grade school dance, my mom made me a fun two-piece dress with spaghetti straps. It buttoned up the back like a corset. Black with little flowers. My date gave me a wrist corsage.
I got ready at LeAnn Freeberg’s because she lived in town and her mom Dee loved to help us with our hair and make-up in between her sips of TAB. Several of us had a sleepover there after the dance. The song “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers Anymore” was a duet with Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond. Dee played her “Barbra” album in the living room, and LeeAnn played her “Neil” in the bedroom. We had stereo music throughout the house.
My junior prom was equally memorable. My mom sewed my junior prom dress too. It was cream-colored with a matching bolero jacket. At that prom, we had a photo stage with a giant rattan chair. The girls would sit in the chair with their dates standing proudly beside them. You couldn’t get more ’80s than that!
My date didn’t drive, so my mom had me ride to town with Mr. Laine. I don’t remember if he was a janitor at the school or what but he happened to be driving to town at that time so awkward as it was I loaded up my dress and took the 36-mile ride to the dance. At least it wasn’t a pumpkin chariot.
Senior prom was a store-bought dress. It was a Gunne Saxs from The Market in Grand Marais. It was beautiful white lace with a white slip underneath. I felt like a princess in that dress. (I found one like it on eBay, now Vintage, sigh) We had dinner at the Birch Terrace in town and then went to the dance. I remember being so sad because it would be my last prom.
At that time, I never dreamed of the prom nights of the future with my daughter Zoe and sons Jack and Ben. Shopping for dresses and tuxedos. Shoes and ties. I have lived vicariously through them for the past several years. That is until last night, my last prom ever, my son Ben and his friend Peyton who decided to re-create a scene from Dumb and Dumber. It was a perfect ending to many memorable prom nights.
With humor and friendship, I am reminded how awesome our lives are here in small-town Minnesota! To those of you who were there, thank you for the laughs. To those who missed it, just watch the movie. They nailed it. Proud mama here.
“Looking at my prom photograph reminds me of how significant that moment was—and how fleeting life is.”
~ Mary Ellen Mark
Taste of Home columnist Sandy (Anderson) Holthaus lives on a farm in South Haven, MN with her husband, Michael, and their children Zoe, Jack and Ben. Her heart remains on the North Shore where she grew up with her parents, Art and LaVonne Anderson of Schroeder. She enjoys writing about her childhood and mixes memories with delicious helpings of home-style recipes.
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