Memories of dances

No hat, no hair down, no dark shoes...and not me!

The girls invited the boys to the prom in the winter time, for four years of high school.  The boys invited the girls to the spring proms.

This was life in a private school in St. Louis in the late 1950s.

So we girls got to dress pretty twice, as well as figure out which boy would be a good dancer.  There were also dance cards where we'd have many dances with other boys besides our dates.

I had 8 prom dresses in high school  I don't remember most of them.  I also learned how to use makeup.  And go to beauty salons to have my hair done.  (I never did the pedi-mani routine, and still laugh to hear young girls think that's "the thing" to do to be girlish!)

I wrote 4 hand written invitations to boys each year.  I only remember one or two of them.  And we already knew who the boys were, because no two girls sent invitations to the same boy.  I think some kind of sign up sheet was done, though I am not sure the boys were necessarily with their girlfriends...but there was some effort to have that happen.  What a zoo!

Miss Barbara Rogers cordially invites

 Mr. David Richmond for the honor

 of his presence

 at the _____ (whatever name of that Prom was)

 on the...such and such date.

  RSVP.

David was my first high school sweetheart, so we went to the winter prom together.  I don't think we received written acceptances...but maybe.  After all, our chosen dates had already been approved by The List.

My sister going to a prom in 1961

But I have memories of at least 2 dresses where I know I had my picture taken before the dance.  My first Prom I wore a pale yellow chiffon with draped shoulders. (It looked ok for a really thin girl.)
And sometime like my junior or senior year I dared to wear a strapless dress, which was held up by nice bone stays around my waist.  I liked the pretty white skirt with huge pink flowers printed on it and a big pink bow and ribbon around my waist which was 22" back then.

Dancing was definitely something I loved.  We'd learned all the ballroom steps in 7th and 8th grade.
Fox Trot, Waltz, Rumba, Cha Cha, Jitter-bug (Yes!) and Swing. Just before the Twist came out with Chubby Checker in the early 60s.  Incidentally, I did go to the Peppermint Lounge in New York on a short trip in 62.

Back to the proms, all night we got to change partners, never knowing whether the music would be fast or slow.  This was the beginning of rock and roll, and we watched American Bandstand remember?

American Bandstand in the 50s

Thanks for the memories, spurred by Sepia Saturday this week!



The themes for Sepia Saturday 280 - post your posts on or around Saturday 23 May 2015 - include boys, girls and dances. The caption on the old vintage postcard reads "In Leap Year - The Ladies after a little wine and tobacco join the gentlemen in the drawing room". So another potential theme you could have is that of "reverses" - occasions when the usual arrangements are reversed. Whatever theme you go with - or ignore, the choice is yours - just post your posts and then add a link to the Linky List below. Here is what is just around the corning: