186: Prom
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Prologue
Ira Glass
It was junior prom. David's date had ditched him and he wasn't doing so great. As he walked to get some cigarettes, he explained to me that the prom was the culmination of a three-year campaign on his part to get in with the cool crowd, a mostly white crowd. It began when he arrived at Lincoln Park High School.
David
See, there's a story between here, right? When I was a freshman, when I first got to Lincoln Park, I was a total nerd, geeko, right? So of course I see all these glamorous, beautiful girls, and I'm like damn, wish I could-- only dream of having them, right? Or just taking them out on a date, not even doing anything physical with them, right?
First junior prom at Lincoln Park, the most gorgeous girl in school, I ask her to prom. She says yes. So goddamn! You know, I changed a lot. Since sophomore year, I got into this crowd and stuff, I just changed. I changed my speech, my dress, and all that stuff. I'm still the same person. I changed. This is the popular crowd. I mean, I'm just popular now.
So I end up going, right? And I know she has a history of being, like, incredibly moody. She's so gorgeous, take her anyway. You know, if I go with her this year, she's so gorgeous, then all these other girls are going to say, damn. I have to go with him now. If he's good enough for her, he's definitely good enough for me. I'm like fine, that's going to boost my rep a little bit.
And I'll tell you this. I wanted something physical. I wanted to just fool around with her, meaning kiss her, kiss her, feel her up or whatever. Or even more, you know? Go all the way or whatever. But I wasn't counting on that. I was here to have fun. And that would be like a nice feature to it. That would be a bonus and all. I wasn't pushing her or anything.
Sure enough, her and her like alleged best friend get into a fight. And here I am alone with my rum and Coke.
Ira Glass
The prom. We don't make kids go into the army in this country. We don't make them go to college. We don't make them get married. But if they're still in school when they're 18, they collide with the impenetrable fact that is the prom. If they go to a school with a junior prom, they get it twice.
And then they have to take a stand. Go. Not go. Have some sort of experience. Use it to try to climb to a new group of friends. Use it to try to get the girl. Just try to get through it. The stakes are weirdly high. Good luck.
As we get older, I think a lot of people tend to roll their eyes at the idea of prom. I think because of the distance of years, there is something about it that just feels embarrassing. Certainly if you did not go, but even if you did. The clothes and the corsage and the corny music and the whole thing.
And I think we forget how thrilling it can be. It could be embarrassing to think how thrilled we once were to go out that night. How the whole thing just seems fraught with possibility to a lot of us.
So today, on the very tail end of prom season, we bring you four stories of the prom. Let us understand it in its fullness, my friends. Now at last, as adults. From WBEZ Chicago and Public Radio International, it's This American Life. I'm Ira Glass.
Act one of our program today. Tornado Prom. What happens when a natural disaster strikes the same tonight as the unnatural disaster that is the prom.
Act two. Save the Last Dance For Me... Again. Francine Pascal, the nominal author of 700 books for teenagers, including the Sweet Valley High books, explains why teen stories always have to end at the prom.
Act three. Only Two Things Are Certain in Life: Death and Tuxes. In this act, you can experience over the radio a complete, typical prom. And look at the time. That just gives you half an hour to find a date.
Act four. Only One Thing Missing. An act in which we argue that right now the epicenter of prom genius, the place where the prom future is being born, is the town of Racine, Wisconsin, where they have added one ingredient to the prom that takes it to a whole new level of intensity. One magic ingredient. To find out what it is, stay with us.
Act One: Tornado Prom
Ira Glass
Act One. Tornado Prom.
In Hoisington, Kansas, a tornado hit on prom night. Hoisington is a small town of about 3,000. Nobody at the prom was hurt. In fact, nobody at prom knew it happened. But when prom was over, a third of the town was destroyed. One older man was dead. The seniors were left to figure out what to think of the whole thing. Susan Burton tells the story.
Susan Burton
On Friday nights, the teenagers in Hoisington drag Main Street. Or they go to a party at someone's house, and the boys shoot baskets in the driveway, and the girls jump on the trampoline. Sometimes the parties are out the country, at ponds. "At six in the sticks," they tell me.
Since it's Kansas, there's weird weather. High winds that make the power flicker on and off. They get a lot of tornado warnings, but they never thought one would actually touch down here. Hoisington just seemed too boring to be visited by natural disaster.
Sean
It's just like, nothing happens in Hoisington. Like everyone says, oh, there ain't nothing to do in Hoisington. Nothing happens here. They're just like, why would a tornado come here?
Susan Burton
Prom actually feels grand in Hoisington. The day of the dance, the girls drive down to Great Bend and get their hair done at Main Attractions. They all wear long gowns. They shop for them at a store in Wichita that won't sell the dress you buy to anyone else in your town. The dresses are elaborate, and like all prime finery, extremely difficult to explain.
Girl 1
It's like black and it's fitted, but when you look at it from other directions, it's silver and royal blue. There's like two steps that go in the back and they cross. I don't know. It's hard to explain. Like people would ask me what it looked like, and it was so hard to explain to them, because it's just so unique.
Sean
All very long, tight-- not really any of them didn't have like a tight dress, or like, long-- they were just like one sheet, I guess. I really don't know about dresses. But there's just like one cloth.
Boy 1
I don't know. I think prom's more of the female. You know. It's her night, you know? Most ladies are like, you know, want prom to be everything. So I think they wanted it to kind of be something, a night they'll never forget. And some of them got it.
Girl 1
I mean, I went through lots of prom magazines, just looking at themes and stuff. And we had the whole junior class vote on which one they wanted. And they came to be "Lost in the Moment." So it's kind of ironic. We really were lost in what was happening. We didn't know what was going on. So, I mean, after it, it's lost.
Susan Burton
What happens when a prom meets a tornado, when two events that often end in disaster collide? The day that both the prom and the tornado came to Hoisington, everyone tells me, with ominous foreshadowing, started out sunny, looked stormy by dinner. It was sprinkling by the time everyone parked their trucks outside the Knights of Columbus Hall on Main Street. They ducked and ran inside to prom.
Sean
There was just a crowd of people taking pictures, I mean, like I was at a basketball game or something. Like ch-ch-ch-ch. Hurt my eyes after a little bit.
Susan Burton
This is Sean. He's a junior. He videotaped the prom, partly so he could show his mom what she missed. From here, he and his classmates tell the story.
Will
It took a minute before people, you know, finally started dancing and stuff.
Girl 1
We got there late. So like, as soon as it-- we got there right at eight o'clock. So as soon as we got there, the dance had already started. We just started dancing. And we danced for, like, an hour or so, you know? Yeah, about an hour. And then the lights started flicking off and on. Like, it didn't flicker. It kind of went off, and then come back on, you know? And people just were-- some people, like my friend TyAnn is kind of scared of the dark, you know? So she's freaking out. But some people, it was just fun, you know? So normal blackout thing, you know?
Will
There was just a lot of people screaming and yelling, you know? Just acting like fools and stuff. I was too. And I got yelled at one time. Hand me that beer, break out the keg, and stuff like that. And the lights back on. Everybody just kind of looked around and went on their way, you know? Wasn't even anything big.
Girl 2
The door kept opening. And we could hear, we knew it was getting windy outside. And someone had said that it had started to rain. And people would go out and look, and it was like rain was just coming in horizontally. It was just blowing down the street. And we didn't think anything of it. It was just oh, you know, we have to go out in this later. Didn't think it was as bad as what it was.
Girl 1
They were playing "I'm a Survivor" from Destiny's Child. And that was like the next to last song before the lights blacked out. Who would know, you know? I mean, who would've thought that that song would be playing one of the last times that a tornado-- right before it rips through our town, you know?
Will
Lights went out the second time. And everybody just kind of stood around and everything, waiting. And we're like, hurry up. Turn the lights back on. Come on, this sucks. We're standing around at prom, you know?
Girl 2
DJs came out, and they had like a long stick, and they were trying to get everyone to do like a limbo. Just to keep us entertained while the lights were out, because they couldn't have any music or anything like that. So they had a line of limbo going through. And that was when our principal told us that we needed to go downstairs.
Principal Mike Nolton
Shortly after the lights went out, the door of the Knights of Columbus then was basically sucked open.
Susan Burton
This is Mike Nolton, the principal of Hoisington High School.
Principal Mike Nolton
At that point, I walked over, and you could feel the pane glass kind of vibrating a little bit. And it subsided a little bit. I stepped outside, and as I stepped outside, an ambulance was coming down the Main Street with the PA saying, "Get in the basement,"
Girl 3
"KSN news. Here's a break. We've got bad weather outside. They're locking us in. We can't get out to get more beer and drugs. So Hoisington's crowded. People are scared. The wind is blowing, and the rain is coming down hard. Everybody go to the basement and take shelter. Get away from the windows. Get in your bathtub. Pull a mattress over your head. Secure yourself. This is serious, folks. I'm out."
Sean
I was just taping and she just came up and just started saying that stuff. And I talked to her afterwards, and she had no idea there was a tornado. She feels bad for even saying that stuff, so. It was like, whoa. She was right on the money.
Girl 4
"This is the best prom ever. Ever! The basement. Right here."
Girl 5
"Oh my God, I can't see. There you are."
And then when I wasn't looking in the camera, it was like pitch black with, like, two flashlights in the distance which you could like barely see.
Girl 5
"Someone's smoking down here."
Girl 6
"Are you serious?"
Girl 5
"I can smell it!"
Girl 1
It was dark, and we were having troubles seeing everybody. And Mr. Nolton said that we weren't allowed to go-- our principal said we weren't allowed to go upstairs until the cops came and told us that everything was OK. And I asked him, I was like, well, are we down here because of hailstorm, thunderstorm, tornado, what's going on? He's like, well, right now, everything would be speculation.
Is it hail, is it tornadoes, or what?
Principal Mike Nolton
"Right now it'd be speculation on my part. All I know is that it did some damage to some homes. Quiet, please. We will keep you here until it's safe to turn you loose. And then we will make the decision on whether to reschedule prom. Must be a popular decision. I'm sorry."
I made the call that prom would be cancelled. Two hours later, I looked back on that statement and I thought, boy, that was a silly statement. I didn't even have to make that statement. There wasn't even going to be a kid there that wanted to stay at prom. It just goes to show how little we knew. And we were four blocks away from the storm.
Girl 1
And so that's when like, people that would have cellphones, they started getting on those. And a lot of rumors were flying through, and people were saying-- I mean, it was like OK. All of a sudden, someone pops up and says, Zack, your house is gone. Or like, Jacob, your sister's house is gone. And then it was like, all of 5th Street's gone. All of 6th Street's gone.
I was just like, don't jump to conclusions, because you don't know what's true, and what's a lie, and what's a rumor. There was rumors flying everywhere. That Dairy Queen was gone, and everybody that was in it was dead. And I mean, that was where we were going to have breakfast at, after prom.
There's people crying, because we can't leave. We don't know where our families are at. We didn't know how to get a hold of anybody. It was-- I don't even know if I can explain the feeling. It was just like-- I was just so scared. It was almost-- you couldn't even really talk. All I could do was cry. That's all I could do.
Girl 7
"I'm about ready to cry, so I'm going to turn out again."
Will
All of a sudden, everybody just started walking upstairs, you know? And it was still dark. And I was looking for my coat, because I'd taken it off and set it on a chair. And me and this other guy, Luke Patton, we both had the same looking bouttoniere. So we were looking at it, and he was like, that looks like mine. And his girlfriend was like, yeah, that's yours. I can tell by that one. I was like, are you sure? He's like, I don't know how the can of chew got in here, but you can have it.
So I kept it, and I was looking for it, and I couldn't find it, I couldn't find it. And then I heard somebody yell my name, and I thought, that's my brother. No. What would he be doing up here, you know? And then he's like, Will, you've got to talk to mom. So I figured, oh, she's overreacting. She wants to talk to me, make sure I'm OK.
And I could kind of see her. You know? There's a little bit of light coming from the doorway, where you can make out somebody's figure. And I could kind of tell it was my mom. So I walked up to her. She started crying. And my sister was sitting there crying. And I just kind of was like, oh no. The last time I heard her sound that worried and scared was when my dad died. That was the last I ever heard my mom sound that bad.
I kind of sat there. And I didn't believe it at first. Because I was like, tornado? What tornado? There's no tornado. We didn't know about any tornado. I didn't think there was, because I didn't see it, you know? I was right here. You know? How could there be a tornado without us knowing?
Susan Burton
Will and his mom went outside. Everyone from prom was standing on the sidewalk. Main Street looked fine. None of the buildings seemed to have been touched. The air felt nice and cool. At first Will thought the cars were pockmarked, like from hail. But then he realized the storm had just covered them with little white flowers.
Will
No one, like, actually came up and said, oh, it was a tornado. It was. There was someone saying, like, "him, come here. You, come here. You, come here." And it was weird, because you were like kind of listening for your name if it was coming up. And it was just like that. One row, a street, like 6th and 7th. I mean, that's where, like, all the kids they were naming off that lived on that street. And it was like, wait a minute, you know. Did it hit up there?
Oh, there was like so many fire trucks and so many cops. Ambulances. I mean, they were just going north, just kept on going north. Didn't turn or nothing. It just went north. And they kind of like lit the whole town when they went through.
And then you look on the other side of town, it's like totally dark. It was weird. Because it was like pitch black, basically, down there. it was kind of like, if you drove north, you're going to fall into a black hole or something.
Boy 1
We drove around for a while, and I couldn't believe. When I saw, like, houses-- like the one house had, like, a big chunk ripped out of the top of it. Like a T-rex walked up and just took a bite out of the top of the roof and stuff.
Elana
My cousin had a separate car from my aunt, so he took me as close as he could get me to my house. And then I just got out and I ran to my house. I was jumping over power lines and tree limbs and everything in my prom dress and flip flops. But I got there.
Susan Burton
This is Elana. She lived on 6th Street, right where the tornado hit.
Elana
My mom said she cooked us supper that night. She had a crystal pitcher of like iced tea sitting our table. And it was still fine. After the tornado, it was still sitting like right there, on the exact spot on the table. It hadn't been touched at all. And the roof was completely off the kitchen. You could stand in our kitchen and look up and you'd be looking up at the sky.
Susan Burton
That night kids walked all over Hoisington with flashlights. All the places they could think to go. The Dairy Queen, the bowling alley, the grocery store, the football field were gone. It wasn't just that something had finally happened in Hoisington. Hoisington had become an entirely different town.
Elana
Where we're in right now is Ground Zero. My house is in Ground Zero.
Susan Burton
I arrived in Hoisington about two weeks after the tornado, and Elana took me on a tour.
Elana
Everything is normal on the side. You can't even tell anything ever happened.
Susan Burton
Whole sections of the town were still perfect. There were people on porches and shiny party balloons tied to mailboxes. Then we crossed over. A lot of the west side had already been bulldozed. Now it was just dirt and basements and house parts. Someone's front steps or a kitchen cut away like a room in a dollhouse.
And of course, this is Kansas. The main street in town is a red brick road. Lots of people had spray painted their cars and houses and boarded-up windows with references to the Wizard of Oz.
Elana
Everybody writes stuff about Dorothy and Toto on their house. It's like our house-- we had all the windows boarded shut, and we had all kinds of sayings on there. We had, like, "We're coming for you, Toto," and like, "Dear Dorothy, I miss you. If somebody finds me, please pack me and send me to Oklahoma. Love, Toto."
Susan Burton
To the kids in Hoisington, it started to seem like the Tornado made choices. Why would it knock down a house but not even break the glass on a framed photograph of bridesmaids in purple dresses?
Elana
All kinds of weird stuff has happened. Like when they went in Adam's room, the only thing that they found left in the room was the movie Twister. And some people found a prom glass in their cupboard, and it's from 1963. And they didn't have any kids. They're an old couple. They didn't have any kids that graduated that year. They have no idea where it came from. But they found it in their cupboard.
Susan Burton
Some teenagers started to look for a logic in who was hit and who was spared. I'm told that the junior class got it the worst, and that it's a known fact they've been jinxed since the fourth grade. Addie, who lost her house, and Brooke, who didn't, tell me that Addie has bad luck and Brooke has good luck, that they joke about this all the time. That even at the moment the tornado destroyed Hoisington, Brooke was winning a prize at prom.
Will took the whole thing a lot harder.
Will
Seems like, you know, that we just can't get a break. That we just can't get lucky.
Susan Burton
Will's dad died several years ago-- had a heart attack on his birthday. And then last fall, the house Will had lived in since he was little got too expensive for his mother and the family had to move out. The house was on the east side and the tornado didn't touch it.
Will
Even still, when I drive by there, I look at the house and wonder what it would have been like if the tornado hit and we still lived at that house, you know? And I wonder, if I still lived there, would the tornado have come that way and hit us there? You know? Because maybe it was hit because there was somebody that it was going after, you know? And if I did live in that other house, that maybe I would have-- you know, the tornado probably would have came out over on the east side. That it probably still would've come through and done something to the houses. Just the way I believe.
I think it was meant to teach me a lesson in a couple ways. Like I always thought, oh, it would be cool if we had a tornado in this town. You know? To have something exciting going on. And now it's like, well here. Have a tornado. Now how do you feel about it?
Susan Burton
Elana felt like she caused the storm, too.
Elana
Friday night before the tornado, me and Addie, we were driving to Claflin to hang out with some friends. And I was like, "you know, Addie?" I was like, "I've never seen a tornado. I really want to see one sometime." She's like "oh, Lanie, they're really scary." She's like, "I've seen a couple, but I've never actually been in one." I was like, "I know. Wouldn't that be crazy if it really did happen?"
And then like 24 hours almost exactly later, you know, the next night, a tornado comes and takes out our houses. It was pretty freaky. I was just like, oh my gosh. I remember after the tornado, when I got home, I was crying. I was talking to my mom. And I was just like, "I swear I made this happen." And my mom was like, "no, Lanie. You didn't make it happen."
But I mean, it's pretty scary. Saying, "I've never seen one, I really want to see one," the night before it takes out my house.
Susan Burton
I ask Sean if he thinks the storm singled people out.
Sean
I don't think so, really. Because if that was true, it would have come straight to my house and would have found me at prom. But it didn't. I don't know. I have, like, bad luck all the time. I mean like, two sisters, the first one was the littlest one. She said, "oh, I'll go to prom with you," and she dumps me. Her sister asked me to prom, then she's like, "well, I don't want to go with you. I want to go with someone else." So it was like I got rejected by sisters. So it's like, [SIGH].
So it should have found me and like, sucked me up by myself, just to be like, ha ha ha, you know? And then hit my car, and then hit my room. So just hit my house. Just my room and my car. So I'd scratch that bad luck idea with some people. It was just a twist of fate that that happened.
Girl 2
That was definitely the prom of all proms. I mean, it was a horrible, horrible experience to go through. But it was definitely a prom of all proms.
Girl 1
I mean, it's like something that everybody's going to remember. Like some people, they look back on prom and it's just a prom night. You know? Everybody knows what's going to happen at prom, and they know what prom is. But now we can say what happened on prom night, and it's a really big event now, you know?
Elana
I guess it's one that you'll never forget, really. I mean, you think of prom night, now you think of tornado. I mean, everybody's going to remember it for that.
Susan Burton
Usually the story of prom is one of disappointment. You're in the bathroom crying during the slow dance, or you throw up at the hotel room party, or you go home feeling silly for having been so excited about something so meaningless. The teenagers in Hoisington got the kind of prom story everybody wants. They got a legendary prom-- the night that actually did change their lives.
Elana
I mean, it's like-- I went to prom my sophomore and junior years. And it was a dance. It was a prom. It was nice, and it was fun to get all dressed up. But it was like a prom that taught a lesson, you know? It wasn't just-- it became our cars and clothes weren't more so important, and family and friends, and-- it taught a big lesson about humanity, I think, to everybody there. Everybody had a new perspective of life, walking out of that prom.
Sean
We were in, like, a whole different world. Just having fun, when actually outside it's like totally opposite. People are in their basements. Stuff's falling down. Houses are gone. People are actually losing stuff. And we're in prom still, dancing, when the tornado hits and after it hits. We're still just, you know, free of everything. Still having a good time. It's like totally different when you walk outside. Like you step out of the safe zone and you go into another world where reality hits.
Susan Burton
Prom doesn't usually chaperone you into the world so quickly. Suddenly a lot of kids in Hoisington have to act like grownups. Will's going to college in the fall, but he sometimes thinks it would be better to get a job on an oil rig, give the paychecks to his mother. A senior named Zack actually pulled his parents out of the rubble of their own home on prom night.
But everyone's looking forward to rebuilding, and they're all getting used to the idea that anything can happen. Even in Hoisington.
Ira Glass
Susan Burton in New York.
Since we first broadcast that story back in 2001, Will, the teenager who talked about how doomed he felt, how his family couldn't get a break, whose father died and whose house was destroyed-- he died in July in a car accident, just a few months after prom and just weeks after our story was broadcast.
Well, coming up. They've been juniors in high school since 1982. So when they say-- and this is a direct quote-- "We've been dreaming about prom night for years"-- they mean it. In a minute on Public Radio International when our program continues.
Act Two: Save The Last Dance For Me...Again
Ira Glass
It's This American Life. I'm Ira Glass. Each week on our program, of course, we choose some theme, bring you a variety of different kinds of stories on that theme. Today's program, at the very end of prom season, stories about the prom.
We've arrived at act two of our program. Act Two. Save the Last Dance For Me... Again.
So Pretty in Pink, and Carrie, and Back to the Future, and the Cosby Kids, and Buffy, and too many other movies and TV shows to name-- they all eventually end up at the prom. But why? Why the prom? Why is it so omnipresent?
Well, for answers we turn to Francine Pascal, who has written or invented the plot lines for 700 books in the Sweet Valley High series. Which, of course, is the adventures of Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield, twins and-- well, seemingly permanent high school juniors. She spoke to us from her home in France.
Francine Pascal
Well, I have to tell you that the prom is probably the quintessential glory of high school. It's the moment that comes closest to the romantic vision of life. I think it's repeated again only one other time, and that would be marriage. I mean, it's that important in the high school life, in the teenager life, in that pre-life before adult.
Ira Glass
That's interesting. So as in a traditional drama where you'd want the characters to end up in marriage, if you're writing about teenagers, all you've got is the prom.
Francine Pascal
That's about it. That's right. And out of the 700 books, I probably-- prom is mentioned in at least 500 of them. But I would say it's probably a major goal in almost 30. 35.
Ira Glass
You mean 35 or so books actually take place at the prom? There's an actual prom in them?
Francine Pascal
Yes. There is a prom as the plot goal, or a very important part of the plot. I can give you just ideas of it. I think in the second book I did a plot about who is going to be the king and queen of the prom? And there was, you know, rigging the election. And just to give you an idea. Plots on getting a date for the prom, somebody who has no date to the prom, the wrong day to the prom, the wrong date that turns that our right for the prom. And I know there was a plot about this poor girl, her brother had to take her. I mean, that's permanent trauma. And then the other thing, but there's no money for the prom dress. And there's the one about, you think he's going to ask you, but he asks someone else. And every-- I mean, when you're involved in as many plots as I am, they begin to fall into some categories. And there are things like the bet plot.
Ira Glass
The what plot?
Francine Pascal
The bet. Wager, like a wager. A bet plot, or the pledge plot. Where the boy asks the girl on a bet to go to the prom. Or the pledge is, he has to ask the least popular girl in the class to go to the prom, and then she finds out, and then he really wants to go with her, but it's too late because she's furious. And that takes a whole book to settle down.
Ira Glass
It seems like one of the common prom plots is that the prom forces a choice between potential dates. And often it'll be the good-looking unattainable boy or girl is one possibility and the smart, funny best friend is the other possibility.
Francine Pascal
Exactly. Exactly. I've used that sort of thing. It's also perfect, because though these people are not going to be living for the rest of their lives, they're not legally married or anything, but they do have to make that first important choice of the person they are going to spend that momentous evening with. And it's a mini-marriage kind of choice.
Ira Glass
In book number 142 in the Sweet Valley series, a story called The Big Night, you have not one, not two, not three, but four characters who end up switching their dates at the prom. Then one girl tries to kill her date.
Francine Pascal
Oh! That must have been a thriller.
Ira Glass
Courtney tries to push Todd off of a boat railing into the water. And Elizabeth is in a speedboat following.
Francine Pascal
Yes, right. Well, you know, that's just a variation on a theme. That's all. You have to do something slightly different with them when you're on 140.
Ira Glass
Listening to you talk about this, it seems like what the prom does, and what it gives you as writer, is it gives you a natural arena where there can be a conflict over love and an outcome. And without the prom, you'd have to invent some situation which would feel like it has weight, whereas the prom just has the weight.
Francine Pascal
Exactly. Because the prom is-- it's a natural. It comes filled with all kinds of emotion. Just the mention of the prom-- you don't have to create something, and build it up, and give it terrible importance. You don't have to do any of those things.
Ira Glass
Did you go to prom yourself?
Francine Pascal
I never went to my own prom. I was not interested. Strangely enough. I didn't like high school very much at all. It's funny that I ended up writing so much about it.
Ira Glass
And what did you think of prom?
Francine Pascal
I really was not interested. I felt that I was too sophisticated and mature for that sort of stuff. And I just didn't-- I never really participated. Beyond writing speeches for the political candidates and being on the newspaper. That's what I liked. But beyond that, I just didn't have an interest in it.
Ira Glass
You never cared to go to the prom, and so you've now, somehow fate has put you in a situation where you've had to revisit it over 35 times.
Francine Pascal
That's right. Yes, it's my punishment. But it's different because I don't have to show up there.
Ira Glass
The charming Francine Pascal, creator of Sweet Valley High.
Act Three: Only Two Things Are Certain In Life: Death And Tuxes
Ira Glass
Act Three. Death and Tuxes.
So let's go to the prom, you and me. Back in 1994, when I was a reporter for NPR'S All Things Considered, I covered the senior prom at Taft High School here in Chicago. We play this story now because, in contrast to the proms in Francine Pascal's books, it captures on tape what the prom usually is. Here is the very old recording.
All year long, the teachers see students who slouch and gossip. Students who wear clothing that teachers don't understand. Students who need prodding and discipline and constant surveillance. And then on prom night, the students reappear, transformed, as in a dream. And the teachers wander around remarking to each other, can you believe how well-behaved they are, how grown up they seem? Math teacher Jerry Pad has helped plan the prom for years.
Jerry Pad
Aren't they really great? They really are. Having fun. Never having any trouble. They're just great kids. Plus these are the seniors that have made it. All the [BLEEP] are out.
Ira Glass
Carla Revedinero's date, George Bork, hadn't bothered with a tux. He were a black shirt, skinny black tie, black pants, no jacket. They were having fun, except for one small hitch.
George
Can't dance, bro.
Carla
He won't dance with me because he can't dance.
George
It's not that I won't. It's like I can't, you know?
Carla
He can't, yeah.
Ira Glass
Maybe if they played some metal, he said, he could slam dance.
Girl 1
'94! Whoo! '94! '94.
Ira Glass
This couple was having a different kind of prom.
Boy
We're going to Niagara Falls tomorrow morning. But tonight, we're just going to party. My girlfriend isn't telling me yet where we're going to go to the hotel room.
Girl 2
I went to a special place and I got him a special hotel room somewhere, and it's a surprise.
Ira Glass
What do your parents say about this?
Girl 2
Well, my mom gave me the, you know, mother-daughter sex talk. But it's a little too late for that, so. Kind of in one ear, out the other. But she was still very worried, and she didn't want me to do this, thought I was making money. But you know.
Ira Glass
Your mother gave you a mother-daughter sex talk?
Girl 2
Yeah. Saying that-- something maybe she might-- because I'm leaving for college, OK? And since we've been together this long, it's going to be very dramatic between us two to leave each other. So she's like all, he's going to bust the moves on you, he's going to try to do sex acts to try to keep you here. But--
Boy
Too late for that.
Ira Glass
On the dance floor, there was a certain amount of copping feels and kissing. But the sexual tension of the prom hit a kind of surreal zenith when the DJ told the boys to bring chairs down to the dance floor. Girls were seated in the chairs. And the garter ceremony began.
Dj
We're going to count down from 10.
Ira Glass
Over a hundred teenage girls presented bare legs with garters.
Dj
All men have to put your hands behind your back.
Ira Glass
Meaning, grab the garter with your teeth.
Dj
All right. We're going to count backwards from ten. Ten, nine--
Ira Glass
This is the kind of activity that separates the "just friends" prom dates from the real dates. And dozens of "just friends" stood around the edges of the hall in various states of discomfort.
Dj
Four, three, two, one.
Ira Glass
A hundred million teenage boys bring their faces up against the slightly sweaty thighs of their dates, rip multicolored garters with their teeth, and drag them off the leg. It's a shocking and amazing sight, but when I asked teachers about it later, they all say, "where have you been? They've done this for years!" At homecoming, apparently, things get even more explicit.
Dj
All right! OK. Let's move the chairs and we'll have a slow dance.
Ira Glass
As evening wore on, George and Carla, the couple that didn't dance, did go out for a couple of slow numbers.
Dj
Well, I want to get everyone to the floor.
Ira Glass
Later, when it was time to leave, they picked up their prom favors and took some balloons from the centerpieces and joined another couple, Mark and Charlotte, in Mark's father's Ford Tempo. They searched for a radio station.
Charlotte
Put it on CKG!
Mark
Jeez, nothing but a whole bunch of hippie rock. No, man! It's a bunch of hippie rock.
Carla
I like it. All right.
[SINGING]
Ira Glass
Everybody pitched in a dollar for gas. Carla waved to people in other cars and inhaled the helium from her prom balloons.
Carla
Fuzzy bunny, fuzzy bunny.
Ira Glass
They argued about directions, discussed who Winona Ryder is going out with these days. And finally, after nearly an hour, we ended up at a party. A pretty lively party, but mostly we stood around outside.
Charlotte
Where's my liquor!
Matt
In the store!
Charlotte
Matt, where's my liquor?
Ira Glass
Charlotte repeated this about, oh, 20 times. Nobody else seemed too interested in getting drunk. But finally someone organized a liquor run.
Charlotte
Are they going to sell to you?
Boy 2
They'll sell to me. If they don't sell to me, the'll sell to someone else. What do you want?
Charlotte
Kiwi Lime Mad Dog, baby.
Boy 2
Mad Dog? What kind? Kiwi Lime?
Charlotte
Wait! He needs something.
Give me that 5-pack. Here, I'll give you 10.
Ira Glass
One thing you forget when you're not a teenager is how much time teenagers spend just standing around, waiting. Waiting to get organized. Waiting for everyone to show up. Waiting for the person buying liquor to return. Percentage-wise, this was the largest part of the evening. Invariably, during this time, someone starts to get on someone else's nerves. For Charlotte and George, the feeling was mutual.
George
She always yaps, man. She never shuts up. She just keeps on talking and talking. It's like-- I wonder if she'll shut up! And it's like the tone of voice she uses, too. She's like a whiny-- ehhh! Tone of voice, you know. It's like, I don't want to hear it. I don't put up with her-- when she first started going to Taft, man, and I hated it then and I hate it now. It's like something that's bringing me down, you know?
Carla
Go on, man. Go on!
Charlotte
You're coming with us?
Ira Glass
Around 1:30, a decision was made to go to the beach-- one of Chicago's downtown Lake Michigan beaches. And after much debate and four attempts to get a dozen people into cars, we finally drove to Belmont Harbor and walked out to the big rocks on the water.
Everyone stared at the lake. The city lights made the clouds glow orange. In the distance you could see some fog and the lights of the water pumping rig.
George
Those pumping stations, man. How'd do you like to work out there? You'd get to work out there for three days. Three-day shifts. 24 hours. The boats would be out there. And they feed you. You work and you get paid and you just hang around there. And it's like a real cool city job that you get paid through the ass for.
Carla
It'd be so scary to be on a boat. You know, it's so dark.
George
Unless I'm really smashed, I really feel uneasy around open water.
Mark
Did you say you feel uneasy about what?
Carla
Water, open water.
George
The lake, man.
Mark
Cool, man. Space. It's free, man. Best you can go.
Ira Glass
Mark then applied fairly dire speech which, coming from him, is surprising. He's college-bound, a good student, on the football team, usually easy-going and self-confident.
Mark
Seriously, man, there is no [BLEEP] freedom in this goddamn place, man. There's always some cop or somebody asking what you're doing. There's always somebody who owns the place. They're always going to come to you and ask you, you know, especially when you're underage. Then they're going to really get on your back. Lectures about what you're not supposed to know, what you're supposed to.
Ira Glass
Blair and Charlotte go off for cigarettes. Carla takes her shoes off. We talk about this and that. And then we look behind us and see the blue lights through the trees.
George
Cops.
Ira Glass
No evening like this could be complete without a run-in with the police. They're perhaps 100 yards away in the parking lot in their squad car.
George
Are they getting out?
Ira Glass
The police hover there a few minutes, put a ticket on one kid's car, and drive off. No big deal.
Next stop, naturally, is an all-night restaurant. But the time we hold the big plastic Denny's menus in our hands, it's four in the morning.
Mark
You ready to order?
Charlotte
I want salad.
Mark
You know what I'm going to have? The Flanagan slam.
Ira Glass
They gossipped. They floated pleasantly from topic to topic. Fate had handed them a prom, and they knew they were supposed to stay out all night, and they kept wandering from place to place, waiting for something to happen. Nothing much did, but nothing bad did, either.
George
It's starting to get light outside.
Carla
People have got to get going soon. I'm going to sleep all day.
George
I can't sleep all day.
Ira Glass
Back in the car, George said that the best moment of the problem was when he got to slow dance with Carla. Mark said it was when he missed getting a ticket from those cops. Charlotte said it was when she looked around at all the people at the prom and realized that she no longer had to return to Taft High School.
Act Four: Only One Thing Missing
Ira Glass
Act Four. Only One Thing Missing.
Every year for the past 50 years, on the third weekend in May, all the high schools in Racine, Wisconsin hold their problems. On that same night, after all the proms have ended, kids from all seven schools drive a parade route through town in convertibles and limos and antique cars, ice cream trucks and semis, to the post-prom party, which in Racine is actually bigger than prom itself. Hosted by the local Rotary Club, it goes from 9:30 in the evening until 3:30 the next morning. People set up lawn chairs to watch the procession of cars. It is a huge, huge big deal. And then 19 years ago it got bigger. Wendy Dorr tells the tale.
The good people of Racine loved their prom, and they were always looking for ways to make it better. And so they added to it a force even more powerful than the prom itself. They added live television coverage.
Announcer
Last year, 60,000 eyes were watching a rite of passage. Seven schools. One great location. One night only. It's prom. Prom. Live. Saturday, May 19, 9:30 PM. What will you be wearing?
Craig Haskins
It's a really, really incredible atmosphere in there with an $8,000 laser show, $5,000 to $10,000 worth of balloons and flowers--
Wendy Dorr
Craig Haskins has been running the Rotary Club's post-prom for the past couple of years. He was voted into the job by his fellow Rotarians simply because he is 27 years old and by far the youngest Rotarian in Racine. And he looks young. On prom night he has to wear a special badge so the high school kids know not to ask him to dance.
Craig Haskins
There's screaming people. The red carpet. Television crews. Two talented-- you know, like the host and hostess that interview you when you walk through the door. Just like Joan Crawford. That's her name, right?
Wendy Dorr
Joan Rivers.
Craig Haskins
Joan Rivers. Just like Joan Rivers. When you walk through, what are you wearing? You know, that's a beautiful tux, or nice dress.
Announcer 2
Good evening, everyone, and welcome to Time Warner Cable's coverage of the 2001 Rotary Post-Prom Parade, live from Festival Hall on Racine's Lakefront. My name Deb Silverton--
Zach Fishbain
When I was walking down the red carpet, I felt like I was-- you feel like a celebrity.
Wendy Dorr
Zach Fishbain was a senior at Horlick High this year.
Zach Fishbain
And there's fans. People of all ages. There's bleachers, packed bleachers, hundreds of people around the arrival area. And people screaming your name, taking pictures, holding their hands out. Feels like the paparazzi are like following me around with television, cameras in your face?
Announcer 2
What did you do before you got here?
Girl 1
We went down to the country club and ate with the rest of everybody.
Zach Fishbain
The whole school did.
Announcer 2
OK. So you all ate together and then came down here.
Zach Fishbain
There's people on the left of the carpet interviewing and watching all these limousines and friends coming in. Everyone feels like a celebrity and everyone sees everyone else as a celebrity. You walk in and you see the strobe lights flashing. And the celebrity feeling is even multiplied when you get there.
And that feeling doesn't go away until-- well, I still have it three weeks later. And I'm still like a celebrity, watching it all again on television. So as long as you keep watching it and everyone knows how big of a deal it is, it really isn't downplayed. Once you kind of lose that feeling, you think about prom and start talking about it again.
And people want to hear about it. People who didn't go and watching it have so many questions for you. Did you do this? Did you see this person? What kind of music did they play? You are the center of attention when prom is the topic. So you maintain that celebrity feeling.
Wendy Dorr
Here's what it looks like to the home viewer. Because this is low-budget local cable programming, it's mostly just one camera shot. Couples enter the festival hall, passing two by two in front of the camera, whoo-hooing and hi-Momming straight into the camera, one after the next. And this goes on for four hours.
In Zach's house, this footage has become a kind of video wallpaper. While I was there interviewing him, a copy of the cable broadcast played the whole time in the living room. Sometimes a family member would drop out of the conversation to stare at it for a while. Now and then, Zach's mom Susan would call our attention to the screen.
Susan Fishbain
Here he comes! Look how handsome.
We have been so excited that we've watched it numerous times. It's great. You know, we have two copies of it. It's in two TVs. And every time you watch it when you see somebody different. And it's so much fun when you run into the parents and the kids in the study. You know? To say, your pink dress and your matching tux was just great. And it's great.
Craig Haskins
If you ask the local television studios what's the biggest--
Wendy Dorr
Agian, Craig Haskins.
Craig Haskins
The Oscars, Super Bowl, or Prom, they would hands down say "Prom." Because it's the highest-rated anything in town. And that's a good way to judge people's interest, is what they're watching on TV.
Wendy Dorr
Proms everywhere are all about hype. And so it's no surprise that once you have a prom as a TV show that the ratings would be hyped, too. The cable company's commercial says that 60,000 eyes were watching the prom. But by that, they actually mean 30,000 viewers. Two eyes per viewer. And really, even that number is just a guess.
For sure one person who wasn't watching the problem was Kirsten Hitzky. I spoke with her at job at Desmond's Formal Wear, a tuxedo rental store at the Regency Mall. It is also safe to say that Kirsten was the only person in the mall that night who was reading Plato's Phaedrus for fun.
Kirsten Hitzky
I'm rereading it. It was the last thing I read in school, and it was really wonderful, and I wanted to keep reading it. And also, I can practice my Greek.
Wendy Dorr
You didn't go to prom.
Kirsten Hitzky
No, no, I didn't. Prom is a beautiful illusion.
Wendy Dorr
If you're someone who hates the prom, there's no better way to refuel your hatred than by working at a tux shop. Kirsten says everyone at the store despises the prom. The worst part being when the kids bring their sweaty suits back.
Kirsten Hitzky
Sometimes they'll come out stuffed into a little grocery bag, tied really tight. And you have to pretty much disinfect the whole thing and pick it up very lightly. The boss here got fungus underneath her fingernails one time from dealing with someone's socks.
Wendy Dorr
Do you get suits with, like, grass stains?
Kirsten Hitzky
Oh yeah. Grass. Puke. Mud.
For people that say that prom is there for people feel special for once in their lives, I don't know about that. I mean, find me one high school senior who really needs an ego boost. It's the time to be cocky and prideful. And I think it's kind of indulgent of that. And if they say that they feel like a celebrity, it doesn't surprise me at all. Because they, you know, they do get treated like celebrities, even though their personality might be less than beautiful. And I'm certainly glad I didn't take part in it.
Wendy Dorr
To truly enjoy the Racine prom, and maybe to enjoy any prom, you have to be the sort of person who enjoys the hype leading up to it. Zach certainly did for basically his whole life.
Zach Fishbain
I have been watching prom on television every spring. Every May. And it's only natural middle schoolers, elementary school, grade school, high school-- all ages are watching this. So every year we watch it. And as a kid, I thought I was going to come in a helicopter, or with a yellow tuxedo. Actually this year there was a kid in a yellow tuxedo. But no helicopters, unfortunately.
Watching it on TV-- I just never realized how glorious this festivity really was until I actually was a part of it. I mean, it seems great. You look so forward to it. And it was even better when I got there. Because it was the real thing. I was experiencing it. The realization, the fact that I knew I was actually there and no longer looking forward to it made it that much better.
Wendy Dorr
Prom, after all, is just a dance. Plus a whole lot of hype. Racine understands this so well that it's possible they've created the greatest prom in the world. They've hyped it to the point that when I asked a bunch of junior high school girls if they were looking forward to the prom, all of them look at me as if I'd just ask them if they were, in fact, of the human species. Because they explained, by the time they reach senior year, who knows how big it could get.
Ira Glass
Wendy Dorr.
Special thanks to OVO Incorporated, an arts collective in New York. It is from them that we heard about the prom in Racine. They made a film about it called World's Best Prom. They were very helpful. For information about them and their films, visit their website, www.worldsbestprom.com.
Credits
Ira Glass
Well, our program was produced today by Starlee Kine and myself with Alex Blumberg, Wendy Dorr, and Jonathan Goldstein. Our senior producer is Julie Snyder. Production help from Todd Bachmann, Paul McCarthy, Seth Lind, and Emily Yusef.
[ACKNOWLEDGMENTS]
This American Life is heard every week by over four million ears. This American Life is distributed by Public Radio International.
[FUNDING CREDITS]
WBEZ management oversight for our show by our boss Mr. Torey Malatia, who describes his job this way:
George
You work and you get paid and you just hang around there. And it's like a real cool city job that you get paid through the ass for.
Ira Glass
I'm Ira Glass. Back next week with more stories of This American Life.
Announcer
PRI. Public Radio International.