Memories of My Senior Prom

I didn’t take Amber to the senior prom.  In fact, I almost didn’t take anyone.

All of my energies were, now, being directed towards my part-time job with the Columbus Board of Education and my participation in J.A. Presents, the Junior Achievement television company sponsored by WLW-C.  Since I left school every morning at 10:30 to go to work until 5:00, I didn’t associate with many of my classmates except for Joe and Anita who were also in J.A. Presents.  (Actually, there were a few others from Brookhaven in the company, but their names escape me.)

When I finally got ready to ask a girl to the prom, it seemed like everyone I knew had already been asked.  (Except for Linda; I could never get up the courage to ask her, but it would have been inconceivable to think that she was still available.)  So I asked Barb.  As a sophomore from a different high school, I felt the odds were pretty good that no one had asked her to Brookhaven’s senior prom.  What I didn’t count on was 1) this would be her first prom and 2) first proms are a pretty big deal to teenage girls.

Barb also liked to write – so we had that it common.  Joe, in the meantime, asked Sue to go with him to the prom, and we decided to double-date.  Pooling our money, Joe and I rented the flashiest automobile that Hertz would dare to rent to a couple of teenage boys: a Plymouth Satellite, one of the company’s least popular models ever.  As I recall, we went out to eat at the Jai-Lai, stopped in briefly at the high school to hear the Chuck Selby Orchestra play the Neal Hefti “Batman Theme” (a current hit), visited a Dairy Queen, and then drove around for several hours spraying Silly-String out the windows.   However, before we could attend the “After Party” at Bridgeview Country Club, I had to take Barb home.  I think her parents had set a curfew of 10:30.

After that, Barb and I dated a few more times.  I remember we went to Hunt’s Cinestage Theatre to see the 1965 movie, Doctor Zhivago, and Barb couldn’t stop sobbing afterwards, even as she was apologizing for doing so.  When I went away to Miami University, we exchanged letters for a time, but that was it.  I assumed she went to some Ivy League school, but later found out she wound up at Ohio University.

Then a couple of years ago, we reestablished contact through her brother, a musician (now, a therapist) I had interviewed a few times over the years.  Barb was working on the west coast.  She had married an older, “southern gentleman,” who was the love of her life.  However, when he passed away, she took a job in California.  Things were going well until she came down with a disease which destroyed both of her kidneys.  Desperately in need of a transplant, she was amazed to find that one of her staff was a perfect match and insisted on donating an organ.  (I hope I am not garbling this story too much; it’s not as though I was taking notes.)  Anyway, Barb is now in fine health and enjoying her second chance at life.

I am happy that Barb is well.  I just wish when we spoke she had had more memories of me – the prom, the letters, tennis – and fewer of Joe.   I guess I was never Barb’s “old flame.”  Funny, I can still remember hearing WCOL radio play “Cherish” by The Association as Joe and I drove out to some place on Cleveland Avenue to pick up our tuxedos.

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