As I ducked under wild grape vines and avoided the poison ivy lingering alongside the trail, I felt myself getting more and more nervous. Ellen had picked out her prom dress and wanted me to see it before I rented my tux.
Ellen was the girl next door. Actually, she was the girl through the woods. Our property extended several acres behind our house and butted up against her parent’s property. She was a cute and bubbly girl with a smile that could reroute any bad mood.
I was thrilled when her parents asked if I minded giving her a ride to school every day. She was younger and I had a license. We had taken to Springsteen and JT on those drives plus developing a habit of daily Mountain Dew Icees and blow pops from Weigels.
When I emerged through the trees at the back of her house, her dad was outside with her. Not only was I intimidated by pretty girls I was doubly intimidated by the dads of pretty girls. She smiled and said she would go change and show me her dress.
When she walked out, I have no idea what I did. Stammered? Deflected? Agree to a white tux with a black cummerbund? Apparently it was the latter.
I made a lot of mistakes at my first prom. We spent way too much money at The Regis, Knoxville’s upscale go-to restaurant. I also think I chose the wrong vehicle. Her parents offered their 1980’s Mazda RX-7. It was a sleek two door sports car. Instead, I chose to drive a friends new Toyota 4x4 truck. She could barely climb into it. And the dance? I don’t like to dance and I’m not sure she enjoyed my lack of moves. We were both unenthralled.
We did do some things right, like going to Weigels to get Mountain Dew Icees and blow pops. Also, to my surprise, we went to her house afterwards and her mother put a Bartels & James wine cooler in our hands and sent us off to drive through the neighborhood in the dark. What were they thinking?
We walked through a yet-to-be-developed neighborhood under darkness and laughed until we both needed to pee. It was dark so she went to hike her prom dress up in the high grass on one side of the road and I went into the dark on the other. We clambered into the 4x4, laughed at our evening, and I took her home.
Monday morning, I picked her up and we drove to school singing Honey Don’t Leave L.A.