I GO TO THE SENIOR PROM......NOT

Senior Prom 1960

In 1960 the Senior Prom was a big deal.  At Riverview there were many rules governing whom you could actually bring to this hallowed event. The Prom capped your senior year and the girls wanted a beautiful and romantic night.  I think the boys were hoping to score, but I could be wrong about that.  To bring a young man who was not a Riverview senior or junior, the couple had to be engaged.  The engagement had to have been announced in the paper.  These rules were created to AVOID TROUBLE.  Apparently, an engaged couple would never go wild and behave inappropriately.  All righty then.

I finally had a boyfriend, but I could not bring him to the Prom.  First of all, he was a professional trumpet player with a beard!  He played in night clubs where who knew what went on.  He had a red sports car and most heinous of all, he was twenty one!  Dick looked like the pictured young man who may or may not be Ewan MacGregor.  (Maybe it's the real Dick!)  He had taken me to clubs to watch him play which was extraordinarily exciting.  I'm surprised they let me in since I was barely 17 and looked 14.  In spite of the decadence of the setting, Dick did nothing shocking or illegal at these clubs; he merely

played his trumpet.  I think I can safely say

that he would have been a complete gentleman at the Senior Prom.  But it was not to be.  While he was not allowed to attend my Prom, he played his trumpet at the Sarasota High Senior Prom and met a gorgeous young woman named Tina who was part of a very famous Circus family.  We will never know what happened to Tina's actual prom date, but at the end of the dance Tina and Dick left together while I sat innocently at home dreaming about my next date with the handsome musician.

Years later I was visiting my dad who was reading Playboy instead of talking to his daughter, when he said, "Isn't this that girl who went out with your boyfriend?"  In Playboy?

I grabbed the magazine and sure enough there was beautiful Tina sitting on a trapeze wearing nothing but very heavy makeup.  I suddenly saw with shocking clarity why my girlish charms could not possibly have competed with Tina's all too obvious attributes.  I wondered if Dick ever read Playboy.

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