There’s a couple things I feel like I need to share before I get into the prom details. First of all, I had dated only a couple times prior to this. One guy, also from the skating rink and actually a little older had taken me to get a hamburger once. I was scared to eat in front of him. As I explained when I first started this blog, I had led a very sheltered life. Other than going to church, I hadn’t been many places alone without my mother or until his death, my dad. So yes, I was a naive, scared young girl. I had ridden on the back of a guy’s motorcycle – a friend from high school. That made me uncomfortable, not necessarily scared, but uncomfortable because he was leaning the bike over when we went through a turn.

Mom had her hands full, trying to work and take care of me. Driving me to and from the skating rink. So I’m not blaming her for what I’m about to say. I was invited to a pool party with several other girls from school. Mom went with me to chat with the other mother’s while the girls were swimming. I put my bathing suit on and walked out to the pool. The other girls started laughing and pointing at me. I had never been told about shaving my legs. The other girls were all shaved, but my legs were very hairy. So I was a big spectacle. I felt like Carrie from the movie. Of course, I was crying. Mom and a couple of the other mothers took me into the bathroom, ran bath water and taught me how to shave my legs. It was so embarrassing. I don’t think I ever actually got to swim that day.

As a teenage girl, the time comes when you start your period. This was something else I had never been told about. I started one morning before school and Mom explained to me that this was something I would have to deal with every month. She showed me the belt you had to wear and put a sock or something in your underwear. This was before stick-on pads existed and you had to wear a belt with elastic bands. I was definitely a “tom boy” and what she was explaining to me that I had no control over, infuriated me! I took the belt and whatever kind of pad she had rigged up and threw it down the hallway of the house. “You have got to be kidding me!!!” The hard reality of being a female was impossible for me to believe but wasn’t anything I could change.

Okay, on to the prom situation. Getting a late start on finding a dress, I ended up with what looked like something you would see in an old western movie. It had long sleeves and a collar that came up under my chin. Tiny buttons all the way down the front to the floor. It was floral, multi-colored pastels, blue, lavender, pink, green. I looked like a camouflaged flower garden.