My Senior Moments: Pink Carnation Time

“A white sport coat and a pink carnation (do-wah)
I'm all dressed up for the dance (bom-a-bom-bom-bom)
A white sports coat and a pink carnation (do-wah)
I'm all alone in romance (bom-a-bom-bom-bom)

Once you told me long ago,
To the prom with me you'd go
Now you've changed your mind it seems,
Someone else will hold my dreams

A white sport coat and a pink carnation (do-wah)
I’m in a blue, blue mood.”

According to his son, Marty Robbins got the idea for this rock ’n roll hit as he passed an Ohio high school where a prom was going on in spring 1956. He and his group recorded it in 1957—just in time for our Junior Prom on April 26, 1957. Do you remember if Baron Elliot’s orchestra played it for us?

I thought of that dance and song yesterday as I raked leftover leaves in the front yard and witnessed an unusual sight: a skinny, young guy parked across the street, got out of a black Jeep Commander, and knocked on a neighbor’s door. He was wearing a black tux—it had baggy pants and was much too loose through the shoulders. (Have you noticed most teenage boys haven’t developed necks yet—and, of course, their grandfathers no longer have necks?) I first thought funeral or choir concert, but it was 5 in the afternoon. Then the neighbor’s son came out—in similar gear—and the two drove off. Ah yes, it was junior prom night as Ames High. Either the two were picking up their dates and going to dinner,—or maybe they were each other’s date.

Nowadays dinner before the dance is de rigueur—and not at the likes of Eberhard’s Diner (on the Wexford flat) for chicken in a basket or Delney’s (on McKnight) for a cheeseburger and fries, as our options would have neen out in the wilds of northern Allegheny County in 1957! No doubt these prom-goers were heading for Ames’ new Fuji Restaurant for sushi or something even grander 30 miles south in Des Moines.

I was impressed that they were wearing black dinner jackets and bowties. Dressing up in the 50s was a large part of the fun for me. I loved planning and sewing my own prom dresses, which began with a trip into Pittsburgh to Kaufmann’s yard goods department (half of that floor in those days was filled with bolts of wonderful fabrics). And picking out a sophisticated Vogue pattern made me feel haute couture and really hot stuff! I hadn’t yet realized that I was sewing because my folks couldn’t have afforded to buy me some frothy tulle creation off the racks at Joseph Horne’s.

My husband laughs at how I remember what I was wearing when we talk about events from our past, like Martin Luther King’s March on Washington (Summer 1963) or National Honor Society initiation (1957, which was supposed to be a surprise).

The Junior Prom dress was my all-time favorite. The Kodak photo (left) doesn’t do justice to that full-length dress, shimmery and pale blue. Of course, it required at least 3 of those highly starched, crinoline petticoats to give it the right drape. As I recall, male escorts only had to wear suits and ties to the Junior Prom but formal wear to the Senior Prom (May 9, 1958). And that dress (right) made from red satin with a flowered silk accent accompanied me to college for a year or two. (What was the photographer thinking when she posed me next to that yellow Monticello wallpaper!)