[Magdalen] Faire Une Promenade.

[cantor03 at aol.com]

My visiting nurse's son is a high school senior, and his Senior Prom is tonight.Over and beyond all the excitement, I have learned that this event has becomeexceedingly expensive.  His tuxedo and accessories (the latter color coordinatedwith his date's dress) plus her floral bouquet and his boutonniere, formal pictures,etc., are adding up to $800 and more.  His graduating class is of 925 has renteda large complex locally to accommodate dinner and dance for this large class.






There were 36 in my graduating class, and the prom was in the high school
gymnasium festooned with crepe-paper streamers.  There were no tuxedos,
and the girls wore those dresses with huge hoop skirts of the type that makeit a production for the wearer to sit down.  I guess there must have beensome flower expenses, but there were no professional photos.  My mother
recorded the event with her ever-ready, trusty Kodak Super 8 camera.





My home town high school was such a dinky affair, but thanks to somecrackerjack teachers, especially in the English and Latin departments, all threeof us who started at UW-Madison in the autumn (1955) were in the group of 90of a UW freshman class of 4,000 who were exempted freshman English andI was exempted college pre-medical Latin.  A  BA degree back in the dayrequired a year of Latin or Greek, and a year of French or German.  That wasbefore English became the Lingua Franca.





I wish the promenaders to have a memorable, pleasant evening at the proms.They probably won't conclude the evening with a stirring rendition of "RuleBritannia."



David Strang.