My worst was definitely my senior prom, a week after I contracted a bad case of poison ivy (arms, neck and face) at our senior picnic. Oh Lord, was I miserable!

yoyo, this is something from which I have been spared. Proms, over here, are a quite recent 'invention' now usually held for the school-leaving classes. Pictures appear in the local papers of girls all glam'ed up and embarrassed boys in shiny suits eyeing each other across the floor of the school spots hall/gym.

In my long ago day single sex schools were still the norm and fraternization was heavily frowned on . . . especially by the mainly Irish nuns who taught us. "It may lead to mixed marriages" they twittered, meaning the marriage between a Catholic and a non-Catholic ie. someone of any other denomination or religion.

Although this was the '60's they taught that the wicked people of the UK were out to get Catholics, to try and rob them of their faith and generally do them down. As I wasn't one of them the nuns left me alone. I have since asked ex school friends if, when they went into the big dangerous world, they found the nuns teaching to hold true . . . and none of them did. No one cared what religion/denomination they were.

But . . . it has to be said Convent school girls always had 'something' of a reputation once they threw off the shackles . . .

yoyo, just wanted to check that at the Prom you mentioned above you were careful not to light a match.

It was mostly while we were slow dancing and lighting any fires at that point was the LAST thing on my mind ! Ghastly.

I attended Catholic grade school up to 4th grade. The "good nuns" would warn us not to ever play with any of the children from the public school on the next street. It was suggested that they were ungodly sorts. Thankfully very little of their rubbish ever made sense to me and consequently was never taken seriously.

Although we had a Catholic Primary School opposite our apartment, we weren't allowed to enroll there and had to walk a mile to the nearest non-denominational school, very inconvenient in wintry snowy weather!

However the Father at the convent was always welcoming to all children who called in to see him, gave us gifts at Xmas and never tried to convert us.

Proms are a fairly recent thing in Australia too and are connected with schools. My own daughter was a debutante before this custom died. The ball she attended was a very grand affair at Government House where she and another eleven girls were presented to the State Governor and his wife as representing the Crown.

I must admit that I enjoyed the fuss, rehearsals, seeking a suitable white gown, not finding one so getting one made, decisions about white gloves etc. We rented a hotel room so that we could get dressed near the venue as we lived out of town. Her later wedding was easier!

Proms have always seemed to me to be rather quaint affairs and I have occasionally wondered how accurately they are portrayed in movies.

We don't have them in Iceland - we just have school dances without the pressure to secure a date or dress formally or elect a king and queen.

Wow, Ann it all sounds very posh! My late Mother had German friends who's daughters were 'presented' at Court in the mid 50's (they were very distant relatives of Prince Philip) just before the system finished. We have photos of them in what I suppose was 'afternoon wear'. Remember when suits were called costumes and hats were de rigueur? The girls all wear rictus smiles and are being glared at by the woman who chaperoned them.

Debutante Balls have been done in our area for a long time.

Generally it is only for the self-annointed A-list crowd to flaunt their exclusivity. The original idea was to present a daughter to society as officially "on the market". That concept is quite passe' these days. Now I think it is simply for fluff.

Deb dances gave way to school balls here some years ago and they are more sensible these days.

A school in a rather deprived area put out a call for gowns and costume jewellery for girls whose parent/s couldn't afford to buy them and was overwhelmed with the response.

I look back fondly on the days when I had occasion to dress up in full rig accompanying my husband, smart in a dinner suit. (The best accessory for a well-dressed woman is a well-dressed man!) It was fun but like Noel Coward once said, there comes a time when reading a book with a cup of cocoa is a good way to spend an evening. I reached that stage some time ago!

Many shops in this area , as well as high schools , collect donations of prom dresses and shoes and offer them freely to anyone girl who doesn't want to spend the $500 or more on an outfit.

I once took a full-length yellow bridesmaid dress with its matching long gloves and high heeled shoes to a consignment shop at prom time for resale. Someone bought the gloves and shoes but not the dress.

My small high school had a formal Junior-Senior banquet but not a dance back in the day.

We had a School Ball when I was in the last year of high school, but it wasn't anything like what they do now, with fake tans, expensive dresses and sometimes even corsages (the latter definitely borrowed from the US). I had a long dress, but no fancy makeup, and the ball was held in the school hall. I seem to remember a chicken supper too :). Certainly no photographers either.

Since I went with the man who is now my husband, it was all very nice.

Kath, I don't know where corsages originated but I bought one about fifty years ago for my husband's "date" for a ball. She was a friend who kindly went with him when I had to work that evening! I got her a beautiful orchid as a thank you gift.

We used to wear a pin-on corsage ( which was always awkward for the poor guy to try to pin on us ! ) or wore a wrist corsage ( the best choice) or carried a lovely nosegay ( which was the worst of the choices since you really didn't know what to do with it ). The smell of a floral arrangement always reminds me of those corsages.

Although today the term corsage refers to any small bouquet of flowers that a woman wears,[5] the tradition of wearing them pinned to clothing dates as far back as Ancient Greece, when small bunches of fragrant flowers and herbs were worn at weddings to ward off evil spirits.[6] During the 16th and 17th centuries, corsages and boutonnieresmay have been a part of daily life to prevent disease and to ward off evil spirits, but over time, they became special-occasion pieces.[7]

The word corsage comes from the French term bouquet de corsage, meaning "a bouquet of the bodice" which was traditionally worn by women to weddings and funerals.[5] Eventually, the term shortened to corsage.[7] In the early 19th century, corsages were regarded as a courting gift and were often given at formal dances.[6] Traditionally, the gentleman would bring a gift of flowers for his date's parents and would select one of the flowers to give to his date, which would then be carried or attached to her clothing, usually on the shoulder.[6] During the 1950s, some corsages were made with fruit and would be seen on hats for decoration.[4] As dress styles changed, pinning the corsage to the dress became impractical, and wrist corsages became the norm.[6]

"pinning the corsage to the dress became impractical" You mean as in now there isn't much of a bodice there?

LOL, even when there was a shoulder area on the gown, the poor young guy would have to stick his hand in there to try to figure out how to pin on the corsage without spearing the girl or impaling himself......all while being watched over by the proud parents !!

Today you are lucky if there's much to these gowns at all......definitely strapless which is something that no one would ever dare to sport in my day ! To begin with we didn't have the 'goods' to hold it up and the MerryWidow bra could only do so much!