{"id":523,"date":"2012-05-20T14:29:20","date_gmt":"2012-05-20T18:29:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/?p=523"},"modified":"2017-11-01T19:44:50","modified_gmt":"2017-11-01T23:44:50","slug":"prom-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/prom-night\/","title":{"rendered":"Prom Night!"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The 1914 Senior Promenade, at the Easthampton Town Hall (1914 Log)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It’s prom night — another senior class milestone.\u00a0 At Williston Northampton, informal tradition has our students dressed and milling around the quad an hour or more before they need to leave for the event.\u00a0 Being seen is essential.\u00a0 I know one parent who is driving considerable distance just to view her son in a tux.\u00a0 Some of us middle aged types are content simply to marvel at how well our kids clean up.<\/p>\n

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The 1939 Northampton School prom. Photo by Erik Stahlberg.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The date of the first Williston Seminary senior promenade is unknown, but the tradition goes back at least to 1902.\u00a0 No decorated gymnasium or road trip to the Log Cabin in those days — the Easthampton Town Hall, right across the street from the Old Campus, had a ballroom.\u00a0 Northampton School for Girls held their first prom at the Hotel Northampton in 1939.<\/p>\n

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Another view of the prom. Attributed to Caroline Gavin Arnold ’47; donated by Kathryn Wood Lamb ’47.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A colleague recently wondered whether, for all that it is a rite of passage for thousands of high school students, most people have happy memories of their senior proms.\u00a0 I have no opinion.\u00a0 In my senior year, 1970, the Williston Academy prom was canceled because of a student strike.\u00a0 (That’s a topic for another post.)\u00a0 The 1947 cartoon at left suggests that memories may be mixed.\u00a0 But I recall a Reunion Weekend conversation a few years ago.\u00a0 I’d identified a returning alumnus with his date in a prom photograph and showed it to him.\u00a0 “Wow,” he said.\u00a0 For a moment, there was a distant look in his eyes.\u00a0 “I wish I could remember her name.”<\/p>\n

Your comments and questions are encouraged!\u00a0 Please use the space below.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s prom night — another senior class milestone.\u00a0 At Williston Northampton, informal tradition has our students dressed and milling around the quad an hour or more before they need to leave for the event.\u00a0 Being seen is essential.\u00a0 I know one parent who is driving considerable distance just to view her son in a tux.\u00a0 … Continue reading Prom Night!<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[453,12,43,25],"tags":[81],"class_list":["post-523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-student-life","category-williston-academy","category-williston-northampton-school","category-williston-seminary","tag-prom"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=523"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2666,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523\/revisions\/2666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}