Barely Legal

Last night I went to prom.

Fortunately, even though I'm less than 3 weeks from turning 30, there is absolutely no chance I'll be brought up on chargers regarding anything remotely (under)age-related.

That's cause I was at the Beachland Ballroom prom.

Nevertheless, despite the large amounts of booze in clear sight and the innumerable hipster tattoos, this prom seems a lot like the proms from back in high school.

Actually, I never went to prom. I went to plenty of Homecomings and Winter Balls and the like, but never prom. Too much money and during my junior and senior year I never happened to have a girlfriend at the time of the dance, thus requiring my promenadal presence.

In fact, that came up in conversation last night, as my date and I were grooving to the sounds a fantastic James Brown cover. She asked if our date made up for not going to prom in high school. The knee-jerk answer was: "Yes!" but on further reflection, it was the correct answer, too. I mean, I picked her up from work, went back to her place, presented her with her corsage (custom-made by the charming guys at Out on the Street on Lorain near W. 25th), got dressed up in semi-dressy fun stuff ransacked from the parts of closets so dark they'd be perfect for growing mushrooms, then stopped at the Grovewood for a nice dinner I could actually afford, then went to the Beachland for a bit to talk and dance and laugh.

All in all, it was a blast. Especially with the Beachland Ballroom location, which is the perfect place to have a somewhat ironic formal dance event. Irony aside, it was a great chance to get dressed up, to abandon the pretensions to coolness one often sees (and brings) at local shows, work up a sweat dancing to great cover songs performed awesomely by local acts. Once you get out of high school, those institutionalized opportunities to do special things with your S.O. become pretty rare, other than the odd grand-scale wedding.

So anyway, next year, check it out.