Back When We Didn't Call Them 'Proms'

No, it was called a 'grad.'

You graduated from high school and you had a big party with your graduating class. I still call it a grad, even though my kids call it a 'prom.'

My kid's limo ride.

With the pandemic restrictions, our youngest daughter wasn't able to enjoy a large grad, but that didn't stop her and her closest high-school friends from organizing their own special evening. They all dressed to the nines, had a special dinner, and then enjoyed a limousine ride around the city, with a photographer in tow, before being dropped off at a downtown hotel for the evening.

(Everybody involved was fully vaxxed, in case you were wondering.)

The limo ride reminded me of my grad, in 1984. My school had organized a party in the revolving restaurant atop what is now the Marriott Hotel, and some friends and I had reserved a room, later, at the nearby Delta Suites.

To get to the grad, a few friends and I had rented a limo. The only photos that I have of that ride are from when the driver picked me up. My parents took a photo of me and my friends, plus the driver, in front of the limo before we pulled away.

L–R: Don, Rick, me, Neil, chauffeur.

With bottles of sparkling wine to help refresh us, as we drove around the city, I was pretty sauced by the time we arrived for dinner. I remember parts of the party in our hotel room—we had rented a small fountain that spouted Purple Jesus (alcool and grape Kool-Aid)—and I remember that when I had truly had my fill of alcohol, my brain told me to go home, so I walked from the downtown Ottawa core to Parkwood Hills, arriving at my front door just before sunrise.

How was your grad... or prom... whatever you called it?

Happy Thursday!