Christi and I attended Prom on April 21, 1990 – exactly one month after our baby Ashleigh was born. It was a great night and Christi looked stunning (of course, it didn’t hurt that she was nursing Ashleigh, and thus carrying a ‘fuller’ figure than normal). We began our evening with a nice dinner alone at a local Kettering Chinese restaurant called Keeng Wha – long gone now. At the previous prom, we had gone with a group of friends, but this time Christi talked me into doing the driving…and driving my Mom’s cool red Firebird at that.
We were done with dinner by about 8:30 pm and arrived at the Wampler Ballarena, an adjunct to the Hara Arena exhibition hall, at about 9:10. We got our photographs taken and walked around and worked the crowd. My friend Rusty and I got immediately sidetracked by trying to tie helium balloons on other guys’ coattail buttons. We hung around for a couple of hours, dancing and snacking and acting goofy.
We left at about 11:15 pm and headed over to Rusty’s house and then to the hotel room (Arbor Gate in Xenia) that he and his date (later wife) Brenda had reserved. We changed our clothes there and stayed around for a bit watching TV before we headed out to the school-organized After Prom festivities. They had one of those ‘phony money’ gambling casino’s going and I won about $6000 in fake-bills that I redeemed for a teddy bear for Christi and some various coupons.
We had a good time and then headed back to my place at about 4:30 am. We watched Nick at Nite, drank some non-alcoholic champagne and talked through the night. Eventually, we fell asleep and I took Christi home in the morning after we stopped at Burger King.
Naturally, amidst the excitement, she (and I) forgot to call and check in on Ashleigh, who was being babysat by Christi’s Mom. Of course, she was berated for that and grounded for two weeks, which left a slight damper on the whole affair. Of course, these days only the happy times and excitement of the evening stand out in my memory – and the rest we can just chalk up to the pitfalls of having a baby while in high school. As difficult as things could be at times, there is no one with whom I would have rather spent this period of my life other than Christi.
Our good friends Sean Welsh, Jennifer Crum, Mike Minges, and Jackie Moore at the prom
Since Christi saved the Prom program, I now know that my senior colors were royal blue and silver, the flower was a white rose, the class song was “Dreams” by Van Halen, and the prom theme song was “Without You” by Motley Crue.
More Prom photos here.
Gosh, my Mom grounded me for everything, didn’t she?
christi
January 3rd, 2007
I would never give up those years with you either…they were wonderful…and hold a very special place in my heart…
christi
January 3rd, 2007