h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Well, she's off!

My daughter just left for dinner, and then the homecoming dance with her date (and her date's mother - who is driving as they are both two young to drive without a parent in the car!)

And I must say, she was just lovely! She had her hair done in an up-do, a black dress with flecks of gold and speghetti straps, a black crystal necklace and drop earrings. Her date brought her a lovely ivory rose wrist corsage. She looked like she was 25 and not 14


So I'll just sit here and wait until she comes home to hear all about it!

14?!

What's she gonna do for the next dozen or so formal dances - I mean it sounds like she's already gone all out for the first one!

What??!! You're allowing her to date before marriage? What's with that?

I went driving through Foxboro and Wrentham this afternoon
on my way to the factory outlet store. I noticed
that a lot of the trees are starting to turn color.
Very pretty!

I went to my first formal dance when I was 14 ... we got a lovely gown at a second-hand store. Of course, I didn't have a date.

Well she borrowed the dress from my niece (who is 4 years older, was a cheerleader and had about 20 formal dresses)so we only had to pay for the hair today.

how did it go?

Let me see if I have this straight, Michele:
Your niece, who is 18, has 20 formal dresses?
Is she an aspiring model or something?
Or does she live at Tara?

No, she was cheerleader, and very pretty, so besides having dates for every homecoming and prom dance, she also had two cheerleading formals a year. So four formals a year she attended (two mandatory). And you know how it is, you can never wear the same dress to the same school event twice...

And my daughter had a wonderful time. Her date took her to a really nice italian restaurant. However they were both so nervous that they only ordered small salads Then when they got to the dance, she found out that he can't dance (and she loves to). But they had fun, and that's the whole point!

I've worn the same dress to formals for years, it was a floopy one if I recall...

the whole concept of formal dances like this is entirely alien to me...

Really? They don't have formal dances in what you consider high school (grades 9-12, ages 14-18 here) over there?

Homecoming is the dance after the big football game every year. Prom is usually reserved for Juniors and Seniors (11th & 12th grades) only, unless you are invited by one of the Juniors or Seniors.

I thing Plastic Squirrel, that your flooopy dress was probably considered lovely by all the other squirrels at the Nut Ball.

Their school system is a good bit different from ours...

I think their "high school" only goes through age 16 (please correct me if I'm wrong ), then they have 2 years of "college" which are essentially equivalent to our last 2 years of high school. What we normally refer to generically as "college" is always referred to as University (uni) over there... and even that's different since they don't have general ed requirements for graduation, so most degrees can be completed in 3 years.

I know someone on hootoo told me that they don't do proms at all over there, and I suspect the idea of homecoming is foreign to them too, so the idea of formal dances might not exist either. Of course, I'm so ancient that when *I* was in high school, the homecoming dance was only *semi*formal, as was the Christmas dance too.

It's true, we don't do homecoming (I don't even know what the it means) nor did we do Formal dances when i was at school, however, my stepkids appear to be doing this sort of thing a lot. I blame sucky american teen-movies for this recent rash of dumb ideas in schools over here.

Homecoming is a weekend in the fall when the school's almumni are supposed to return to their alma mater. It's a chance to get together with old friends you haven't seen since you graduated and all went your separate ways, as well as attend a football (american football, that is) game and root for your school's team. The dance held homecoming weekend is usually limited to only the current students at the school, although the graduates will probably hold their own banquets or parties that weekend.

I went to one or two homecoming dances in high school, but I've never gone to homecoming, not even for college (uni), even though from what I understand, it is a wonderfully fun weekend.

Oh quitcher whining PS! You're just cranky cause you might have to go out and buy a new floopy dress!

I was involved in NJROTC (Naval Junior Reserved Officer Training Course) in high school, and we also had one or two formals a year.
When I was in college, the fraternity that my boyfriend was in also had a formal dance every year, so did the dorm that I was living in.

I always thought it was fun. But then again most of us made our dresses then. Then you'd have to let your date know what color dress you were wearing, so that the corsage he bought for you wouldn't clash. And you'd have to find out what color suit he had on so that the boutoniere you got for him didn't clash. Some people went as far as the guy's shirt coordinated with the color of the girls dress.

It's *very* important for that ruffled tux shirt to match your gown!

Three points (well, four or five, actually )

1. When I first saw Michele's post, I thought
NJROTC was NEUROTIC. I can relate to that. Then
I realized there was an NJ in there, so I expected
it to be an insulting remark about NJ(New Jersey),
as in N.J. Rots.

2. Plastic Squirrel, you're a fine one to talk about
other people's dumb ideas. In another thread, you
revealed that you don't like nuts. Aw, come on!
Not liking nuts is a very dumb idea for a squirrel,
unless you're just tryinh to be *different,* which
I could respect, I guess.

3. Admittedly I'm not qualified to comment on women's
attire because of genderical reasons, but still....
I don't think dresses are very practical, especially
in cold climates. Why don't teenage girls go to proms
in purple spandex slacks covered with spangles and glitter?
Standards of taste are so low in America (and will go even
lower if they lock Martha Stewart away), who bother to
pretend to be glamorous?

4. England does, indeed, have proms. I listen to them
on the radio sometimes. Sarah Walker singing "Rule, Britannia"
is a hoot! The Proms is a very fine set of concerts.

What kind of highschool teaches classes in "neurotic"

My highschool years were a study in neurotic, actually ...