Believe It or Not: AHS Teachers Were Prom-Going Teens Once

They Had Prom Back Then?

Since the beginning of February, Purdom’s room has been filled  with girls looking for dresses online and guys browsing tuxedos and limo options in tandem. Searching and surfing they begin to obsess about the tiniest details: shoes, ties, hair options, earrings, and necklaces. Prom can cause quite the fuss. Will my dress match with my date’s tux? Are we renting a limo? Where do I get a corsage? All these questions and specifics are figured out for a night to be remembered.

Whether or not prom was the best night of one’s adolescence, it is definitely a night that is remembered. Though now chaperones at Albany High School proms, teachers also went to a magical night of their own during their coveted high school years.

“It was a lot of fun!” commented social studies teacher Kevin James, “Like Albany, I went to a school with kids I had been with most of my life so it was sort of funny to see everyone all dressed up for the big night.” James reminisced about his night at a Palo Alto country club as being “very 70s.”

Science teacher Darren McNally remarked similarly, “It was fun to see people in a different light.” McNally said his prom was at the height of the boy band craze and he remembers “not liking the prom music.”

He went to two proms— one with a date, and one without. “It was unusual to go without a date but not unheard of,” says McNally contrasting with James’ recollection that “you wouldn’t go without a date.”  However, now it’s common to go with a group of friends instead of a date.

P.E. teacher Kermit Bankson joked around about his age, saying, “World War I had just ended so prom was a great way to escape from reality.”

English and Social Studies teacher Corinne Berletti went to three proms throughout her high school years.  “Half of the fun is getting dressed up,” Berletti recalled and touched on how similar her high school experience was, “They basically played the same music—Usher, Destiny’s Child, Britney Spears—and the teachers got upset for shaking their groove thang.”

Teachers have been surprised how cleanly students have danced in the past years at prom because the usual dances moves at Albany High usually include “twerking” and other functions that may seem too sexual for the comfort of faculty and chaperones.

English teacher Juliet Chiarella contrasted her prom dancing to dancing she has seen at Albany High proms in the past: “The dancing is definitely more rowdy and there is a lot more contact between bodies,” said Chiarella, “Of course there is no scary Catholic dean watching over you guys.”

A possible reason for “cleaner” dancing at prom is due to the essential prom formal-wear. Although men’s formal attire hasn’t changed much through the years, (McNally commented that “every guy still wears that classic terribly fitted, rented tux”), girl’s dress styles have certainly changed and evolved with the times.

“I wore a pale yellow dress that was sheer on top and draped down the back.  Long dresses were definitely in,” said Chiarella as she remembered her senior prom at a hotel near San Francisco International Airport.

James also remembers his date’s dress as a “long floor-length dress” and “very similar to what all the other girls seemed to be wearing.”

McNally made the observation that Albany proms seem much less formal than how he remembers his prom. “A lot less gowns, a lot more cocktail dresses.”

It’s hard to imagine looking back at high school as a thing of the past. In ten years when you look back at prom pictures, feelings of quintessential teenage awkwardness may seep into your mind. Images of the evening may flash through your memory, and you’ll remember the countless hours spent planning the tiniest facets of the prom experience. Whether the reminiscing conjures feelings of excitement or dread, prom is a common experience that can tie together generations as a common high school tradition.

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Both Sophie Gabel-Scheinbaum and Xian Wong will attend college in Los Angeles next year. They hope to learn and tan.