Prom, then and now

He stepped outside, away from the crowded dance floor and felt the cool North Bay winds rush toward him. He looked across the water and at the San Francisco skyline, which stretched around the bay and into the night. The view from the boat was magnificent. The year was 2000, and it was the night of English teacher Erick Rector’s senior prom.

Prom has been a part of high school life since the late 1800s. From big hair to sleek tresses and from limos to buses, prom has undergone a remarkable transformation over the years. While today senior prom is a night of activities, a few years ago, it was nothing but a dance.

Rector remembers how his own senior prom did not have “a lot to do [besides dance]” and wishes that proms back then had been more like proms today.

This year’s senior prom, which will be at AT&T Park, will have tours of the baseball field. Rector was disappointed with the absence of such luxuries at his own prom on a boat in San Francisco, but admits that he enjoyed his prom nonetheless.

Rector went to his senior prom with his then-girlfriend. At that time, students felt no pressure to find elaborate ways of asking their peers to prom, Rector said.

Students rarely bought bouquets of flowers for their potential dates, much less designed and created posters.

“We didn’t have to construct a scene from ‘Glee’ to ask someone to prom,” Rector said.

The school’s prom was also much cheaper than it is now. Tickets for Rector’s senior prom cost only around $65, as opposed to prices nowadays, which often run upwards of $100. Rector attributes the low prices to his senior class’s fundraising.

“We really worked hard as a class to fundraise,” Rector said. To raise money, his class held events like car washes and lobster dinners.

Like these days, many underclassmen were asked to prom.

“I got asked to prom multiple times [when I was an underclassman],” Rector recalls, “but my mom would not let me go.”

On the night of his senior prom, Rector was “decked out to the nines,” dressed in white tuxedo and a purple vest to match his date’s dress.

“I was so fresh, so clean,” Rector said.

He and his date drove to prom, as most students did at the time, but Rector wishes that students had gone on buses, as they do now. Rector believes that buses, while expensive, are “a lot safer.”

“[Prior to my prom], there were a lot of students who were making unwise decisions,” Rector said, referring to underage drinking before driving. Currently, this is not as large of an issue as students are escorted to their proms in buses.

Once on the boat, some students started to get seasickness. They made their way to the top of the boat escorted by former assistant principal Karen Hyde.

Two floors below, students were stuffing their faces with desserts and, of course, dancing. But Rector spent most of his time away from the dance floor, catching up with friends and socializing. Instead of dancing, as most students were, Rector “was running around the dance floor and taking photos with classmates.”

“I just remember it being a blast!” Rector said.

Six years later, in 2007, drama and English teacher Sarah Thermond got ready for her own senior prom, a Parisian-themed event hosted at The Fairmont San Jose. Thermond went with her college-going boyfriend at the time, who asked her to prom with a classic bouquet of roses.

The trend of more elaborate prom askings had started when Thermond was going to prom. Classmates of Thermond opted for more detailed ways of asking their potential prom dates.

“I had a friend tell me that he stole his ask idea from the movie ‘10 Things I Hate About You,’ and got the band to serenade the girl,” Thermond said. “I thought [that] was pretty cool.”

Unlike Rector’s prom prices, the prices for Thermond’s prom were in today’s price range. Thermond, who got her tickets earlier than most of her classmates, paid somewhere between $150 and $200.

Thermond admits that her prom was not as “exciting and glamorous” as proms are nowadays.

“I feel like there wasn’t a lot to do other than eat and dance,” Thermond said. “I would say that I’m pretty jealous of current proms.”

Yet, she and her classmates did enjoy many of the same traditions as prom-goers today do, including pre-prom photo shoots. Prior to prom, Thermond and her date went to an informal photo shoot at a friend’s house.

“At one point, [my friend’s] dad got all of the boys into a human pyramid, “ Thermond said. “That was pretty fun.”

Thermond believes that, for the most part, her prom preparations went smoothly.

“I did consider changing my dress at the last minute,” Thermond said. “It’s a good thing my friends talked me out of it, because my date had bought the most perfectly matching tie possible.”

The couple looked picture-perfect, ready for a photo-filled night. Even at Thermond’s prom, before the word “selfie” had edged its way into dictionaries across the web, teens were prone to taking myriads of self-portraits, Thermond said.

Drowning out the “clicks” of these photo-snappers was music from artists like Fergie and Gnarls Barkley.

“I think we also got the DJ to play some old Britney Spears and ‘90s boy bands like N’Sync and Backstreet Boys,” Thermond said.

All in all, Thermond said that, for the most part, her prom was very conventional.

“Aside from the drama kids swing dancing [at prom], it was what you would expect from a high school dance,” Thermond said. “Everyone was just a lot more dressed up.”