Poosey Digest: Prom priorities

Jeff Washburn was one of the finest young men to come out of our local high school. Intelligent, witty, and caring aren’t words necessarily associated with teenagers, but Jeff was the sort of boy whom everyone would have gladly adopted as their own son.

Jeff’s family was far from affluent and when it came time for college it was his hard work alone that secured enough scholarship money to get him a degree. But it was something he did while still in high school that put his name forever in the memory books of Poosey.

Jeff didn’t date much. He couldn’t afford it, and besides, he was busy. His hours were spent detasseling corn and bucking hay bales. If Jeff was going to drive his car to town he was going to pay for the gas himself. When he did start to date he did it on the cheap but spectacular. Not many dates get treated to the thrill of going through the McDonald’s drive-up backwards, then dining in a bass boat. Jeff was creative.  He avoided the extravagantly priced graduation announcements and wrote on his own. His father snapped his graduation pictures and then had prints made at a discount store. To my recollection, his was the only senior picture I’ve ever received of the graduate hanging upside-down from an oak tree, dressed in a zoot suit and fedora. 

When it came time for prom, Jeff had the choice of spending his money on his date or putting it toward college. Jeff chose wisely. Jeff chose wonderfully.

The young lady Jeff asked to prom was completely taken by Jeff’s wacky and sensible ways. She gladly accepted his invitation to an afterschool date at the Goodwill Store where each of them picked out their prom outfits with the agreement that neither would spend over twenty bucks for the entire outfit.

But here’s where the story takes an even more remarkable turn. Jeff was a popular guy at Poosey High, and greatly admired by his classmates. He casually mentioned his frugal prom plans to his buddies at lunch hour one day and before you could say “boutonniere,” most of the senior class had decided to join Jeff and his lady friend on what sounded like a truly unique prom experience.

Most of the senior class turned up at the local thrift shop one night and from what I heard, they had more fun trying on used clothing than most kids have at prom itself. What they couldn’t buy for practically nothing they borrowed. When Jeff’s date asked him how they were getting to prom, he just smiled and said, “Have you ever ridden on a John Deere?”

On the night of prom, the entire senior class stopped at the local deli to buy sandwich makings and their “formal dinner” was on the grassy banks of a local lake. The lawns in Poosey were in flower by that time and no one seemed to mind the small army of young men and women walking hand in hand down the streets, taking their pick from the front yards.

I have no idea how many proms our little high school has hosted over the years, but I know the only one that anybody remembers. When the class gathers every five years for their reunion, “our prom” is the topic still foremost in their memories. They last met in 2010 and someone brought up the cost of today’s prom. Being a bit more financially flush than they were in the 1980’s, the class took up a collection, each donating what they figured to be the money they’d saved. The collection went to our local food pantry.

The folks at Visa released a survey last week, stating that the cost for an individual prom-goer this year will average $1078. That’s up a two hundred bucks form last year. I’m not making this up…One thousand and seventy-eight bucks for goods and services that will either be rented or wilted by the next morning. If your little darling is from the Northeast it averages $2000 with most Midwest families getting off the most cheaply at a bargain basement $696.

Dresses, tuxedos, hair styling, nails, tanning, jewelry, shoes, and flowers are just a part of it. Kit Yarrow, a marketing and psychology professor who recently co-authored a book on teenage buying said that, “In really affluent households, the parents, in a way, use their kids to proclaim their stature to other parents.” And what better way to tell the world who you are than with a Super Stretch limo at $125 an hour or a Stretch SUV for $142?

For what it’s worth, Jeff eventually married his prom date and they’re now parents of two kids who know a lot about proms…and priorities.

You ever ’round Poosey, stop by. We may not answer the door but you’ll enjoy the trip.