High School is sure a lot more fun now

UncleScoopy

MT. CLEMENS HIGH SCHOOL STRIPPER PARTY (VIDEO)

I hate to be that “back in my day” guy, but the most exciting thing that ever happened in our gym is when they decorated it with cardboard lances, papier-mache armor and assorted King Arthur fol-de-rol for the “Camelot” prom. King Arthur was appropriate because our sports teams were the Kings, and our spirit animal was (oddly enough) Bea Arthur.

Kidding aside, when JFK died the country kinda went Camelot-crazy. That musical was a big hit on Broadway, and Kennedy really got caught up in the Arthurian idealism. He styled his cabinet as the figurative round table, and referred to his Presidential administration as Camelot. Sadly, Lee Harvey Oswald never foresaw the worst possible consequence of his action – that a grief-stricken America Would allow Robert Goulet to sing “If Ever I would Leave You” on every variety show for another twenty years.

As for the wild action at the prom that night …

When the chaperones/DJs got really crazy, they played a soft-rock song instead of the usual Jerry Vale tunes. It was utter mayhem, I tells ya. Why, some of the older, more sexually experienced guys even moved their hips when they danced, shocking the teachers and parents who were monitoring our every move.

6 thoughts on “High School is sure a lot more fun now”

  1. I think it is pretty clear that all the young people are having a lot more fun now. Being around in the so called “now we’re conservative again” 80s was hell. That conservative bullshit was forced upon us, we sure as hell didn’t want it. I tell the younger generation to push ahead with whatever you want. Fuck any institutions that try to tell you otherwise. They just want to control you.

  3. I skipped my own high school prom. But I taught at a high school for 3 years in the mid aughts. I didn’t go the prom there either. But the day before Thanksgiving we would have a potluck banquet. We couldn’t fit all the kids in the cafeteria at the same time. So while half of the kids were downstairs in the cafeteria, the other half were in the gym dancing. Teachers in Catholic schools will tell kids who are dancing too closely together: Leave some room for the Holy Spirit! Mostly it was the girls dancing with each other and they weren’t leaving any room for the Holy Spirit. One of my colleagues told me “I used to have to pay to see girls dance like that.”

  5. Regarding Bea Arthur, it’s pretty much entirely forgotten, but before her All in the Family hit spinoff, there was a brief failed attempt at a spinoff with that character in which she played the boss of a group of young counter culture police officers: The Maude Squad.

    Unique at the time, the show had no theme music, but the Chief of Police went around the building describing to a VIP what would become The Maude Squad’s case for the show. At the end, the Chief and the VIP ended up in front of the Bea Arthur character with the chief saying “…And then there’s Maude.”

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