No Dancin' in Anson

My youngest, Dillan is going to the PROM with Megan Massingill. Now growing up in Anson, Texas in the Bible Belt of Texas....20 miles north of Abilene where three Christian Colleges made their home, I was not privy to dancing. There was "no dancin' in Anson" and that meant there were no proms. That's right...none...zilch...nada...zero! There was an actual city ordinance that stated there would be no dancing within 100 yards (or feet I don't recall) of a church. The First Baptist Church shared the high school parking lot and the Church of Christ was across the street from the high school. Even though we had a Jr./Sr. Banquet, we were not allowed to have a prom. I had no idea how to dance...it was a sin! It was against the law! We always had our banquets in Abilene and it never occurred to us to have a PROM in Abilene! Once I moved to Hamilton, I realized there were REAL LIVE PROMS!!! These came complete with the Grand March where everyone within a 20 mile radius of Hamilton came to see who wore what and who went with whom! It was beyond my small town no-dancing belief!

Tonight Holly brought Megan's prom dress over so we could decide what type of tux/shirt/vest/tie Dillan should wear. It took me back in time to when my oldest kids started wanting to dance. It was quite a shock to me and I had no experience in the dancing process. So, I'll share my stories...........
My first experience with my child being tempted with dancing was when Derek was in the 7th grade. He had been invited by an older, taller, more developed (in my eyes) 8th grader. I wasn't ready for my little boy to go to these dances....my momma always told me that dancing led to sex and I wasn't at all ready for Derek to be tempted with sex! All I could imagine was my little 4ft. 9in. boy dancing with a 5ft. 4in. girl and her having her breast in his face as they danced the two-step. What would I do???? I couldn't allow him to be tempted this way, and much to my relief, he came to me one night telling me he really didn't want to go anyway. Such relief...he would not be tempted! I told him to tell her, "My mother wants me to wait until I'm in the 8th grade to go to the dance." Surely next year when he was an 8th grader there would be someone closer to his own height at least to dance with and part of the temptation would be diminished!

When Derek was a Junior in high school, he was dating a Senior and they went to the prom. I had no idea you had to order a tux! Luckily, I overheard someone talking and we got one ordered. What I didn't order was the corsage.....The day of the PROM, I happened to be in the flower shop and noticed that people were picking up corsages....Oh...crap....what had I NOT done??? I begged Jill to please whip up a corsage for Derek's date....which would have been just hunky dory if his date's mom hadn't come in to pick up Derek's boutonniere! Now this lady had grown up with proms and she had triplet daughters and lots of experience with PROM rituals! She was not happy with us because of our ignorance of the proper procedures of proms!
He made it and hopefully was not tempted!

Once Hillary got to High School, the girls all went to the "beauty shop" to get a makeover and an updo! I went to the beauty shop to check on her progress and before I left, I asked how much I owed....I could have sworn she said $15.00 so I left a check with Hillary and left. Moments later I got a call from a horrified Hillary...."Mom....it wasn't $15.00, it was $50.00!" Oh...crap...I thought again...I'm just not good with this prom stuff! I was terribly embarrassed!

By the time Cari got to High School, I had the prom procedure down. By this time Cari had figured out that you could order dresses off the Internet and that is just what she did. However, once her dress arrived, it was too big. We took it back to True Value so FedEx could ship it back and Holly told me she had a closet full of prom dresses that Cari was welcome to....Cari wasn't tempted. I'm thinking Holly was in High School in the late 80's and this was almost 20 years later! Hillary reminded me that Holly's mom, Della May had also offered Holly's prom dresses to her!

So, when Dillan came by telling me that he was taking Holly's daughter, Megan to the prom, the thought crossed my mind....Would Megan wear one of her mom's prom dresses???? I was told that Holly offered! But Megan found a beautiful black dress with a white halter top! So now we just have to get Dillan all duded up....black tux, black vest, white shirt, white tie and WHAT KIND OF SHOES DID YOU SAY DILLAN? Black Converse???? I'm sure they'll look great when put together...along of course with red rose wristlet for Megan and a red boutonniere for Dillan.

So...needless to say this momma has come a long way. And I've learned that dancing DOES NOT lead to sex!