Crow at the Prom

Who in the hell is that saucy teenager in the slinky red dress and recycled squinty-eyed boyfriend?

During the summer before starting high school, I met Steve Z at an inter-city religious youth group weekend event. We had each already peeled away from our city delegations and gone cruising for trouble.

Steve came from Detroit. He was one of 7 kids - 6 boys and 1 girl. As we got to know each other a bit better, I also developed mad crushes on at least two of his brothers. I don’t think I ever “seriously” dated anyone in my hometown. Steve was a very good sport about being imported once a year or so to escort me to some youth group
wingding or Junior Prom.

I was perpetually the rebel without a clue. Most days were spent in patched-on-patches pegleg jeans from Salvation Army (at the height of the bellbottom craze) and either homemade blouses or reworked vintage blouses. It would be fair to say I had a unique style, and even in a school of 2,000 or so students, I could not recede completely.

So every once in a while, just to keep folks guessing, I would deign to attend a school function, usually importing Steve for the occasion.

Here I am(far left) in a saucy black & white houndstooth print dress; yes, talk about daring! A mile from mod-a-go-go. I dressed it up with a red cloche and a big black belt that featured a buckle covered by a big red suede apple. Could ya just die? Who's too cool for words?

And now...it's almost too much to believe but here's the proof (left): surrounded by a sea of pastel flounces, I wore black to my spring prom. I don't know why Steve isn't in the pics; I'm sure he was my date to both events.