I wasn’t much of a prom goer, but I did go to the Assumption Prep (now defunct Catholic boys school) senior prom with a guy from the ‘hood I was friendly with. He was plenty smart, funny and nice enough. I went out with him a couple of times – whenever he needed a date. But there was no “like” there. (As it turns out, P was gay – a category that we were not generally aware of in 1966. Sadly, he died pretty young, I believe by suicide after losing his partner to AIDS. At least he got out of Worcester and found his way to San Francisco.)
In keeping with the practice of the time of borrowing the title of a popular song, the theme of the prom was Cast Your Fate to the Wind. Since we were all such sophisticated wits, our big yuck was rebranding the theme. At our table, at least, the theme was Cast Your Faith to the Wind. Which I’m guessing was precisely what happened within the next couple of years to at least half of the young folks sitting at that table at The Yankee Drummer Inn eating rubber chicken.
(In case you’re wondering, I wore a pale pink dotted Swiss empire waist gown and white patent leather flats, as P was my height and it just wasn’t done for the girl to be taller than the boy. I carried what was known as a colonial bouquet, with pink sweetheart roses, baby’s breath and a paper doily. Very sweet, as was P, especially in retrospect, as the entire event must have been torture for him. P wore a very pretty blue batik dinner jacket.)
Proms – at least back in the day, at least when you went to a prom at a boys school – featured a favor for the girls. Our was a tiger pajama bag. Pajama bags, for those unfamiliar with this particular item, was like a stuffed animal. Only unstuffed and with a zipper. When you got out of bed in the morning, you’d tuck your PJs into the bag and prop it in the middle of your bed.
I never used the tiger PJ bag, as it was a strident yellow-orange color, which clashed with my bedspread. I think my (much) younger sister Trish used it – maybe as a toy, stuffed with nylons.
When our table wasn’t repeating the Cast Your Faith to the Wind witticism, we made sly jokes about how suggestive a pajama bag was, what with the extraordinarily slight whiff of “sex” associated with PJs and beds. Racy stuff!
I hadn’t thought about that tiger in years. That is, until a Florida high school decided that it was a good idea to have a caged tiger at their prom.
The theme of this year’s Christopher Columbus High (like Assumption Prep, an all-boys Catholic school) was “Welcome to the Jungle.” So why not liven things up?
The prom, hosted at a hotel near Miami International Airport, featured several animals including a caged tiger, a lemur, two macaws and an African fennec fox. (Source: USA Today)
While this sounds like the kind of brain-dead idea that a bunch of high school boys might come up with, it seems that it was school staff who planned the event.
No word on the other animals – did the lemur leap? did the macaws caw? – but it’s reported that the tiger paced throughout the dance. Imagine the agitation on the part of all these animals, being subjected to loud music, flashing lights, and a couple hundred sweaty noisy kids jumping around (at least some of whom were some sort of high).
According to statements sent to multiple local outlets, Christopher Columbus High School said the tiger was never in danger or forced to perform, and handlers were with the animal at all times.
I read somewhere else that there were also two police officers on hand, just in case the tiger managed to free itself from its cage. How wonderful it would have been to have cops firing at a powerful, wild, hell-bent-on-escape tiger, in a venue replete with loud music, flashing lights, and a couple hundred sweaty noisy kids jumping around. Not to mention a no-doubt agitated leaping lemur and a couple of wildly cawing macaws. (I don’t know what an African fennec fox might have been up to. Probably no good.) Now that would have been a prom experience to remember. A lot more interesting than tittering about a pajama bag or jadedly re-quipping, “Cast Your Faith to the Wind.”
The school’s statement is posted on their website as Prom 2018 Statement.
As a school community, we regret the decision to have had live animals at our prom. This incident in no way reflects our school’s Marist values and/or accomplishments of our young men nor our sensitivity to animal rights. We will immediately evaluate our current policies and procedures regarding all school activities and events. We can assure the Columbus community and all who have expressed concern, that we are sorry. We have learned a great deal from this experience.
I’ll just bet you’ve “learned a great deal from this experience.” What else are proms for?
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