Oh, I can deplore and emote, too, especially when I have drink taken. However, a life of baby-care and other household triviality gives a lot of time for thought: I often compose long posts while nursing or cleaning up ... and then come back to find that someone else thought of the same thing faster ;-).
I think the time for “proms” and other formal dances has come and gone. At one time, formal-dress social events with dancing were a fairly common feature of adult life, even for the working class. Fraternal societies had balls, as did all military organizations, both for officers and for career enlisted people. My parents went to one or two a year, in the 1960s and 70s.
However, this is no longer typical. My husband and I haven’t been to a formal dance in 23 years of marriage, although he’s muttering about a “Regatta Ball” this fall, and I suggest he take Elen, since I have a baby. Most parents of today’s teenagers never attend formal dances, and neither will their children. Those of the class who do go to regatta balls or hunt balls (like my cousins on the “better than you” side of the family) take their adolescent children to these events at an appropriate age. High school proms certainly don’t provide the children of Pinehurst or Lexington “society” with their social training.
A lot of money is spent that neither school systems nor most families can afford to waste, and opportunity is provided for media grandstanding that does nobody any good.
True.
True.
True.
True.
True.