GHS Prom Caps a Brilliant Day, Weekend for the Pirates
Prom Background: The Prom remains alive in American culture today, but the Prom is much older than you think. It all started in 1928. Prom is short for promenade, “the formal, introductory parading of guests at a party.” It was originally an end of the year school dance at colleges and universities in the northeast to promote the social etiquette and manners in each graduating class. It’s as popular as ever today!
The annual Grants High School end of the school year Prom event took place outdoors last Saturday evening, May 7, underneath a huge, brilliant tent which was set up earlier in the day between the area outside the school and the football field. It was a gorgeous spring night with comfortable temperatures, a pleasant breeze, and eventually, as the evening wore on, bright stars and a half crescent moon shining their brilliance onto the school’s happy student gathering and surrounding campus.
The festivities took place inside the large tent, which had the atmosphere of a dream world. An iridescent backdrop with brilliant sparkling lights from above cast a mesmerizing spell on the proceedings. The theme was `Masquerade Prom’ with students wearing sparkling, colorful masks. Unlike the great masquerade dance in Edgar Allan Poe’s cryptic story, `The Masque of the Red Death,’ these students were masked in happiness and good times.
“It was a very lively night,” said GHS senior Noah Delgarito, who attended Prom with his date Raine Graham. Smiling, he went on, “At first early on, there were just a few people. Later, there were a lot of people. Everyone was really happy.”
Student Lexi Ortega was asked to describe the night and her attire. “My favorite part about prom was definitely seeing all my friends in pretty dresses and all of us dancing, and everyone having a good time,” she said. “I wore a gold, very glittery dress with a gold diamond mask to match the theme.”
Nickolas Montoya and Mia Apodaca were chosen Prom King and Queen later in the evening. It was, overall, a wonderful night which will be forever remembered by all those there.
And what a day it had been at GHS – perhaps one for the ages - as, earlier, the school’s baseball team clinched their best-of-three first round state tournament series with a 6-2 home victory over Bloomfield in the first round of the State playoffs.
GHS Vice-Principal Stevy Elkins, when asked during the baseball game how she was holding up on this action-packed day of school activities, smiled and said, “I’m feeling really stressed!”
Not surprising! She, along with co-Vice Principal Jacqueline Jones, were overseeing the day’s happenings. Later in the day, they, along with GHS Principal Lane Widner and Prom Coordinator Dominic Aragon, would oversee that night’s Prom event. There were also security personnel and teachers to help the day’s events go smoothly.
A day earlier, Friday, Cibola County public school employees arrived to Grants High to cele brate their annual `Teachers’ Appreciation Day’ in the school’s state of the art gym. Students had the day off! Later in the day, Pirates’ baseball, hosting its first-ever state playoff game, won in front of a large, vocal crowd. To top a brilliant three days, the Mother’s Day holiday was on Sunday.
BUT BACK to the Prom. Wow, how things have changed over the years, decades, and even further. Back in the day, annual springtime high school Proms throughout the country were in some ways - other than fashion styles and music - quite similar to today’s end-of-the-school year festive student dance. In the 1970’s, for example, high school couples looked quite dapper with the guys wearing a tux or formal suit and their lady partners in gorgeous, formal dresses. That has not changed, except for the more contemporary suits and dresses as fit students’ wishes.
In the past, as today, some couples have gone all out – hiring limousines - to escort them from home to Prom site in luxurious fashion.
Prom couples in past times struggled containing their emotions ranging from nervousness, excitement, and lost hours of sleep imagining what the big night would be like. That, also, has not changed.
Other similarities from Proms of the past and now include: nervous parents or guardians hoping their son or daughter will enjoy a dream Prom experience; parents taking pictures of the Prom couples prior to the big night; the evening’s charming, enchanting Prom night events (unlike the 1976 horror movie, `Carrie’, a story of a Prom that went oh, so wrong (SCARY!); and school security, administrative personnel, and teachers on hand to monitor the Prom, praying and hoping for the evening to go without a glitch.
What has changed? The modern social media forums, with most students equipped with their various iPhones, etc., set to record the magical night’s happenings and, often, sharing the highlights via Facebook, twitter, or Lord knows what else to spread the happiness. (This was not the case when Betty and Bob attended the 1952 Prom in, say, Anywhere, USA!) Students, with their modern technology, give Prom updates, video footage, and live, ongoing feeds so those not there with them – family and friends – can share the ongoing moments over the three hour or so event.
On Saturday, GHS Prom pictures and videos sprinkled their way throughout the Facebook communities and added to the celebratory atmosphere which spread across Grants: a nifty picture of Jakob Hawkins, attired in a sharp black suit, with brilliant red tie, and black Cowboy hat, with his date, Ashley Martinez Pena, wearing a black formal dress with red flowers. Hawkins might’ve reminded one of the great fictional gun slinger, `Shane.’
One Facebook caption, with pictures of Prom King Nick Montoya and Prom Queen Mia Apodaca, read: “Ladies and Gentleman! Your Class of 2022 Prom King and Prom Queen. …Nickolas and Mia. Congratulations.” Both, in Facebook pictures, sported their respective crowns on their heads. Nick was attired in a dark suit and Mia in a Maroon formal.
GHS Principal Lane Widner Facebooked a brief comment, “It’s prom night at GHS.” There were photos of the GHS Principal, with a dashing mask and a gray-black jacket over a blue collared shirt. The principal was definitely in the spirit of the evening.
And there was video footage of the selection of the Prom King and Queen. Inside the tent, students, some with dates and others among groups of friends, surrounded the Prom court couples and celebrated the moments leading up to the naming of Nick and Mia as King and Queen. Students were happy, spontaneous, vocal, and in their element during their grand moment – all in good spirits. Pirates Pride at its best!