Senior Prom

AH, the senior prom! I remember some of the details of my prom, but some, I guess, are better forgotten.There was the $100 dress. (I think it used to be blue, but it's hard to tell after eight years.) Oh, and the $50 portrait package.I remember Mike picked me up in his 1970-something Chevette. We got chased around the house by Dad with his Polaroid, exchanged some overpriced flowers (which were drooping by the time we arrived), threw some newspapers on the seat to fTC keep the grease off the $100 dress and took off for the big event.

Ugly holiday sweaters are bad enough. But ugly holiday sweater cookies ? Isn't that taking things a bit too far? Apparently not for Bel Air High and MICA alums Brennen and Zoe Lukas, whose perhaps-too-colorful Christmas confections were spotlighted on NBC's "Today" show this morning. During a segment on gifts under $30, "style expert" Lilliana Vazquez gave the cookies a quick shout-out. "How cute are these cookies?" Vazquez gushed, noting they were available in both Christmas and Hanukkah themes.

OWEN BROWN Middle School pupils held a senior prom last week, complete with music, dancing and food. But one detail made this prom different from most - the seniors at this gala were senior citizens from the Owen Brown Senior Center Plus program. Thursday's event was a celebration of friendship between the senior citizens and a group of about 20 pupils who has been visiting the senior center twice a month for crafts, games and conversation since the fall. "It's fun to help other people.

Mary T. McMullen, a Millersville special education teacher and athletics booster, died Friday at University of Maryland Medical Center of scleroderma after a lengthy illness. She was 64. Mary Wissel was born March 14, 1948, in Baltimore and raised in Catonsville. She attended Seton High School in Baltimore, where she played on the girls basketball team - including a few games at the Baltimore Civic Center, where she was thrilled to play on the same court as her favorite professional team, the Baltimore Bullets.

It's nearing the end of the school year, and seniors are anxiously awaiting the arrival of prom night. But the real senior prom is taking place at the Meridian Nursing Center on Hammonds Lane.As part of National Nursing Home Week's "Celebration of Quality," residents will have their version of a prom from 6:30 to 8:30 tonight.Music, dancing, refreshments and date pictures will provide entertainment and new prom memories. Residents, families and volunteers are invited to attend. We wish everyone a wonderful evening!

Mayor Alfred A. Hopkins will be the host at a "Senior Prom for the Young at Heart" from 6 to 10 p.m. May 8 at Loew's Annapolis Hotel, 126West St.During the first hour, the senior audience will be able to participate in a drug education session, called "Managing Medications." All those interested who bring their medications in a "brown bag" will receive an informal consultation from volunteer pharmacists from the Annapolis area and the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy.From 7 to 10 p.m., the red carpet will be rolled out fine cuisinewill be served -- a choice of chicken or a seafood entree.

Margaret Faya surveyed the dance floor crowded with people of all ages doing the cha-cha, the hokey-pokey and generally having a great time. At 86, she says she can't dance because of arthritis and osteoporosis. But that didn't stop her from joining the merriment as the Goldenaires blasted big-band tunes at the Bain Center. "I can shake up top," she said, lifting her arms in the air and moving her upper body to the music. "I think this is wonderful." About 100 senior citizens and 60 or so students from local high schools turned an ordinary Wednesday afternoon into a celebration, as they danced, talked and ate during the annual Senior Prom.

Tena Michalski was excited. It was the night of the senior prom, and she had waited for this for a long time.Although there was no limousine ride to the dance or large mirrored balls sending sparkling glimmers around the room, the rest of the trappings were in place: the blue and white streamers, the band, the fancy dresses.It still wasn't quite like most senior proms. For one thing, most of the seniors attending had silver hair and were in wheelchairs. And Tena Michalski, 76, hadn't been in high school for almost six decades.

The women were decked out in their best dresses, corsages and a few hats - one was white with black polka dots accompanied by a matching outfit. The men wore suits and military uniforms. They danced, they talked, they ate and they laughed as teens from Atholton High School mingled with residents of Sunrise Assisted Living Community at the fourth Senior Senior Prom. "It really and truly connects the circle of life," said JoAnn Dols, director of community relations for Sunrise, where residents range in age from 29 to 99. The prom is one of several academic and social activities each year involving Atholton students and Sunrise residents as part of an intergenerational partnership program between the two institutions.

The jazz band played a swing number. Couples spun and swirled on the dance floor beneath the white twinkle lights strung from the ceiling of the Seton Keough High School cafeteria. And Mary Koch wasn't about to sit there at her table, sipping Shasta. She had broken her neck in an elevator accident last year, but that wasn't going to stop her. At 95, Koch was attending her first prom. She took the hand of the director of admissions at her retirement home, twirled around, shimmied her hips and swung her blue pleated skirt to show a little more leg. Growing up in Locust Point, Koch had quit school at 14 to take a job in a sugar factory.

We may have bigger problems than being fans of "The Bachelor" series, watching it every week and writing this blog. "The Bachelor Pad" is now consuming our random thoughts. Questions like, "do these people have full time jobs?" come to mind while I'm in the shower. Chris thinks on the toilet, "how can I become a luxury brand consultant?" After a serious debate of these questions and more, we're still perplexed as to why grown-ass men and women taking part in reality television (when less than a million dollars and/or a recording contract is on the line)

From the satin to the sequins to the dyed-to-match shoes and wrist corsages, prom sticks in our memories like Aqua-Net in an up-do. The hiking up of strapless gowns. The leafing through dress ads in Seventeen magazine. The saving-up for a limo. The anxiety over finding a date. So many photographs out on the lawn. On the threshold of prom season, when The Baltimore Sun started asking prominent Baltimore women about their proms, not a single one had forgotten that night. Even after decades.

Linda and David Stepp of Manchester believe some things are just meant to be -- like their marriage of 45 years. "We're both residents of Manchester. We grew up in the same house, but at different times. And we were both hired by Black & Decker in the same month on the same day, but [in] different years," said Linda Stepp, 63. "I really think we were meant to be together when you think of all the coincidences," she said. David Stepp joked that he would sit in front of her house in a 1958 Chevy.

The couple sat at a table in the back of the gymnasium at Havre de Grace High School, which was decorated for the prom in pink, black and white. Linda wore a new two-piece, knee-length turquoise dress, while Art donned a charcoal-gray suit with a light-blue chambray shirt. The school's jazz band struck up a familiar song, inspiring Art to rise and extend a hand to Linda. "Once the music starts, we start dancing and that is where you can find us all night long," Art said as he led Linda onto the dance floor, where they glided and spun amid the colorful flurry of other dancers.

Margaret Faya surveyed the dance floor crowded with people of all ages doing the cha-cha, the hokey-pokey and generally having a great time. At 86, she says she can't dance because of arthritis and osteoporosis. But that didn't stop her from joining the merriment as the Goldenaires blasted big-band tunes at the Bain Center. "I can shake up top," she said, lifting her arms in the air and moving her upper body to the music. "I think this is wonderful." About 100 senior citizens and 60 or so students from local high schools turned an ordinary Wednesday afternoon into a celebration, as they danced, talked and ate during the annual Senior Prom.

The jazz band played a swing number. Couples spun and swirled on the dance floor beneath the white twinkle lights strung from the ceiling of the Seton Keough High School cafeteria. And Mary Koch wasn't about to sit there at her table, sipping Shasta. She had broken her neck in an elevator accident last year, but that wasn't going to stop her. At 95, Koch was attending her first prom. She took the hand of the director of admissions at her retirement home, twirled around, shimmied her hips and swung her blue pleated skirt to show a little more leg. Growing up in Locust Point, Koch had quit school at 14 to take a job in a sugar factory.

A Loch Raven High School student is charged with drug distribution, and 80 other students who were passengers on charter buses are forced to find another way home from their senior prom at a Hunt Valley hotel after police find beer, liquor and champagne in coolers and backpacks on the buses. Article, Page 1C

Some Baltimore-area parents met recently to discuss thei concerns about adults serving alcohol to minors. They say that ++ some parents allow teen-agers to drink alcohol at parties -- sometimes under adult supervision, and sometimes under certain conditions, such as relinquishing car keys. Other concerns include the renting of hotel rooms by students for parties after the senior prom.The Evening Sun wants to know whether you think adults should allow teens to drink, or to rent hotel rooms for post-prom parties.

HEAR THAT noise? A combination groan and rebel yell? It's the sound of a baby boomer turning 50 and it happens every nine seconds. Last week, Sun reporter Ellen Gamerman's six-part series, "Dancing in the Twilight," offered boomers a revealing glimpse of what lies ahead, the pleasures and pain of emotional life in old age, described in poignant detail through residents of the Silver Spring retirement community, Leisure World. But another message was delivered with the statistics that accompanied the series and the underpinnings of Ms. Gamerman's research: Neither the boomers nor the nation are prepared to cope with the imminent transition of that huge generation through the challenging and expensive last third of life.

Susie Belle Gibson, a Baltimore homemaker who earned her high school diploma at age 61 - and celebrated by dancing at the senior prom - died Saturday of respiratory failure at Good Samaritan Hospital. She was 105. Mrs. Gibson was married for 33 years, raised seven children in an East Madison Street rowhouse and was a widow for more than half a century. She put her children through school, but it bothered her that she had not finished high school. "She went to evening school at Dunbar High School and finally got her high school diploma in 1959.