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Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.

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Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff Mom Never told you?

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Speaker 1: From House Stuff Works dot Com. Hello, and welcome to

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Speaker 1: the podcast. I'm Kristen and I'm Caroline and Caroline. This

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Speaker 1: week I have heard on NPR a story about a

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Speaker 1: cardboard prom dress, about the ba jillion dollars that all

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Speaker 1: these recession prom babies are going to spend on non

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Speaker 1: cardboard prom dresses and limos and such. And also a

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Speaker 1: story that I ran across before I came into the

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Speaker 1: podcast to you today about a girl who was banned

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Speaker 1: from prom for wearing a Confederate flag dress. She argued

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Speaker 1: that it was the school colors in a very uh

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Speaker 1: in a pattern that just happened to resemble a Confederate flag. So,

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Speaker 1: in other words, what I'm trying to say, Caroline, when

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Speaker 1: I'm trying to get out here, is that it's proms season.

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Speaker 1: It is why you don't sound excited, probably because I'm not.

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Speaker 1: I'm not I'm not seventeen anymore, Caroline, that you are not.

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Speaker 1: And also from the research that we have done about

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Speaker 1: prom I got a lot of bones to pick with

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Speaker 1: this dance and it's not just about She's all that

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Speaker 1: esque plot lines of popular kids excluding the nerdy kids

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Speaker 1: from their cool after parties, problems. Just it's quite it's

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Speaker 1: quite a mess. It is. Well. I also have bones

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Speaker 1: to pick, more than one bone, bones to pick with

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Speaker 1: parents parents of these prom babies. Man, we might be

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Speaker 1: scaring people already. And let's start out though. Let's start

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Speaker 1: on a nice note. Let's let's reel back our prom

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Speaker 1: a nod aggression and talk about where where it comes from.

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Speaker 1: Why do high school students go to this dance and

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Speaker 1: where dresses and texas and ride in hummer limos? Yes,

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Speaker 1: y hi, why on earth do we do it? Well?

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Speaker 1: It actually got its start at college as sort of

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Speaker 1: like this middle class debutante ball type thing. And this

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Speaker 1: was back in the in the nineteenth century, and there

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Speaker 1: were these co ed banquets held at universities for each

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Speaker 1: year's graduating class. And I thought it was meat that

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Speaker 1: one of the earliest references to prom was found in

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Speaker 1: a male and her students journal from eight four about

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Speaker 1: being invited to prom at Smith College. And of course,

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Speaker 1: as you, as you already said, the word prom is

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Speaker 1: short for promenade. The formal introductory parading of guests at

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Speaker 1: a party. For some reason that that image of the

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Speaker 1: am her student riding away in his journal about prom

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Speaker 1: is very dead. In my diary, L M. G. Clarice

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Speaker 1: asked me to prom um. Oh sorry, said Clarice. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: Vivica asked me to promenade. That's okay, still creepy um.

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Speaker 1: But so there's this growing teenage culture that ended up

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Speaker 1: pushing proms younger and younger. And I don't know how

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Speaker 1: it jumped because there are a lot of things that

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Speaker 1: happened in college that I could demand that I wanted

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Speaker 1: in high school. But it did pizza for breakfast, yeah,

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Speaker 1: chocolate milk in the water fountains, I know. But so

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Speaker 1: so I don't really know how the jump happened. But

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Speaker 1: proms ended up in high schools, and parents and teachers

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Speaker 1: thought that, you know, this formal dinner and dance heavily

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Speaker 1: chaperone would instill social skills and etiquette and young adults.

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Speaker 1: And really that was the focus. It was like, let's

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Speaker 1: eat little cucumber finger sandwiches and drink tea right in uh.

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Speaker 1: In ninety five, Parents magazine described prom as a dress rehearsal.

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Speaker 1: Fourteen quote, gracious manners and good taste, which is such

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Speaker 1: a far cry from the prom that we know today.

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Speaker 1: And by the nineteen thirties prom had become this nationwide

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Speaker 1: phenomenon fourteens, probably with the rise of a distinct teenage

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Speaker 1: culture um. And then in nineteen thirty six you have

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Speaker 1: publications like the Junior Senior Prom complete practical suggestions for

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Speaker 1: staging the Junior Senior Prom sort of redundant, a little redundant,

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Speaker 1: but it really drives home the point. And by the

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Speaker 1: nineteen forties a version of prom similar to what we

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Speaker 1: know today had evolved, although I'm sure you know, minus

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Speaker 1: the stretch, hummer limos and the vomiting um. And by

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Speaker 1: the nineteen fifties, the post war economy allowed high schools

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Speaker 1: to move the parties out of gym's and cafeterias and

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Speaker 1: into fancy schmancy hotels and country clubs for the students

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Speaker 1: to enjoy. And for the lucky class when Gerald Ford

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Speaker 1: was president, they got to have prom at the White

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Speaker 1: House's Daughters high school class had prom with White House

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Speaker 1: fancy due. But today, fast forward fifty plus years, it

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Speaker 1: is not just a dance, but as many listeners might

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Speaker 1: have picked up on the news like I have in

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Speaker 1: the past week. It is a full blown bonkers money

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Speaker 1: making industry in which, according to data collected by Visa,

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Speaker 1: isn't that everywhere you want to be? Should I say

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Speaker 1: that Visa families with teams are expected to spend an

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Speaker 1: average of brace yourself. Can I get a drum roll

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Speaker 1: one seventy eight dollars? One thousand, seventy eight dollars? Do

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Speaker 1: you know what I could do with one thousand seventy

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Speaker 1: eight dollars. It's a lot of candies, a lot of

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Speaker 1: satin and tool. Yes, and that's up just a couple

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Speaker 1: of years, up from eight hundred and seven dollars in

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Speaker 1: two thousand one, which is still a lot of money.

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Speaker 1: And industry experts explain the high cost of prom as well,

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Speaker 1: it's just the new wedding. People are delaying marriage, so

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Speaker 1: now we can drop all this cash on our seventeen

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Speaker 1: and eighteen year old sons and daughters going to prom. No. No, no,

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Speaker 1: I I don't think that's no. My mother always told

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Speaker 1: me when I was in high school and wanted to

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Speaker 1: like blow all this money on dances and stuff, because

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Speaker 1: I was a teenager and had absolutely no perspective. Um,

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Speaker 1: so you can't entirely blame it on the teens. But

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Speaker 1: my mother was like, well, if you spend all this

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Speaker 1: money and do all these crazy things in high school,

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Speaker 1: what are you ever going to have to look forward

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Speaker 1: to in college and beyond? You're like my wedding mom.

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Speaker 1: H Yes, exactly. And Jason Alderman, the director of Visa's

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Speaker 1: Financial Education programs, describes all of this crazy parental prom

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Speaker 1: spending as social arms race spending. It's extreme, he says,

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Speaker 1: And I understand them, and a lot of these stories

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Speaker 1: that you'll see about the trend of prom spending, I

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Speaker 1: understand the fact that a lot of parents that they

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Speaker 1: talked to want this to be a special night. I mean,

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Speaker 1: it's not a bad thing that that teens look forward

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Speaker 1: to prom. I was once a team myself, and I

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Speaker 1: remember my junior prom vividly. I was pumped because I

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Speaker 1: had a boyfriend to take and he was a little

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Speaker 1: bit older, and I got my hair done and as

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Speaker 1: soon as he saw me with my hair up, he

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Speaker 1: was like, you should have worn your hair down. And

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Speaker 1: it was you know, it was not the magical night

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Speaker 1: of my life, but I was. I mean, I was

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Speaker 1: seriously counting the days down. So I understand all the excitement,

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Speaker 1: but the excitement at what costs, especially when industry data

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Speaker 1: finds that parents in the lower income brackets are spending

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Speaker 1: the most. Those making twenty tho nine thousand per year

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Speaker 1: will spend more than twenty six hundred almost of their

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Speaker 1: income and income on PROM that's nutti. And they said

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Speaker 1: that families and high income brackets will spend only only

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Speaker 1: seven hundred to a thousand dollars, and this is kind

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Speaker 1: of weird. I mean, the percentage of your income being

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Speaker 1: spent on PROM is insane. But they write that this

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Speaker 1: mirrors a pattern of Depression era proms, when families would

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Speaker 1: do whatever they could to look as if they could

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Speaker 1: continue to spend. I don't know if that's the exact

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Speaker 1: motivation behind current spending. That is insane, um And part

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Speaker 1: of the insanity is here in the South, where they

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Speaker 1: found that, uh, families in the South will spend about

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Speaker 1: one thousand, forty seven dollars, but that's blown out of

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Speaker 1: the water by families in the Northeast who will spend

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Speaker 1: upwards of two thousand. And the home base of sensible

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Speaker 1: thrifty proms is in the Midwest, Good job, Midwest. You

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Speaker 1: by by regions spend the least amount on prom at

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Speaker 1: oh just six D nine dollars. And because of all this,

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Speaker 1: even though even though we've had the recession, the problem

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Speaker 1: has essentially been a recession proof industry, with dress sales

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Speaker 1: only going up every year. And according to a Hearst

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Speaker 1: survey of teens, they found that six said that they

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Speaker 1: would not come back on spending because of the economic downturn.

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Speaker 1: But I mean, how many of those kids would really

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Speaker 1: be aware or not. They might be aware of the

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Speaker 1: economic situation, but how many of them would be like,

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Speaker 1: oh gosh, I better reign in spending. Well, I mean,

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Speaker 1: there were a lot of interviews with kids who had

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Speaker 1: after school jobs saving money for prom or saving money

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Speaker 1: for college, but there was this recurring theme of even

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Speaker 1: if they were earning money, they were going to spend

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Speaker 1: a lot of money on prom. It was totally worth

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Speaker 1: it to look incredible in these pictures and have you

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Speaker 1: know formed these memories that will carry them through their

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Speaker 1: lackluster adulthood. I guess so, dear well. David Wilkins Fell,

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Speaker 1: the president of promgirl dot Com, told Fox Business that

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Speaker 1: if parents are going to scamp. It's not going to

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Speaker 1: be on the dress. This is obviously for the ladies parents. Um.

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Speaker 1: He said that they basically buy the dress first and

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Speaker 1: then plan everything else around that. And uh. Fox Business

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Speaker 1: points out that the rising cost of prom dresses maybe

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Speaker 1: one thing pushing the price tag of the dance up,

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Speaker 1: and wilkin Felduh, he throws out some statistics. He said,

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Speaker 1: the cost of dresses that he purchases direct from the

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Speaker 1: manufacturer rose from and tent from twelve. And hello, not

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Speaker 1: everybody's doing so well out there financially, but these dresses

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Speaker 1: are still increasing in price. They're still increasing in price.

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Speaker 1: And so we've established it prom is and exorbitantly expensive

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Speaker 1: event for for the kids, for the parents. Um. And

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Speaker 1: then there's also this issue of drunk driving. I don't

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Speaker 1: know about you, but my high school, weeks before prom,

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Speaker 1: every assembly that we had, they would hammer home thing

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Speaker 1: of all right, if you show up, if you show

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Speaker 1: up to the Tilman Center with even the faintest cent

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Speaker 1: of alcohol on your breath, you going home. This is

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Speaker 1: an Athens, Georgia. Someone's talking like this, Yes, okay, yeah,

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Speaker 1: we I don't remember ever getting that talk. I'm sure

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Speaker 1: we did. I'm sure, somebody threatened us at some point,

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Speaker 1: but I went to I don't think I had to

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Speaker 1: worry about driving ever, and I don't think I ever

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Speaker 1: drank before prom. Um. I have very awkward prom situations,

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Speaker 1: but none of them revolved around drunk driving, Thank goodness.

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Speaker 1: Well maybe it's because statistically, um not a lot of

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Speaker 1: high school students at least report drunk driving after prom.

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Speaker 1: According to the u S News and World Report from eleven,

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Speaker 1: only six percent of students say that they've driven under

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Speaker 1: the influence on AM night, but nine felt that their

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Speaker 1: peers would drink and drive after prompt. And they're more

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Speaker 1: likely to do this on New Year's Eve and during

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Speaker 1: summer break. And it might be because they are expecting

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Speaker 1: to get for you know, police to be watching out

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Speaker 1: for them drinking, for school administrators, for parents to be

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Speaker 1: expecting it to be sneaking in booze. But that's at

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Speaker 1: least a slightly heartening statistic. Yeah, it is heartening, but

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Speaker 1: it could be better. And the US News and World

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Speaker 1: Report article points out that it's important to educate these

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Speaker 1: kids about reality because if they knew that such a

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Speaker 1: small amount of their peer group was partaking, then maybe

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Speaker 1: they would be less likely to do with themselves, because,

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Speaker 1: like we've talked about before, if your peer group is

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Speaker 1: doing it, it's sort of normalizes the activity for you.

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Speaker 1: And just because they might not be drinking and then driving,

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Speaker 1: it doesn't mean that they're not drinking to excess somewhere

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Speaker 1: else and just staying put all night, which can possibly

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Speaker 1: lead to our next milestone on this uh, this Prom

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Speaker 1: Night Extravaganza podcast and I'm talking about six. Yeah, there's

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Speaker 1: the there's definitely this idea, like teen movie centric idea

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Speaker 1: that Prom Night is this major moment where you're going

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Speaker 1: to lose your virginity to your significant other or to

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Speaker 1: your insignificant other, and that everybody's doing it. But that's

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Speaker 1: not really the case. And actually, in this book Prom Night,

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Speaker 1: Youth Schools and Popular Culture by any Best, she talks

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Speaker 1: to a lot of students and the whole point is

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Speaker 1: their attitudes about PROM and their experiences, and a lot

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Speaker 1: of these kids had really sophisticated things to say about

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Speaker 1: I mean, I was a teenager once. I was not

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Speaker 1: an idiot, so I guess I shouldn't be very patronizing

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Speaker 1: and say they had sophisticated things to say, but they

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Speaker 1: were interesting, and the kids did bring up good points.

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Speaker 1: And there was one girl who told a story about

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Speaker 1: being warned not to go to a hotel room and

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Speaker 1: drink with a boy. And best rights implicit is the

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Speaker 1: idea that boys are dangerous, not to be trusted because

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Speaker 1: they are out for a good time, regardless of the costs.

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Speaker 1: So there are teenagers out there worried about drinking and

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Speaker 1: being in a hotel room alone with someone and the consequences. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: she talks a lot about this um question of whether

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Speaker 1: or not PROM is framed as this night of romance

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Speaker 1: for teenagers or a night of drunken, libidinous, unbridled behavior.

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Speaker 1: And it's really dependent on relationship status. You know, for

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Speaker 1: kids who have been in some kind of sweet high

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Speaker 1: school sweetheart relationship, prom is their night sort of to

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Speaker 1: kind of you know, it is kind of a pre

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Speaker 1: wedding sort of thing where they dressed up the guys

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Speaker 1: in it tucks the girls in a pretty ground and

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Speaker 1: it might be the first night that they spend together. Um.

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Speaker 1: But this idea of it being a night of virginity loss,

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Speaker 1: I wasn't really sure where that came up. It was

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Speaker 1: something that we weren't able to find in research, like

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Speaker 1: when that idea really came up. Maybe it's an attitude

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Speaker 1: of well, it's the end of high school. If I'm

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Speaker 1: going to do something, I'm better do it now, you know,

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Speaker 1: just sort of I don't know, you're you're cutting loose

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Speaker 1: with your group of friends. I really don't know. And

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Speaker 1: that would be something good out for our listeners and

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Speaker 1: best suggest that boys talk about sex on prom night

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Speaker 1: seems to be a way for them to invest in

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Speaker 1: the prom in a masculine way, because girls get excited

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Speaker 1: about prom because of the gowns and the handbags and

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Speaker 1: the hair dues and all of that, whereas, uh, this

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Speaker 1: whole idea of sexual activity and who will or won't

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Speaker 1: lose their virginity is an outlet for boys to get

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Speaker 1: excited about prom while still adhering to masculinity constructs. Say,

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Speaker 1: you can't get excited about dressing up. You can't. You

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Speaker 1: can't dance your boy. No, that's not right socially. So

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Speaker 1: because of all of these things that we've already talked about,

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Speaker 1: with the price, the drunk driving, this strange sexy times

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Speaker 1: aspect to prom, there is a lot of backlash against

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Speaker 1: this high school institution, which was so well summed up

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Speaker 1: by Anne Hulbert writing in Slate in two thousand five,

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Speaker 1: because when Hulbert explains in this essay about how when

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Speaker 1: she was in high school in the late sixties and

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Speaker 1: early seventies, a lot of her peers were boycotting proms

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Speaker 1: because it was not a cool thing to do. And

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Speaker 1: yet it's her baby boom generation of parents that is

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Speaker 1: shelling out now a thousand plus dollars to send their

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Speaker 1: kids in a hummer limo to prom right. Yeah, she

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Speaker 1: says that countless baby boomer parents of today's prom aged

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Speaker 1: teenagers never experienced that coming of age ritual, and therefore

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Speaker 1: today's prom quote has morphed into a back and all

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Speaker 1: sponsored by staggering parental largesse. And she points to Long

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Speaker 1: Island's Kalenborg Memorial High School, a Catholic school, which two

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Speaker 1: thousand five addressed a parents complaints about not having prompt

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Speaker 1: by saying that the whole thing is quote so much

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Speaker 1: beyond our control that it is mere tokenism to put

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Speaker 1: our name on it, and school officials cited to the

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Speaker 1: parent a flaunting of affluence, assuming exaggerated expensive and a

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Speaker 1: pursuit of vanity for vanity's sake that they didn't want

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Speaker 1: to have anything to do with right. And that's just

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Speaker 1: one isolated example of how schools and other like parental organizations,

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Speaker 1: anti drinking organizations, um have come out against prom related

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Speaker 1: activities because there is a lot that goes along with it.

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Speaker 1: There is a lot of negative behavior that happens on

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Speaker 1: Prom night. Let's be honest, um. And also, one one

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Speaker 1: thing that isn't talked about a lot when it comes

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Speaker 1: to prom and the legacy of prom is how it

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Speaker 1: has been a tool of bigotry for a long time

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Speaker 1: and in a lot of places, and not in the

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Speaker 1: distant past either. So first let's talk about how prom

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Speaker 1: might be a different sort of prospect for lgbt Q teens. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: One important case was Glad's Aaron Frick versus Richard B. Lent.

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Speaker 1: Frick asked a boy to the junior prom, but it

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Speaker 1: turns out that actually attending the prom would require a

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Speaker 1: federal court order. He said he read a memoir. He

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Speaker 1: said that he didn't want to feel left out anymore,

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Speaker 1: but he also wanted to make a statement to his

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Speaker 1: peers about his equality. And the judge ruled that Aaron's

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Speaker 1: desire to take a same sex prom date was protected

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Speaker 1: under the First and the fourteenth Amendments UM, which would

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Speaker 1: be the First Amendment right to free association and your

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Speaker 1: Fourteenth Amendment right to equal protection of the laws UM.

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Speaker 1: And he also wanted to express his views as a

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Speaker 1: gay student, he had those same rights as the cterosexual

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Speaker 1: peers to enjoy the prom. And so this landmark case

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Speaker 1: and ruling in nineteen eighty has set a legal precedent

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Speaker 1: for other um gay teens to bring their own cases

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Speaker 1: when other schools have prohibited them from doing things like

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Speaker 1: bringing a same sex state or dressing in a non

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Speaker 1: gender conforming way, such as a girl wanting to wear

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Speaker 1: a tuxedo to prom. Right, and that brings up the

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Speaker 1: more recent case of Constance McMillan. This was in Mississippi

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Speaker 1: two years ago. A couple of years ago. She was

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Speaker 1: barred from prom because she wanted to not only bring

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Speaker 1: a girl to prom, but she wanted to wear a

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Speaker 1: tuks And so there was this big brew haha. A

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Speaker 1: lot of you know, media attention was shed on this

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Speaker 1: tiny town, Mississippi. And so they end up saying, okay, fine,

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Speaker 1: you can go to prom. She shows up and it's

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Speaker 1: it's like a diversion It's there's seven people there and

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Speaker 1: there was a private prom being held somewhere else, So

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Speaker 1: it's a diversionary prom that the school board created to Oh,

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Speaker 1: makes no sense to me, Caroline, it makes no sense. Um.

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Speaker 1: But the a c l U does offer l g

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Speaker 1: B t Q teens form letters on their website for

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Speaker 1: principles and superintendence and also links to legal resources in

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Speaker 1: case they are hassled during prom season for same sex

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Speaker 1: states and prom attire and all of that which it is. Um.

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Speaker 1: It is mind boggling to me to think that in

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Speaker 1: two thousand twelve, this is still an issue of who

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Speaker 1: you bring to the dance, and it's not just an

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Speaker 1: issue in terms of sexual orientation, but also in terms

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Speaker 1: of racial segregation. For instance, in two thousand eight, as

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Speaker 1: in four years ago, NPR reported on Charleston High School

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Speaker 1: in the Mississippi Delta region, also hometown of Morgan Freeman.

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Speaker 1: They have their first interracial prom that year, which was

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Speaker 1: documented in the film Prom Night in Mississippi two thousand eight,

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Speaker 1: and some white parents still ended up holding a separate

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Speaker 1: prom because a lot of people in the community just

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Speaker 1: were not comfortable with it. And there's this excellent, really

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Speaker 1: in depth essay Black and White prom Knights the Unconstitutionality

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Speaker 1: of racially segregated school Proms in the twenty first Century,

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Speaker 1: which appeared in the Journal of Gender, Race, and Justice

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Speaker 1: in two thousand seven, and they're basically saying, look, you

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Speaker 1: can't skirt the whole Brown Versus Board of Education role

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Speaker 1: by saying that prom isn't officially affiliated with or provided

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Speaker 1: by the school, right because by having I think, in

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Speaker 1: the case of Charleston High School, for instance, they held

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Speaker 1: prom every year, but they held a black prom and

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Speaker 1: a white prom, and that would um go directly against

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Speaker 1: the federal ruling in Brown Versus Board of Education, which

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Speaker 1: struck down that separate but equal rule that was hence

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Speaker 1: overturning plus e versus Ferguson. Yeah, and there are a

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Speaker 1: lot of schools in these communities in the South. This

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Speaker 1: this essay that I talked about focuses specifically on some

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Speaker 1: Georgia counties in particular. Um, but they basically talked about

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Speaker 1: how these these racially segregated proms have become tradition ever

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Speaker 1: since the schools were desegregated, and it just became part

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Speaker 1: of the community traditions, so that way, it's it's normalized

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Speaker 1: in everybody's minds, and nobody has been really strongly fighting

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Speaker 1: against it until the media kind of blew up the

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Speaker 1: whole situation. Yeah, and the author Raya. Harrison points out

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Speaker 1: that um extracurriculars in these schools are integrated. So are

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Speaker 1: we worried about how the whole all the rights of proms,

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Speaker 1: such as the sort of pre wedding aspect of it,

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Speaker 1: of dressing up and dancing cheek to cheek would lead

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Speaker 1: to romantic relations between people of different races? Is that

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Speaker 1: the discomfort that? I mean, you've seen footloose, right, you

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Speaker 1: know what dancing can do dangerous? It is silly. And

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Speaker 1: and she the writer mentioned one particular school. I can't

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Speaker 1: remember which off the top of my head, but the

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Speaker 1: the black students who were on the sports teams at

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Speaker 1: the school threatened to quit the team if they didn't

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Speaker 1: get to have an integrated prom. And so all of

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Speaker 1: a sudden like oh, well, okay, well, I mean I

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Speaker 1: guess we could have a problem with everybody, you know.

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Speaker 1: So it takes something like that to to make people say, well, okay,

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Speaker 1: maybe we should bring all of our students together. Well,

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Speaker 1: if you think about it too, especially when you you

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Speaker 1: look at Prom through this darker lens of segregation and bigotry.

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Speaker 1: I mean it is it is sort of a practice

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Speaker 1: of heteronormativity. You know, you have couples coming. There's this

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Speaker 1: whole strange romance to it. Um And I guess maybe

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Speaker 1: you could say that about any high school dance, but

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Speaker 1: I don't know. There's something about prom and the legacy

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Speaker 1: of prom that has made it this huge thing in

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Speaker 1: American culture that comes with all of this baggage attached

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Speaker 1: aside from mean, who cares about you know, an eight

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Speaker 1: dollar price tag on a gown that you'll probably wear once.

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Speaker 1: I mean we do that with with one and gowns too,

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Speaker 1: But it's all of this other social baggage is mind boggling.

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Speaker 1: Is the second time I've used word mind boggling, past

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Speaker 1: that boggling of the mind. So Caroline, we we've as

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Speaker 1: we said at the top of this podcast, we had

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Speaker 1: some bones to pick, and pick them we did like

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Speaker 1: a dozen chicken wings. I don't think I don't think

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Speaker 1: you're a bad parent if you spend a lot of

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Speaker 1: money on your kids talks or dress I don't think

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00:24:39,680 --> 00:24:42,760
Speaker 1: you're a bad kid if you accept money from your

402
00:24:42,800 --> 00:24:45,159
Speaker 1: parents or if you want to go to prom or whatever.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely not. I'm not passing judgment. I'm just saying that

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00:24:48,600 --> 00:24:51,000
Speaker 1: I agree with some of these writers and that it's crazy.

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Speaker 1: I mean, I my parents gave me money in high school,

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Speaker 1: but I don't think we ever spent that much on

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00:24:56,520 --> 00:24:58,960
Speaker 1: me going to a dance. Yeah, it's not a thing

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00:24:59,000 --> 00:25:01,240
Speaker 1: about the desire to want a goo. I wanted it.

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Speaker 1: Like I said earlier, it was this idea in my

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Speaker 1: mind and it was direct from teen movies that I

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Speaker 1: had seen in the reality was not exactly the same. Um.

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Speaker 1: But I think it's time for us to think twice

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Speaker 1: about what kind of messages all of this is sending.

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Speaker 1: Go out, have fun, dance, kickoff his shoes, and be

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Speaker 1: foot loose and fancy free. No problem with that, um

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Speaker 1: but uh, but problem's got a darker side and it's

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Speaker 1: not just about drunk driving and loss of virginity. So

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Speaker 1: let us know your prom stories. With that though, and

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Speaker 1: prom pictures, we want to see all of them. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna I'm gonna try to dig mine out. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: I had them posted on a GS City site in

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Speaker 1: high school, but gs Cities got taken down. Oh I

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00:25:45,040 --> 00:25:47,000
Speaker 1: wish it was still there. Yeah, I'm gonna Carolina. Are

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Speaker 1: both going to try to find our prom pictures post

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00:25:49,800 --> 00:25:51,760
Speaker 1: them on Facebook so that you can see you can

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Speaker 1: see my updo see whether or not my x high

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00:25:55,800 --> 00:25:58,000
Speaker 1: school boyfriend was right and saying I should have taken

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Speaker 1: my hair. Yeah, want want So with that, send us

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Speaker 1: your stories mom. Stuff at Discovery dot com is where

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00:26:06,320 --> 00:26:11,520
Speaker 1: you can send them. And speaking of high school and

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00:26:11,600 --> 00:26:15,440
Speaker 1: college traditions, I've got an email here from Cat about

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00:26:15,440 --> 00:26:19,480
Speaker 1: our episode on where spring Break came from, and she writes,

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00:26:19,600 --> 00:26:21,840
Speaker 1: I gotta chuckle out of your spring Break podcast and

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00:26:21,960 --> 00:26:24,639
Speaker 1: was glad to hear you mentioned breakaway because although I

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00:26:24,680 --> 00:26:28,320
Speaker 1: certainly consider myself a fun, loving college sophomore, I'm among

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00:26:28,359 --> 00:26:31,479
Speaker 1: the growing number of students joining the alternative break movement

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00:26:31,480 --> 00:26:36,159
Speaker 1: who aren't settling for a typical collegiate spring break. Breakaway

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00:26:36,160 --> 00:26:39,360
Speaker 1: trips take volunteering to the next level with special requirements

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00:26:39,400 --> 00:26:44,040
Speaker 1: like extensive pre trip issue education, team bonding, reflection, and

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00:26:44,080 --> 00:26:48,600
Speaker 1: post trip reorientation. The breakaway model and power students to

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00:26:48,680 --> 00:26:52,159
Speaker 1: move beyond simple, feel good volunteerism into active citizenship. And

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00:26:52,160 --> 00:26:55,600
Speaker 1: activism by giving them firsthand experience with social issues and

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00:26:55,680 --> 00:26:59,360
Speaker 1: teaching them to look critically the problems that affect their regional, national,

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00:26:59,680 --> 00:27:02,399
Speaker 1: and international communities. My freshman year, I went on a

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00:27:02,400 --> 00:27:05,199
Speaker 1: breakaway trip to a charter school in North Carolina, and

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00:27:05,240 --> 00:27:06,879
Speaker 1: this year I had the pleasure of co leading a

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00:27:06,880 --> 00:27:09,719
Speaker 1: trip to an urban farm in Virginia. I was so

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00:27:09,840 --> 00:27:12,679
Speaker 1: impacted by my experiences that I decided to major in

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00:27:12,760 --> 00:27:16,320
Speaker 1: sociology and pursue a master's and education. Next year, I

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00:27:16,320 --> 00:27:18,240
Speaker 1: will have a pleasure of working for Breakaway through my

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00:27:18,240 --> 00:27:21,640
Speaker 1: school's Office of Community Engagement and Scholarship as a student director.

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00:27:21,960 --> 00:27:24,760
Speaker 1: And since I'll be training site leaders and coordinating the trips,

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00:27:25,000 --> 00:27:27,439
Speaker 1: i won't be going on any myself, and I'll have

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Speaker 1: my first real spring break vacation to do whatever I want,

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00:27:31,000 --> 00:27:35,920
Speaker 1: maybe even some Jello shots. So thank you cat for that.

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00:27:36,840 --> 00:27:39,560
Speaker 1: This email is from Leslie. She's writing about our marathon

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00:27:39,640 --> 00:27:42,480
Speaker 1: episode and wanted to tell us about her mom, who

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00:27:42,560 --> 00:27:46,600
Speaker 1: runs marathons. She said, back in the early nineties, my mom, Kathleen,

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00:27:46,680 --> 00:27:48,879
Speaker 1: was a serious runner. I have such fond memories of

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00:27:48,880 --> 00:27:50,680
Speaker 1: my dad packing my brother and I into the car

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00:27:50,720 --> 00:27:53,080
Speaker 1: at four thirty am. So we could drive Mom to

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00:27:53,160 --> 00:27:55,760
Speaker 1: the starting line of the Houston Marathon. We wait an

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00:27:55,760 --> 00:27:58,160
Speaker 1: anticipation for the cannon shot that would start the race,

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00:27:58,200 --> 00:28:00,680
Speaker 1: and yell and scream his mom ran by. My dad

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00:28:00,680 --> 00:28:02,560
Speaker 1: would then hurry us back into the car and race

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00:28:02,600 --> 00:28:04,360
Speaker 1: off to the five mile mark, where we would wait

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00:28:04,400 --> 00:28:06,920
Speaker 1: for Mom and yell like banshees, and then it was

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00:28:06,960 --> 00:28:09,320
Speaker 1: back into the car again. We did this for every

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00:28:09,359 --> 00:28:11,200
Speaker 1: five mile marker, and my dad would always have a

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00:28:11,280 --> 00:28:13,120
Speaker 1: change of running shoes for my mom, just in case

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00:28:13,160 --> 00:28:16,119
Speaker 1: she wanted them. My mom is an incredible athlete and woman.

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00:28:16,160 --> 00:28:19,240
Speaker 1: She trained for years for marathons, including qualifying for and

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00:28:19,320 --> 00:28:21,880
Speaker 1: running in the Boston Marathon, all while being a full

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00:28:21,880 --> 00:28:24,840
Speaker 1: time mom to two incredibly active kids, holding a job

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00:28:24,840 --> 00:28:26,960
Speaker 1: as a secretary, and taking care of my dad, who

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00:28:27,000 --> 00:28:30,479
Speaker 1: was continuously treated for cancer went into remission and relapse

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00:28:30,560 --> 00:28:33,280
Speaker 1: several times over the years. She says running was away

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00:28:33,320 --> 00:28:35,359
Speaker 1: for her to keep her sanity and stay in shape.

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00:28:35,400 --> 00:28:37,879
Speaker 1: To this day, I know that there's always time for

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00:28:37,880 --> 00:28:39,880
Speaker 1: a run, even if my PJ sound like a much

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00:28:39,960 --> 00:28:43,800
Speaker 1: more comfortable option. So thanks Leslie, Yes, thanks to Leslie

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00:28:43,840 --> 00:28:47,520
Speaker 1: and Kat and everyone else who has written in Mom's stuff.

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00:28:47,720 --> 00:28:50,520
Speaker 1: At Discovery dot com is where you can send your letters,

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00:28:50,560 --> 00:28:54,080
Speaker 1: and you can also send this messages, likes, hellos, and

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00:28:54,120 --> 00:28:57,760
Speaker 1: the what not on Facebook and follow us on Twitter

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00:28:57,840 --> 00:29:01,960
Speaker 1: at mom Stuff Podcast. And if you want to learn

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00:29:02,000 --> 00:29:06,800
Speaker 1: more about culture history, teenagery, yep I made that word

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00:29:06,880 --> 00:29:09,120
Speaker 1: up and all that other stuff, you can add over

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00:29:09,160 --> 00:29:15,680
Speaker 1: to our home website, it's how Stuff Works dot com.

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00:29:15,760 --> 00:29:18,360
Speaker 1: Be sure to check out our new video podcast, Stuff

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00:29:18,400 --> 00:29:21,040
Speaker 1: from the Future. Join how Stuff Work staff as we

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00:29:21,080 --> 00:29:25,360
Speaker 1: explore the most promising and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow. The

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00:29:25,400 --> 00:29:28,440
Speaker 1: house Stuff Works iPhone app has arrived. Dewnload it today

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00:29:28,680 --> 00:29:36,000
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