Prom car story; what's yours?

Prom was a very special thing growing up back in the '60s. If you didn't have a prom date you were nothing. If you didn't have a prom car you were a ****. I was that ****. I had one of the prettiest girls in the school, but had to share the ugliest car with my mother. It was a 1968 Delmont 88 in Canary Yellow with a White painted top. It came that way from GM. Some dummy executive ordered it that way and wanted to dump it as soon as he could as soon as he saw it. To top it off it had a baby puke-green interior. By far the world's worst date car, let alone a Prom car. My father drove Lincolns at that time. Not a cool Prom car either. That and the fact that I was never allowed to drive it, but that's another story.

This story is about the Prom car that I ended up with. A neighbor of my parents was the manager of a Dodge dealership. He needed to have a fence installed around his new pool and I needed a Prom car. All I asked for was a nice car. I completed my task in about three days. He was very happy. The day of the prom I still didn't know what he was bringing home, but he said it was something cool.

I got a call to come across the street to pick up the keys and saw a new Polara in his driveway. I wasn't happy, but I wasn't mad because it was miles better that the POS I had to drive. I walked into the driveway and said, "Nice car." He burst out laughing as he hit the garage remote in his pocket. My jaw dropped and I got a severe tingling in my nether parts.

It was a brand-new 1970 Dodge Challenger 440 RT 6-pack in Plumb Crazy with a white interior, top and stripe.



As he dangled the keys in front of me he said, "Two rules, no drag racing and no taking it out of state!" I was still speechless, so I just nodded my head as he gave me bad ideas.

My date, who is now my wife of 38 years, was, and is, a huge Mopar fan. In fact, the first time I got to see her bedroom I was expecting to see posters of movie and rock stars. No, she had blown up photos of mid-'60s Mopar hotrods that she had taken at Autorama in the '60s. I was stunned. I think it it was that moment that I fell out of lust and into love. OK, the lust was still there. The woman still has 30wt running through her veins.

OK, her reaction. Silence. That was unexpected. She was actually dumbstruck. I never honked the horn picking up a date, but this time I had to. I laid on it and I see the garage door open and her bruiser Puritan father exit with an evil look on his face. Honking for a date was considered very bad form. She however, opened the front door of the house and stood like a statue on the front porch, unable to move, or talk. As her father approached me I pointed to his daughter, and he stopped dead in his tracks. It was quite a sight to see.

Her sisters came running up to the car as my girlfriend screamed out, "Don't touch it!!!!!", and we all started laughing at the absurdity of the situation. Pops mellowed, as he was a Chrysler engineer at the time. Once everyone started breathing again all was right with the world. I think she and her family were as surprised as I was.

Now, this was early on Prom Saturday so I had all day to burn up some gas. I lived at the corner of 13 & Southfield, 2 miles from the famous Woodward Avenue. Remember, this was the heyday of the muscle car and I had an out of the box race car at my disposal. I picked up my tux and went cruising up and down woodward, stopping at Ted's, Maverick and the Totem Pole. The car drew a crowd everywhere I went. I was approached by a cop and asked for ID. Luckily the dealership manager gave me some do***ents that made him go away.

I went home after burning up a whole tank of gas and was confronted with angry 'rents. Couldn't figure out why, didn't care, didn't stick around long enough to listen. Something about telling them what my plans were, who I was going to be with, where I was going to sleep. Walked away, took a shower, went down stairs, told them that they were not en***led to that information as I was already 18 and if they didn't like it, I would just keep driving. That shut them up because they knew I was right.

I picked her up, sans honking this time. She was lovely. She had just had her hair done, Prom style, but insisted that I put the top down. We drove to the banquet facility and was waved into the absolute "A" parking spot. Sat in the car talking for about 15 minutes while our cl***mates walked in. By the time we got in we were surrounded with admirers. I thought it was pretty damn funny since I didn't own the car. Maybe that was my first taste of 15 minutes of fame, but I loved it.

We ate an ins***utional, but filling meal and then the mirrored ball came on and the band started playing. I hate dancing but I fulfilled the obligatory dance requirement. We went back to the table and I excused myself to go to the bathroom. When I didn't come back in 20 minutes she went looking for me. She asked some people if they had seen me. The banquet hall had 10 men's room, it was so large. She enlisted some help to check them all. I was nowhere to be found. She saw one of my friends and asked if he had seen me. He told her, "He's out on Telegraph Rd. drag-racing for $20 bills". Telegraph was the second hottest road in the Detroit area for Westsiders.

She walked out of the facility and found our "A" spot empty. As I returned after what I thought was maybe 10 minutes she was standing in the middle of the spot with her arms folded, Ice Queen style. She move out of my way and was about to chew me a new one when I said, "I won enough to cover the prom tickets so we have money to go to Cedar Point tomorrow!" That melted the chill. We went back to the dance and had a nice evening.

The next day we loaded up the car, disconnected the odometer and drove from Michigan to Ohio. Had a great time, got the worst wind burn of my life but generated some great memories.

Now that I had broken both of his rules I reconnected the speedo, washed all the freeway bugs off the grill and returned the car.

Now, I'm not advocating that kind of stupid behavior. Had something happened he would have had huge problems with his insurance company. He would have had had huge problems with the state as it had a dealer plate. Had something really bad happened they would have gone after the dealer, the deep pockets. However, my **** was doing most of my thinking at 18, and that was really stupid.

Still have the girl. Wish I had the car.

What's your Prom car story?

 

Pretty car---Ugly date--Couldn't dance--Left early---Got drunk instead.

 

That's a great story man. I'm not a huge muscle car fan, but I do love those MoPars, and having something like that brand new must've been something else back in the day.

I think most for most of the people my age, the idea of not having a prom date is still uber-loserish, but it isn't the same for not having a prom car. Most of use took a limo to the prom with friends, and we sprung for the stretch Hummer which was sorta bad***. I was driving my 57 Chevy at the time, and even though it was a pretty cool car, it was a little rough and didn't have A/C, and I didn't want my date's makeup to melt, so the limo provided a better option.

 

This.

 

Prom car? I don't remember what I drove. As a matter of fact, I don't even remember half of prom night. But she said it was great! LoL.

 

Never had a use for school dances. Stayed far away from Prom.

 

My prom was regrettable. Don't even recall what car I drove, probably the family LTD wagon.

 

My prom night ... my date stood me up prom night, her parents gave me some lame *** excuse about emergency surgery or something like that. Anyhow worked on a buddies Big Block Camaro and went street racing.

 

I had a 160cc Honda, so I had to borrow my Dads International Truck. He wasn't happy and said he was going to drive us to the prom. I was ready to call it off, then he finally told me I could use the truck. Got my car a few months later ...............

 

Don't remember a thing, thanks to a concoction called "Purple Jesus."

 

Holy ****, I haven't thought about this in a looong time! In 1973 I had an o/t '68 Toyota 2 door wagon. The rear seat folded flat. Took a girl I knew from home room, not beautiful but nice looking, kinda quiet. After a few dances we took a walk on the beach and it soon became evident she wasn't as shy as I thought. Ended up parking on a deserted jungle road, or so I thought. Right at the worst possible moment someone pulled up with high beams on. Turned out the jungle road was someones driveway. Lucky for me she thought it was funny and we found another place. Next day my dad saw the empty condom wrapper as I was cleaning out the back of the car, but he just kinda smiled and walked in the house. Never heard a word about it.

 

My step dad was ordered by my mom to drive my date and I to dinner, and the dance, AND pick us up after, in the chop top, pearl white, with ghost flames, '50 Merc. Learned how to get back at the step dad by making him my chauffeur, and all the kids in the limos would have rather been in that Merc!

 

Spent the tux money on a carb.

 

Took my prom date ( She was Minnesota Dragster owner Pops Millers daughter )to high school prom on the east side of Saint Paul ( I'm from Anoka 30 some miles away )in my hot rod 4 door Studebaker Lark.
Some time after midnight I brought her back to her mothers apartment complex and we were talking when we suddenly noticed the parking lot and around the buildings were full of Cops with guns drawn.
Now I'm under 18 past curfew and not suspose to be that far away from home ( Dads' rules ). Now we are thinking these Saint Paul cops take this curfew stuff way to serious but maybe they did not see us so we dove to the floor and stayed there scared for our lives. After a while it got quite and we said our good byes and I got home before dad got up.
Latter that day we found out the cops had busted a car thief ring that was using that apartment complex to store the cars. I'm sure the Saint Paul cops laughed for many years about the two kids they scared ****less that night.

 

No prom,No story

 

Great story!

I never had a nice car or even close...so I thought that I would "create" one. Living on a farm in the flats of Indiana (We had no electricity/heat upstairs where we all slept), i thought one night about getting a "limo" for our Prom to impress my girlfriend. LIMO? In Gaston, Indiana...a town of 250? Hell yes..I conned the local funeral director (the only funeral home in town of course) who had a 72 Caddy Limo into "renting" it to me for the night...complete with a driver for $35!!! I must admit that I never thought about how funny it must have been to pick up my date when her parents OBVIOUSLY knew where that damn limo came from, but needless to say, she dug it and we (along with two other couples) had a damn ball once we invited Jim Beam to join us...I WISH I had a picture of the whole damn mess!!! Looked a lot like this, but was bronze:

 

G'day, Took the daughter of a friend of my mom's as a favor to mom. We were styling in a 63 Corvair Monza which happened to be my first car. Had a great time and made a good friend.

 

Went stag with a couple of my buddies. The three of us left before the dance started..really awkward without a date, after the dance was over I ended up with someone else's date driving around in my uncles mercedes 450sl convertable...she & I found out that bad boy would top out at 120mph. I never got any off of her but it must have been memorable for her cause she was still telling her friends about it years later...

 

My parents are high school sweethearts and they went in his 69' GTO judge. They are still together and everyone at thier high school reunion still remebers the car but not him. He still owns that car today.

I went to prom in my white 66 gto, with my white tux. (looked awesome) with my highschool sweetheart who I married last year. gotta love the back seat.


I look for some pics

 

Proms were good but didn't really spend much time at the dance. My girlfriend at the time was a competing schools homecoming queen, we took my mom's brand new 83 Trans Am (mom was cool) with T tops, and learned that you can fit two people in the p***enger side front seat of a third gen F body if you lay the seat back (gotta love reclining bucket seat) and take the T tops off.
Funny thing happened a couple of weeks after prom was when dad went to drive the car on one of Ohio's cold, damp mornings and noticed two foot prints on the inside of the windshield before he turned on the defroster. Oh to be young and flexible again.

 

What the hells a Prom?

 

A rite of p***age for goofy teenagers.

 

I had my own car but it was tore apart for paint and body work. I thought I was going to have to drive the "Family" car. Dad was in between street rods at the time, come to think of it he was in between rods from the time I was 16 thru 20 (when i moved out)! Dad pulled a favor and borrowed a beautiful 37 Pontiac from a friend. The car was stunning, as big as a Limo, and had AC. Dad dressed up in his best suit and drove us to dinner and prom, where my girl had her parents SUV (before they were called that) waiting for later. (gotta love a 4WD with folding rear seat for "parking")! We were the talk of the prom (at lease a**** the gearheads) and had a great night!

 

A family friend let me use a red on white 1959 Caddy Eldo biarritz conv. tri power and all. I did something that day at school and was informed by the principal if I left early I would not be aloud to attend the prom. Of course, my friends and I piled in the car and waved to him as we left early in the caddy anyhow. He actually complemented the ride at the prom. car is sold and girl is gone. life was good while it lasted.

 

Here's the '68 Camaro I took to the prom in 1990, and me in my fancy prom suit. I really wanted to drive my dad's Lumina company car, but he was afraid I'd wreck it and he'd get fired. The Camaro had air conditioning, but it was hard to keep it running with that on, and sometimes it would cause the car to overheat. My date wasn't really impressed.



Notice my mom's "Vette" in the background. Believe it or not, she loved those things--refused to drive anything bigger. She was a Chevette junkie!

 

My prom was back in the 60's. It was a right of p***age. Everyone went. There were no limos that I recall. Most borrowed their parents car as it was usually nicer than what the kids drove. I drove mom's 65 T-bird to the prom as my car was a hot rod & my prom date's parents wouldn't have approved. In fact- I don't recall any of my friends driving their own cars- they took their parent's "nice" car instead. Our prom was in the Gym my junior year & at a lodge (Elks?) my senior year. Nothing fancy. I went to both the Junior & senior proms. Later- when I had kids & it was time for my girls to go to the prom- they said it was not cool to go to the prom anymore. Only the geeks went now. No proms, no homecoming dances, no sock hops, no football games, nothing. Today- they look back & regret their choice not to go.
When I was in high school- everyone went to all the school functions.

 

It was '68, I worked in a Mobil Station after school, from 3pm till midnight. I was shy and never talked to girls and I wasn't planning on going to the prom. One day, a girl named Sharon called me. She said it was a leap year so girls could ask guys to the prom. I said I was working,,,,,silence. I said I wasn't planning on going because I was working,,,,silence. I said I couldn't afford it. She said she would pay. I said I'd call her back.

A girl I grew up with since 2, who was like a sister to me, knew this girl, so I called her for help. I asked her to call Sharon and tell her I didn't want to go. She said I would have to tell her myself. ****! So I called her and said I would take her and even buy the tickets (sigh).

Now the guys I worked with were "dopers" (mostly weed and bennies) but they had new cars. One guy had a new '67 Camaro and the other guy had a '67 GTX. When they found out I was going to the prom, they asked what car I was taking. I said I was taking my '64 VW. They said, "You can't take that bug, take one of our cars!". I said no, I don't drive other peoples cars. The day before the prom, the guy with the Camaro stole my bug and left his Camaro. '67 RS/SS, 350 with a 4 speed and 4:56 gears.

Funny, all my school mates were really pretty straight. I taught my friends to drive a stick in my bug and to ride a motorcycle on my Honda. I drove them everwhere in my '49 Chevy 3100 and treated them to Foster Freeze and I was the only one with wheels and a job. When those same "friends" got NEW cars ('69 Judge, '68 442. etc,,,,), they never offered to let me drive.

Seems my criminal friends were better friends than my straight friends.

 

Never went to the Prom. The wife and I weighed the cost against the fun factor and went out and did our own thing instead.

But I do own a prom car. At least I'm pretty sure the silk glove I found when I pulled the back seat is good evidence it was at least a second base car.

 

I guess life was different in your neck of the wood,,had I talked to my parents the way you did my dad would have knocked my teeth down my throat.

My girl friend(now wife),had I blew the horn to summons her to the car,,he would have knocked my teeth down my throat.

and had I left my girlfriend and went racing without her,,you guessed it....she would have knocked my teeth down my throat!

As for the prom,,,I drove my 63 1/2 Falcon Sprint.HRP

 

Just another night at the submarine races for me, then goofing off afterwards.