In this episode, Evelyn tells us her funny story about Prom when she spent a few years in San Francisco.
Alessandra: Hi everyone! Welcome to Madre Mía! I am Alessandra.
Veronica: Hello, I’m Veronica!
Evelyn: Hello, I’m Evelyn!
Alessandra: And today Evelyn is going to tell us some stories from her childhood, or when she was younger, and she always tells us these stories, and they are very funny. So I wanted Oma to tell us this story.
Veronica: Tells us.
Evelyn: Well, this story that Alessandra has always loved, and Ariana too, and especially when they were teenagers because it is a typical story for teenagers or it is a story about teenagers. This story has to do with a time when I and my sister, Gloria, stayed in San Francisco, California because my dad had the idea that it would be a very good experience to go to school, or go to a typical American school for a year. Our education had always been in school for nuns, very strict, all our lives, and this was a very big change for us. Of course, Gloria and I, very excited to stay in San Francisco with friends of my parents, friends of all life, the Barbatas. Well, in that school year, well supposedly that school year was going to be a year of pure education, no parties, none of that stuff. And my parents left us with pure school clothes, no party clothes, no party dresses or party shoes, nothing like that. Well, we started the year, all very well, when the end of the year comes-- the time of the Prom was coming. The Prom is a very typical party of the schools-- well all over the world now, it is an end of the year party of very considerable importance to students. Mostly, it's the end of the year promotion party, it's called Prom, which comes from the word as you said, Alessandra, "promenade."
Alessandra: I don’t know if it’s true.
Evelyn: It's true, because I looked it up, promenade. Prom is an abbreviation for promenade. Promenade means a walk or a sea path, a path on a coastline. And it was adapted and shortened to "Prom" to indicate that this is a walk, an entrance to a dance.
Alessandra: Yes, and it is more common in the United States, right?
Evelyn: Exactly, it was the word "promenade," it was adapted and shortened to "Prom." Well then, in that year I never thought anything about Prom. I did hear girls and boys talking about Prom and this, that, no idea that I was going to participate in one. And well, one day, yes at the end of the year, I was only in the second year of high school, I was a sophomore, not a senior or a junior, who were the boys and girls who participated the most in this party. So, one day I go to my homeroom, which is the basic class where you go at the beginning of the day and from there you go to your other classes. I get to my class and I see that all the boys and girls are around, reading the school weekly. And they turn around and look at me and say, << Wow, Evelyn! Marvelous, oh my goodness, look at that! >> And I like this << What happened, what happened? >> I didn't know anything. Well for the part, on the front page of the weekly, they had interviewed our college basketball champion. And in the interview they asked him, << What would your dream be? What would your dream be at this time? >> And he replied, << Invite Evelyn to the senior prom. >>
Alessandra: And you don't, haven't you met him before?
Evelyn: I had never met him, I had no idea what he was like, nor had I paid attention to basketball, school sports, and I just went to come to school and nothing else. Well then, I said well, << What is this? My God, who is this person? >> And my best friend from class tells me, she says, << Evelyn, this is a very great privilege, you don't know, to be invited to the Prom by the school champion, by God! How lucky you have been! >>
Alessandra: Wow!
Evelyn: Well, well, I didn't know what to do, actually because everything came as a surprise to me. So, at noon at lunchtime in the cafeteria, I'm having lunch with my friends, and who's coming? The college champion comes with his entourage, with all his friends.
Alessandra: Very cliché of the--
Evelyn: Huh?
Alessandra: It's very cliché of American movies, right?
Evelyn: Yes, you know that the Prom theme is very common in American movies, for - youth movies, there are many themes that have to do with this.
Alessandra: What happened?
Evelyn: Then he comes with his entourage and I get to see him for the first time in my life, and he walks over to the other side of the table, and he-- and he lowers his head and says, << Could I invite you to Prom? It would be a great pleasure for me if you went with me. >> I said, << Of course. >> And later, he left with his entourage, he went back, I continued my lunch, and well. And then I don't know how-- I don't remember how we got to plan the pickup at our house, at my house, and all that. And when he came, well, he brought a corsage. That's a typical thing for--
Alessandra: But before this, you didn't have a dress, did you?
Evelyn: True. I forgot that part. Since I had no dresses, I told Eleneor Barbata who was acting like my mom, I said, << How am I going to go to a Prom? I don't have party dresses. >> At that time you-- it was not easy to go to a store and take a dress off a shelf, off a rack. And well, she told me, << Well, here are places where you can rent the dress. >>
Veronica: Or rent.
Evelyn: So she took me to a place and she was all on my side to go to the party, we weren't going to tell my parents because they didn't want me to go to parties or anything like that. So, we went to this place and well, they had beautiful dresses, difficult, difficult to choose a dress. I finally chose one, and it was pink and all tulle. The skirt was made of ruffles and ruffles and ruffles and ruffles of pure tulle, low-cut, very pretty--
Alessandra: That was the fashion.
Veronica: Was.
Alessandra: Was the fashion.
Evelyn: Very fashionable. You know it was the fifties. The skirts were well pushed,
no? And, but a beautiful, beautiful tulle dress, very simple, but very nice, all made of tulle. And I went to the senior prom. Then, later that month, I had-- I met a boy, he was the son of the United States senator who were friends, friends of my, my guardians of my dad's friends with whom we lived. Well the son-- Tom McIntyre, that was the name, and Gene McIntyre was the senator. He had a son, Tommy McIntyre, who had a friend that my sister Gloria invited to a party at our house one day. This friend and I never exchanged words, we never exchanged words during that party. And after a few days, this boy's mom calls on the phone, or the mom calls the boy's name and says to Eleneor, "Look, my son wants to go out to the Prom with your-- with Evelyn." So, Eleonor tells me when I get home from school, << You know that-- >> Right now I don't remember the boy right now, it seems incredible not to remember the name of the boy with whom I went to a Prom, but hey. He told me, << You know this boy wants to go to the Prom. >> But I don't even know him, I just saw him at the party, I don't know him. Well, he wants to go, he wants to invite you to his Prom. Imagine, two--
Veronica: Very fashionable. You know it was the fifties. The skirts were well pushed,
Was it a different Prom from the other, or the same Prom?
Evelyn: Yes, ah no. no, it's another prom. He was from a private college in San Francisco.
Veronica: Ah, okay.
Evelyn: The other was from my college, the first Prom was from my college, Abraham Lincoln High School. This was from a private school in San Francisco, for boys.
Alessandra: Okay.
Evelyn: Well then, so what? And again to look for a dress--
Alessandra: No, but you said, << Oh, I think you have the girl-- >>
Evelyn: Wrong, yes.
Alessandra: Wrong.
Evelyn: Yes, I thought-- absolutely, I thought he had gotten confused with Gloria, my sister, because he knew Gloria, and Gloria talked to him at the party and you know, they participated more, exchanged more during the party, I didn't, not at all. But no, he said, << No, it's Evelyn, Gloria's sister I want to go out with. >>
Alessandra: Was she mad at you?
Evelyn: She was a little-- yeah. Yes, because you imagine that she likes a boy and the boy invites his sister and not her. She did not get angry, I think she felt a little affected, because it was not her who that boy invited, but me. So then, I went to the Prom, and this time to choose the dress, we went to the same place, we looked at the same dresses, and I ended up with the very same dress from the first Prom, but this time, blue. The dress was in pink and blue, and this time I wore the blue dress.
Alessandra: And you were only a sophomore-- a sophomore.
Evelyn: And nothing-- go figure, just a sophomore. Hardly, hardly, hardly. And it was-- the dance was beautiful because it was at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco, which is a beautiful, luxury hotel. And well, it was very beautiful, and that was it. Never, they weren't-- we weren't dating, I wasn't the girlfriend of any of these guys or anything like that, but yes, it was a very beautiful experience, very, very nice, and beautiful memories of youth.
Alessandra: Did your parents find out?
Evelyn: Of course. And I showed them the photos and everything when I returned with them to Madrid, they saw all the photos.
Veronica: And what did they say?
Evelyn: No, very, very-- no, nothing, very enthusiastic and they laughed. And well, what were they going to say, right?
Veronica: Yes.
Alessandra: Yes, yes.
Veronica: Very fun, fun.
Evelyn: Very fun, yes. Over there I have a photo that I am going to show you.
Veronica: Yes, I would like to see it.
Evelyn: Of the blue dress, of the blue dress. Me in the blue dress. It is a small photo but taken by, by the parents of this boy. I was trying to find it on Google, but go figure, that was how many years? I was 14 or 15 years old, I'm 78 now, imagine how to find that on Google?
Veronica: Well, who knows? It depends on their job, on Facebook.
Evelyn: Yes, I have to look for him, yes.
Veronica: Yes, it would be interesting to know.
Evelyn: It would be interesting, but sometimes you know? I'm scared to look up the name because I'm scared that, that I might-- my contemporaries, many went to Vietnam. And later I learned with great pain that many boys with whom I went to school died in Vietnam. And sometimes I am afraid to look for those names by, for fear of finding out that they died in Vietnam.
Veronica: Yes, yes.
Evelyn: That is one of the reasons.
Alessandra: Wow. Well, thanks for telling us your story, it always makes me laugh to hear about your childhood.
Evelyn: My youth, my youth. Yes, my youth. I had to? Some-- I was about 15 or 14 years old at the time. I think he had just turned 15 years old. I was 14 or 15.
Alessandra: Yes, yes. You were very popular.
Evelyn: I don't think so, but obviously this kid-- this kid liked me at school. He saw me-- I didn't see him, I wasn't paying attention to him. And suddenly, I have a fan.
Alessandra: Good thank you! Have a very nice afternoon.
Evelyn: Thank you my love, you too, you too.
Veronica: Thank you, Mommy.
Evelyn: And that you enjoy it a lot.
Alessandra: Thanks for listening. Until next time!
Veronica: Bye!
Evelyn: Until next time! Little kisses.
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