I remember my first prom well. It was May 27th, 1994 and I had a beautiful Japanese exchange student from Kyoto, Japan at my side. She was 17 like me and spoke pretty good english. We had met a few months earlier at Obsessions Nightclub in Randolph, New Jersey. Being from Randolph myself, Obsessions was a place for teenagers to go every Friday night for dancing, soda pops and hopes of getting to 2nd or 3rd base with a date. I wore a nice suit and brought my date, who wore an amazing peach / reddish dress, her corsage. We didn't take a limo, we went 21 Jump Street style as I borrowed my parents iRoc Z 28 convertible. We arrived at the event at the Sheraton hotel in Whippany, NJ and were greeted by our principal Mr. Decker who told me "I'll have my eye on you tonight Mr. Chadwick". It must have been because I was always doing pranks at my high school like using the pay phone to call the principal and make fart noises while I had him on the line, or maybe it was because I was always getting caught trying to filch candy bars at the vending machine or maybe it was because I was always getting caught doing 1 of hundreds of other silly things we as kids always did. But tonight I was on my best behavior until, of course, the 2nd overtime in Game 7 came on TV between the NY Rangers and the NJ Devils. I got caught sipping a beer at the bar at 17 but I guess since it was the prom and I was going to graduate soon Mr. Decker let it all slide and plopped his fat rear down at the bar next to me and watched along as eventually Stephane Mattaeu scored and sent the NY Rangers to the Stanley Cup. The whole bar went nuts and my Rangers were moving on.

I flash forward to May 14th 2011. I find myself in Hoboken, NJ out and about on Saturday night with some good weather. Having just finished off the filet mignon tapas at Lola's uptown with a friend, I was left with an open slate and nothing to do. The Hoboken Rotary had a 1980's prom going on over at the Elks Club on Washington St. A night for those of us that failed miserably back in the day or wanted to just go and relive old memories and have a great time. I, for a week prior to this 80's prom asked a few gals I knew if they wanted to attend and all of them had plans. I had a choice to make, go alone or just not go. I didn't have any 80's garb to thrown on so if I went it would be a 2011 look with a 1980's attitude. I decided to go and as I approached the event, I got my Jeff Spicoli mindset on. As I neared the Elks I could hear 80's music blaring down the street. I entered and paid my entry fee and immediately felt like I was literally back in 1988. As I made my way through the smaller than expected crowd, Tone Loc was busting his move on the speakers and I was making my hellos and greeting event organizers and attendees.

The party was almost half way over but I had a little catching up to do so I had me a few cold beers and asked the DJ to play a song for me, a song that when I used to dance to it it made the gals go wild. "HIT IT, I WANNA ROCK RIGHT NOW, I'M ROB BASE AND I CAME TO GET DOWN, I'M NOT INTERNATIONALLY KNOWN, BUT I'M KNOWN TO ROCK THE MICROPHONE". My running man instincts kicked in and I was moving like Kid N Play could only dream they could have moved. After 45 seconds I was covered in sweat but it felt great. All throughout the rest of the night the crowd was wooed by old favorites like Nena's 99 Luftballoons and hits from the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Def Lepard and Poison.

The night closed out around 11 and party goers made their way home or to Elysian next door to keep the night going. Everyone in attendance appeared to have had a nice time and everyone drew a great sweat. I soon realized that when I got home that night that I was humorously 0-2 in the "getting to a base" department on a prom night. There is always future proms to attend though, hopefully Mr. Decker won't be at it :P