The dames and mugs will be all dolled up

By ANDREW MCGINN
a.mcginn@beeherald.com

The discovery Monday by students that a decorative cardboard silhouette of a Jazz Age flapper is clutching a cigarette holder is, hopefully, the worst thing that can happen to Greene County High School’s 1920s-themed prom.

But for Teresa Green, the business teacher who’s coordinated more than three decades of local proms as junior class adviser, it nevertheless had to be dealt with in an era when even movies have to caution when they contain scenes of “historical smoking.”

“Can you cut that off?” Green asked as students were beginning to decorate the Elks Lodge for Saturday night’s junior-senior prom, “The Roaring ’20s.”
When Green took on the role of junior class adviser 33 years ago, it’s conceivable that students smoked right on the dance floor.

After all, smoking in the U.S. peaked in 1981. Americans consumed 640 billion cigarettes that year.

But while Green has seen societal norms change right alongside hair, clothes and music, one thing that hasn’t changed, surprisingly, are the students themselves.

“Everybody says kids are bad,” she said. “I totally disagree. The thing that’s changed is that they’re busier now. They’re pulled in a lot of directions.”

That’s a big reason why Green ended up keeping the kind of job that’s typically dumped onto an unsuspecting new staff member.

And in a community like Jefferson, the prom is, frankly, a really big deal.

Where else will you find bleachers set up for community members to watch the “grand march” of spiffed-up students arrive Saturday at the Elks Lodge?

Early on, Green recruited industrial technology instructor Dave Destival and language arts teacher Randy Reuter to help — and for 31 years, the three veteran teachers have attended more proms than they ever thought possible.

“We kind of have it down to a science,” Green said.
She doubts there’s been a longer-standing team in the entire state.

“We enjoy doing it,” Destival said. “It’s great to see the kids have a fun evening.”

For better or for worse, they’ve watched the culture evolve before their eyes.

There was the Minneapolis band — back in the ’80s, when live bands still provided the music — that had to cancel at nearly the last minute.

It seems they landed in jail for doing cocaine at a different high school.

Hey, it was the ’80s.

Dance styles have, ahem, changed as well.

“They bump in more places than they used to,” Destival confessed.

One song, however, has transcended time — “YMCA.”

“You’ve got to have fun with it and maintain a sense of humor,” Green said.

Just don’t ask her to rattle off previous prom themes.

When asked the theme of last year’s prom, she came up with everything — including “Seaside Serenade” and “Enchantment Under the Sea” — than what it was.
It was actually just “Under the Sea.”

“They all blend together,” she said.

This year’s 1920s theme — with presumably more of an emphasis on “The Great Gatsby” than the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre — is believed to be a first.

“We’ve repeated a lot of tropical themes. I have a lot of tropical decorations,” said Green, whose classroom is home to a weird mix of computers and glue guns.

Every class wants to be unique — but few succeed.

“We’ve had guys who’ve come as girls, and girls who’ve come as guys. That’s a given,” Destival said.

Of course, there are moments no one wants to repeat, like the year a student almost died on the dance floor from an allergic reaction to eating shellfish for the first time.

“We try to keep it as boring as we can for us,” Destival said.

As a seasoned prom-goer, though, Green is prepared for anything.

“I always bring hairspray,” she said. “And I always have safety pins.

“Things tend to fly off.”