They wanted a Beaker Prom. Because "we never had proms when we were at school."
No. We had discos. Where spotty boys in pork pie hats and winklepickers would pogo in a desperate attempt to take their minds off their failures with girls. Then kick the loo door in. Then a quick smooch, if people got lucky, to "Three Times a Lady" before the rousing encore of "Another Brick in the Wall" (Part 2, as Burton insists on telling me). I can still taste the luke-warm coke and furtive Embassy fags.
So we've had a Prom. They wanted a 1980 Theme Prom.
So bald blokes in pork pie hats and winklepickers have been pogoing in a desperate attempt to recover their youth, but not for too long for fear of heart attacks. They daredn't kick the loo door in, in case it brought on an attack of gout or arthritis. Then a quick smooch, if people got lucky, to "Three Times a Lady" before the rousing encore of "Another Brick in the Wall" (Part 2, as we are now all aware). I'm just glad we've banned smoking, and I've got gin as an alternative to Coke.
Plus ca change, plus c'est plus vieux. As the Young Parisians almost certainly don't say.
At an apposite point, while listening to an after dinner speech at an international mathemtics conference, my husband leaned over to the French mathematician sitting next to him and said, "plus ca change ...". to which the Frenchman replied, "I'm sorry, I do not understand what you mean."
ReplyDeleteIt turns out that this is a French quotation that only the English ever use.
Please do not repeat this story in polite company - because there are many middle aged, spreading people, who will be trying to struggle into their drainpipes, winklepickers and trilby's (MOD TOGS) and failing.
ReplyDeleteNow, where did I put my Trilby?