Students find prom fun without alcohol

BANGOR – In the last few weeks, Nicole spent “$500 to $600 easily” on a dress and accessories for her senior prom. Kate, “close to a thousand.” Five hundred of that was for a limousine. For Kaylee, a couple hundred.

They bought dresses and had them altered. Their hair was professionally coifed at beauty salons. Acrylic nails were glued to their fingertips. Add jewelry, shoes and purses that match their formal gowns, polish for their toenails, hosiery – even gasoline to make the trips through town to put the ensemble together – and the night of their high school careers had a pretty hefty price tag.

Missing from all that was alcohol. Not on prom night. The effects of it would cost them something more than their wardrobe – a memory.

“I’m not looking to get smashed and throwing up or feeling sick tomorrow or worrying about what I did when I was drunk,” Kaylee said Saturday.

“Or not remembering,” Nicole added.

Throughout the Bangor region on Friday and Saturday nights, high schools held their senior proms. Dinner reservations were made. Tuxedos were rented. Parties were planned for afterward – some at camps and some at their parents’ homes.

The seniors planned on staying up all night.

About 20 Bangor and Brewer high school students spoke Saturday to a Bangor Daily News reporter about what they expected – or experienced – at their senior prom. The students gave only their first names so they could speak freely about their impressions of prom night.

Many of the students said they have had alcoholic drinks in the past, but they all said they weren’t going to drink on prom night.

One student wanted, however, to talk about the pressure teens are under to drink on prom night.

“Ninety-eight percent will be drinking tonight [Saturday],” she said. “It’s expected. It’s traditional.”

The teens, she said, would use buyers – people over the age of 21 – to purchase the alcohol for them. Fake identification cards, she said, “are too risky.”

“You can get pretty much anything. Things are pretty easily accessible,” said another student.

The girl said she is aware of the risks associated with alcohol – overdoing it, having drugs slipped into her drink, the possibility of being raped, and suffering injuries or death if in a drinking-and-driving accident.

Her parents imposed a curfew.

“I’m going home right after the prom,” she said, a bit dismayed that she would not be taking part in the all-night gatherings. “You’re always vulnerable no matter what situation you’re in or where you’re at,” Kaylee said about what could happen when intoxicated. “You just have to watch yourself and know your limits.”

“Basically you make your own decisions,” Kate said about prom night or any other night. “I decided not to drink, smoke or do drugs.”

Parental involvement was key to several of the teens’ decisions not to drink on prom night. While some parents chaperoned the dance, many wanted to help their children enjoy the experience by throwing parties for them at their homes. Movies were rented. Food and soft drinks were put out on tables. Pizza was being made. Music played on stereos.

“They’re fun,” said Kaylee of friend Nicole’s parents, who were hosts for an after-prom party. “When we’re dancing, they’ll come in and dance with us.”

That was another incentive not to drink on prom night, Hannah said.

“I wouldn’t want my friend’s parents seeing me like that, knowing what I could do,” she said. “It’s embarrassing.”

At Henry’s Formals in Bangor, Corey, Nigel and Ben were returning their tuxedos Saturday afternoon after a night of alcohol-free partying with their friends after Brewer High School’s prom. The most any of them had slept was 30 minutes. Ben took the Scholastic Aptitude Test on Saturday morning.

They knew that many of their friends were drinking Friday night. They chose not to.

“We’re out to have a good time, not hurt anybody,” Nigel said.

At their party, some went running around in the dark of night while others went skinny-dipping in a lake. They made pizza and watched a Tom Green movie.

They also played the board game “Life.”

“I though it was fun,” Nigel said. “I like that game.”