A MOMENT’S NOTICE: A picture perfect moment

Littleton —

It was a perfect evening. The sun glinted off the bejeweled dresses as the girls turned to embrace a friend or smile for a picture. The boys traded low-slung jeans for a vest coordinated with a suit or tux and boutonnière.

I love this event, when it is the parents who sport jeans and tees, and trail after their children with camera in tow, trying to keep up with the parade of photos that document this event. The pre prom gathering in Faye Park shows off our upper class students like no other. I didn’t have a child attending this year, but these are the people she has known since kindergarten. I recognize some, and others are obvious older versions of themselves, but still others are familiar but I can’t quite place the name.

The park is flooded with people as they arrive, girls holding dresses up in an effort to keep from trampling long hems while simultaneously trying to keep tall heels from taking on clumps of dirt. Everyone is in various stages of excitement, or effort at not looking too excited. Parents, too, are in different states of nostalgia, disbelief, and admiration.

I am delighted to learn that people are going in both traditional pairs, and also as threesomes, solo, or with friends. The boundaries and expectation invite variation.

It is a colorful mix of blacks and grays, pastels and bold hues, as the kaleidoscope of moving people creates new color palettes and combinations. The park is lined with cars and limos, a looooong stretch hummer standing like a bookend to the event.

We watch as the flow begins to head back to the vehicles, and I turn for home, hoping that this group will carry their good cheer to the prom itself. My theory is that the DJ drives the party and I send up a good thought that they have chosen wisely. May this be a night that proceeds with all the enthusiasm and momentum with which it has begun.

Meg Stafford is a longtime Littleton resident, psychotherapist and executive coach. She takes delight in observing the terrific variety and creativity of human quirks. Stafford is also the author of “Topic of Cancer: Riding the Waves of the Big C.”

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