Fashions promgoers wear these days have changed quite a bit from only a generation ago.
In 1977, I was a senior at Sacred Heart High School in Vineland. And I attended the 1977 SHHS senior prom.
Truth be told, for me, the event didn't kick off with the rental of my tuxedo; I was heavily involved with prom preparations. That year, the senior prom was held in the ballroom at the Holiday Inn; I worked there and was able to get a reduced rental rate.
And, as a member of the prom committee, meetings were often held at my house. At one meeting, the vote was made to use "Harbor Lights" by Boz Scaggs as the theme for the event.
So, the SHHS prom committee started on the decorations to support the theme. One prop we built was a wonderful bridge for couples to enter the venue.
The bridge, built in a two-story barnlike structure on my family's property, was flawed in its design. It was steep. The problem? We didn't take into account the platform shoes and high heels the attendees would be wearing, our design snafu made the "promenade" quite an adventure for those who attended.
No injuries were reported.
MORE: Vintage photos around New Jersey
In the days before Photoshop, options were limited if some editing of a prom photo was desired. Fashions promgoers wear these days have changed quite a bit from my teenage years ... and that's a good thing, at least for the guys. After decades of extraordinarily classy outfits, as shown in many of the photos in this gallery, the '70s kind of devolved into the ugliest polyester outfits one could imagine.
While the young women of the time went out of their way to look their best, they'd be excused for photoshopping their escorts out of their keepsake photos from that period.
Thankfully, class is making a comeback. When my son attended his junior prom last year, I was very pleasantly surprised to see quite tasteful and classy wool-blend tuxedos for rent, without a swatch of polyester in sight.
Here's a gallery of vintage prom photos from around New Jersey. Be sure to enable captions for all the information about each picture.
Can't get enough? Another gallery can found be with a mouse click on all these blue words.
Greg Hatala may be reached at ghatala@starledger.com. Follow him on Twitter @GregHatala. Find The Star-Ledger on Facebook.