Seniors mark return of Saturday dances with prom-themed soirée

Two St. John's friends finally got the chance to attend their prom this weekend, some 60 years after they attended grade school.

Jean Pearce and Shirley Quinlan could barely sit still in the hours leading up to the senior prom dinner and dance held Saturday at branch 1 of the Royal Canadian Legion on Blackmarsh Road in St. John's.

"I think it's going to be more exciting for us now, because we're older," Quinlan said while getting gussied up for the event Saturday afternoon. "All these years later, and we're finally going to have a prom." 

Saturday's event was one of the first major social gatherings the legion had hosted since the start of the pandemic. The evening featured a three-course dinner, with dancing to follow.

The legion's dining hall was decked out in white table cloths, red ribbons, and multi-coloured balloons. On the stage sat a number of prize packages, and two gilded crowns lay on a table in the entrance, waiting to be bestowed upon the yet-to-be-named prom king and queen.

Pearce, who helped organize the event, said members had been feeling the need to get together for a while. 

"They're all up in age," she said. "And they have nothing to do."