James Madison High School and Prom

Edith Smart @2012

High school may not have been fun for everyone, but it was for me. Probably the best years of my life! Because I fell in love. Roy was a big shot in the little high school annex we attended. He was tall for his age. He had been elected president of that little place. I was biology librarian. But that was only the beginning.

The drama society put on a play at the end of our first term. In the second term there wasn’t a teacher available to take over, so I was given the rare opportunity to do it. Boy was I in heaven! Acting was my first love, but directing was my dream. WOW! At 14 and a half my dream was coming true.

Other things were happening also. Roy and I started dating. By now at 15 we were in the main building of our James Madison High School. There were dances in the gym at the end of each basketball game Friday after Friday. One really big date was going to see “Hell’s a Poppin” on Broadway. It was a birthday celebration for a friend of Roy’s from camp.

In spring we would take the trolley to Coney Island and ride the roller coaster and eat hot dogs and Cracker Jacks.My first kiss came one evening in the vestibule of my house. He said he loved me, and I said the same. The years were filled with classes in school, and we both got good grades but I needed help in math. Roy was good in everything.

Senior Prom was the main event in June 1940. We had both doubled up on our classes to graduate in 3 and ½ years. I shopped for a formal at Altman’s in the City. It was white floral printed taffeta, off the shoulders and full length. We shared a cab with another couple because the event was at the hotel Pierre on Park Avenue. All the girls wore evening gowns, and the boys wore tux’s. I am not sure if it was Benny Goodman or Tommy Dorsey who provided the music. Food was light there. And to top off the evening we went to the Cotton Club in Harlem for a late dinner. Cab Callaway was there. Nothing else in my young life, or maybe ever, can compare with that wonderful June evening in 1940.