GILLETTE, Wyo. (AP) - Five minutes before 6 on a snowy Tuesday night, a dozen residents of the Legacy Living and Rehabilitation Center in Gillette sat around an empty dance floor in their wheelchairs waiting for the party to start.
A four-piece band was setting up instruments when a singer behind the keyboard gave the crowd a bummer of an announcement.
“We left the cord to the drum set back at home,” he said. The crowd didn’t make a peep.
Streamers hung from the ceiling. Most of the crowd wore masquerade-type masks. Some went all out and wore golden, glittery jewelry on their heads, necks and did their makeup accordingly.
The keys on the piano started to play. The first notes made ears perk up, heads lift.
It was Ernest Tubb’s “Walk Across Texas.” That song holds a special place in Karen Brigham’s heart. When she was growing up in Iowa, she would listen to the Saturday Night Jamboree on her brother’s AM radio and always looked forward to Tubb’s country song.
Toes tapped to the song. Some mouthed the words. Minutes later, J.B. King, the band’s lead singer, came running through the crowd with the drum cord. They were ready to rock the fourth annual Prom Night, the first at the new Legacy Center.
A NIGHT OUT
Marla Russell is the activity director at the Legacy. The idea for the residents of Pioneer Manor, the old name and building for long-term care in Campbell County, was first talked about in 2014.
The staff wanted to provide a night of fun and escape. They wanted to provide music, dancing and entertaining for the residents to clear their minds of the struggles they go through daily.
It was an opportunity for the residents to feel young again.
“It is such a great event,” Russell said. “It’s so encouraging to see them getting up, dancing, using those muscles. It’s wonderful for the residents and the staff.”
Russell said that big events like this, along with the Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and Christmas events, are a huge factor when trying to boost morale around the building.
“Our residents and our staff talk about this days before and sometimes weeks after,” Russell said. “They can’t get enough out of talking about how much fun they had, who they danced with, how the band was. It really is a great night for all of us.”
Jonni Belden, the administrator of the Legacy Center, said she loves those types of events most of all.
“Seeing the smiles on all of their faces,” Belden said. “I love seeing them all so happy.”
A TRIP BACK IN TIME
Marilyn Calvert barely remembers her prom - not because her memory is going or that it was too long ago, but because all the fun happened after prom.
“My boyfriend and I at the time, we went out behind the church in town and had us a nice little picnic,” Calvert said. “We brought snacks and soda pop and sat around the fire.”
The two guys she was with started the fire, which soon caught the attention of the priest who hollered at the size of their fire at the post-prom picnic. The boys calmed down the priest and no harm was done.
Calvert remembers her pink, layered dress and how she felt especially pretty. But as soon as prom was over, she felt relieved to change into more comfortable clothes for the picnic.
A few years earlier, Calvert’s future husband of 65 years, Harold, was at a prom of his own.
“I’ve never been much of a dancer,” he said. “I always said I had two left legs on the dance floor.”
Harold’s prom night was highlighted by what happened after as well. He said he traveled north across the state border to Montana because at that time, guys and gals could get into bars there at a younger age.
“It was me and three other girls,” he said, mentioning he doesn’t remember any funny business happening. Just plain old-fashioned fun.
When hearing the band play the Tubb song, Karen Brigham was flushed with memories about the prom she attended in 1957 with the theme “An Evening in Paris.”
“There might have been 50 people in my graduating class,” she said. “Now I don’t remember a lot about prom. We had our fun. We all went as a group if I remember, but a few years later I was set up with a guy who had just come out of the service.”
Just then, Brigham tapped on her husband’s shoulder who was sitting in a wheelchair in front of her.
While Brigham was dancing the night away during her Paris-themed prom, her future husband, who she would meet a few years later, was serving in the United States military and was stationed in Paris, France.
“Isn’t that something?” she said.
Reba Dorsett is 98 years old. She attended a school with a graduating class of nine in Worland. During the Great Depression, there was no time for dances.
Her daughter, Donna Bennett, said she remembers attending prom back in 1968 with her whole school of about 100 in Hulett.
At the time, there was no flower shop in town, so they had to import them from a town over.
“Decorating the gym and the festivities before were almost as fun as the prom itself,” Bennett said.
Just a week ago, Bennett cleaned out some closets in her home and finally donated her own daughter’s first prom dress. She said she paid $150 for it, a pretty penny back in the day.
“I don’t know if that dress got a lot of use,” she said. “Passing them on is always a good idea.”
Marjorie Turner wouldn’t say yes to just anyone for her prom back in 1946.
“My main concerns were my dress, primarily, and that I had a date who was good looking and had prestige,” she said.
She remembers her prom because it was right around the time the second World War ended and morale around the country could not have been better.
Gasoline was readily available; kids could ride around and get their kicks. The generation was free to move, dance and have a good time. Much like the same generation was 70 years later at the Legacy.
“It’s so nice for the band to come out and do things like this for us,” Turner said. “Usually, a crowd like this only comes out to bingo. This is a big crowd.”
At this point in the night, nearly every resident at the Legacy was crowded around the dance floor, taking turns spinning in their wheelchairs to the music, clapping their hands, tapping their feet, grinning from ear to ear, taken back in time for a bit for a night out at prom.
As the night came to a close, Belden and other Legacy employees danced with residents. A photo booth was set up so prom attendees could take pictures with the band and other guests.
For one of the last moments of the night, nurses, aides and administrators spun residents in their chairs as they played air guitar to a classic Bob Seeger tune.
That kind of music just soothes the soul
I reminisce about the days of old
With that old time rock ’n’ roll
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Information from: The Gillette (Wyo.) News Record, https://www.gillettenewsrecord.com
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