Prom Ride on a Tandem Bike

I know a woman who is a fan of blues music like me. For the past few months, every time I run into her, she has insisted that I go to the Prom Ride. I really never was clear about what she was describing, but I knew that it involved prom clothes and bicycles, so I decided to give it a go.

I had resolved that I would go for the ride, whatever that entailed, but that I wouldn't dress up. But when a friend called and asked if wanted to do the Prom Ride on a vintage Schwinn tandem bike, I knew I had to dress for the occasion. We – both riders and the bike — dressed up in full prom regalia: coordinated, formal, black and red, prom clothes for the riders; handlebar streamers, bicycle bells, and Thing One, Cat in the Hat and a few other Dr. Seuss stuff animals in the baskets for the tandem bike. At the last minute, a couple of other friends with classic Schwinn bikes and perfectly too-small, thrift-store, prom clothes decided to ride along us.

We rode a few miles to a downtown bar where the prom-goers were to meet. The date was June 6, but it was only 50°F when we set out around 7:00 in the evening. Prom clothes are neither warm nor wind-resistant. We rode through traffic to the meeting place and we laughing as we watched people in all kinds of prom clothes pulling up on all kinds of bikes. There were long taffeta skirts, short tight little dresses, tiaras, plunging necklines, tuxes with tails, tuxes without tails, ill-fitting checkered jackets that looked like someone had to have died in them, wife-beater shirts with cummerbunds, men in prom dresses and women in suits. A few riders wore proper prom shoes, but sensible bicycling shoes were pretty much the order of the night. We went inside and mingled a little until we found the free popcorn.

Pretty soon, word spread that the promenade was about to begin. People filed outside, found their bikes and saddled up. There was a rider with a stereo on a wagon behind his bike. We started down the street, with the music playing. There were 125 riders. We trailed through downtown where everyone rang their bells each time we turned or went through an intersection. We came to a round-about and the group kept circling until all 125 riders were included in the locutions. We came to a big city park with a fountain and a carousel. All 125 riders paused and circled around the fountain together, with the lighted carousel in the background.

We came to a paved bike path that crossed a college campus. The path had bridges that arched up over the streets. It wound along a river. After about seven miles of riding and bell-ringing and laughing, we arrived at a resort on the outskirts of the city. Everyone pulled up, dismounted, and filed into the court yard where dance music was already playing. There was a bench draped in red tulle with a backdrop of big heart-shaped wire frames covered with white string lights. It was a prom, after all, and there's always a place to pose for photos at the prom. There was a long table filled with cupcakes arranged like a winding path connected by yellow dots of frosting like the lines down the middle of a road. There were little bicycle party favors riding down the cupcake road.

The party was just getting going by the time I left, but I had a 10 mile ride home and it was already 11:00. I went to a couple of proms in high school, but I don't remember anything about them. The Prom Ride, on the other hand, was a prom I'll never forget. I'll go again next year, and I'm already thinking about what I'm going to wear.