Tag: Prom 1999

Strike a Pose

“We’d spent that year begging Dylan to get a haircut, to no avail, but I convinced him to tie his hair back into a ponytail with one of my own elastics for the prom. He put his prescription glasses in his pocket and donned a pair of small-framed sunglasses. We thought he looked very handsome.

Alison, our renter, came over and offered to take a picture of the three of us. In the picture, Dylan is clowning around, hamming it up like a professional model, Zoolander-style. The sharp lines of his formal wear stand in stark contrast to the faded flannel shirts and worn blue jeans Tom and I are wearing.

He kept his sunglasses on as he posed with us; he wore dark glasses often during the last weeks of his life. I believe now he was hiding behind them.”

— Sue Klebold, A Mother’s Reckoning 4.17.1999

crossposted: https://everlasting-contrast.newtumbl.com/

Father & Son

Father & Son
Getting ready for the prom aka “the best night of his life”. It would be the last time Dylan washed his hair, no doubt – damp hair and wet curls framing his face. A half annoyed half amused expression for his momma proudly, gleefully, snapping candid shots of her ‘handsome boy’ while dad wrestles with the bow tie and buttons all business-like. *sigh*
I think he’d be pretty dang mortified by his mom releasing this full-length photo revealing his boxers and bare legs. Oh well.. the cat was out of the bag long ago when his private writings were made very public. Nothing is sacred when you have chosen such a path – all is fodder for a mother’s 20/20 hindsight musing and dissective scrutiny.

“He stood patiently while Tom awkwardly twisted tiny pieces of metal and plastic through the many buttonholes. The bow tie stumped Tom, and Dylan wrestled it away to try it himself; together, the two consummate problem-solvers figured it out. I sat on the bed to keep them company and told Dylan he looked like Lee Marvin getting outfitted in Western finery in Cat Ballou, one of our family’s favorites. Both he and Tom laughed.

I had the camera, and Dylan tolerated a few shots before becoming self-conscious and
annoyed as usual. I tried to catch one of his reflection in the mirror without him noticing, but he grabbed a towel and flicked it to block the shot. I developed the roll a few months after his death, using an assumed name so the press wouldn’t get ahold of the pictures. In that photo, only a fragment of his face is visible behind the towel—a mischievous grin under tired eyes.

We’d spent that year begging Dylan to get a haircut, to no avail, but I convinced him to tie his hair back into a ponytail with one of my own elastics for the prom. He put his prescription glasses in his pocket and donned a pair of small-framed sunglasses. We thought he looked very handsome.”

— Sue Klebold, A Mother’s Reckoning

As an elementary school teacher in Littleton, Michelle “Mickey” Harvey Rahn said, her students fed into Columbine High School. She had taught Dylan Klebold, the shooter, for four years. He had been part of a group of 23 especially gifted students for whom several teachers organized a reunion each year so they could keep in touch. They had another reunion 10 days after the tragedy. 

I had a heart attack the night of Columbine,“ she said of the April 1999 Colorado high school massacre that stunned the nation. "Those were my kids.”

Rahn said one girl in the group had double-dated to prom with Klebold and one of the boys had played fantasy baseball with him just the night before his rampage. Neither had guessed what lay ahead; the entire group was devastated, Rahn said.

She said the night of the carnage she had heard the names of Dylan Klebold and Dave Sanders, the teacher who died after getting a number of students out of harm’s way, and literally suffered a heart attack; she spent the next six days in intensive care. “God gave me a second chance to do my lesson plans,“ she said. "I am grateful to do whatever he has in mind.”
[Source]  

[website]  [podcast]  [michellerahn.com]

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In the limo heading to prom, Jessica (Hughes) and Dylan chatted about a party both planned to attend in a couple weeks, a reunion for kids who’d been in the gifted program in elementary school.

He gushed about the upcoming reunion for kids from the gifted program in elementary school.  It would be fun hooking up again with the childhood smarties.  Dylan had volunteered to use his Blackjack connection to get some pizzas.

“He was all excited to see everyone,”Jessica said.

Robyn later told a friend that Dylan behaved gentlemanly on prom night, complimenting her on her dress. “They were holding hands and stuff,” said Jessica Hughes, one of the limo crowd.Jessica sat next to Robyn and Dylan during dinner at Bella Ristorante. There was a lot of silly joking between them, playing with knives and matches. “They were pretending to light themselves on fire,”  

Jessica said.Dylan ate a big salad, followed by a seafood dish with shells, mussels she thinks, then dessert. “I was like, my Lord,” Jessica said.
[Source]

“We’d spent that year begging Dylan to get a haircut, to no avail, but I convinced him to tie his hair back into a ponytail with one of my own elastics for the prom. He put his prescription glasses in his pocket and donned a pair of small-framed sunglasses.   We thought he looked very handsome. Alison, our renter, came over and offered to take a picture of the three of us. In the picture, Dylan is clowning around, hamming it up like a professional model, Zoolander-style.” – Sue Klebold, A Mother’s Reckoning

Prom Dylan – Hands Detail 

This is two of my favorite things (among a few other details) of Dylan in his former wear finery watching amusedly as Robyn delicately pin his boutonniere.

Warning!  Perfectly well-formed hands, long fingers and large fingernail beds may cause heart palpitations. View at your own risk.

What are best friends for?

Robyn later told a friend that Dylan behaved gentlemanly on prom night, complimenting her on her dress. “They were holding hands and stuff,” said Jessica Hughes, one of the limo crowd.

Jessica sat next to Robyn and Dylan during dinner at Bella Ristorante. There was a lot of silly joking between them, playing with knives and matches. "They were pretending to light themselves on fire,” Jessica said.

Dylan ate a big salad, followed by a seafood dish with shells, mussels she thinks, then dessert. “I was like, my Lord,” Jessica said.

do you really think Dylan asked that Marla girl to prom? because I feel like he would of written about it in his journal? And he & his parents said he didn’t want to go to prom & his parents payed him like $100 to go with Robyn Anderson.

This is an interesting ask and I’ve thought about this myself on occasion – so thanks for it. 🙂 

Marla Foust states this in the 11k: 
“Did know Dylan. He asked her to this year’s prom, but she already had a date. Would not have went if she already had a date.”

Robyn Anderson states this in the 11k:
“Robyn stated the only thing that Dylan might have said to her regarding the Columbine High School shooting massacre was that when she asked him to go to prom with her he wanted to know what date she was referring to or what weekend the prom was going to be held.  When she told him it was the weekend of the 17th, she could only think that he was thinking of when this tragic event was going to take place. “Robyn stated that he was reluctant to go to the prom but that he did so as a favor to her.” ..and in this interview: [source] “The only thing that I can ever think — I mean, just randomly, when he asked me what day prom was. And I told him, you know, it was, you know, a weekend — you know, two weekends away, and he asked me what day, and I told him the 17th. And it seemed like he had something else, you know, going on after that. That’s the only thing I can think of that really kind of says, you know, that he had other plans, you know, that…

Robyn states that she asked Dylan to the prom and he “wanted to know what date” the prom was.   So, based on this, we know that Dylan would likely not have asked Marla to the prom before Robyn asked him because he wouldn’t have known when the prom was and it’s proximity to NBK.  Most especially, I do not think Dylan would accept going to the prom ‘as a favor’ to his close friend Robyn and then underhandedly ask Marla after his commitment to Robyn.  Dylan was especially loyal to his friends; it’s why he managed to maintain his friendships.  Loyalties aside, Dylan was also timid with girls. He had never been to dances and claimed to dislike them.   His awkwardness would not have allowed him the nerve to ask another girl out, even one that he reeeeally liked, after his female friend had just spared him the embarrassment by asking him out first.   Firstly, for Dylan, it would have been majorly embarrassing to ask any girl out to prom, let alone, a hypothetical Dream Girl from his journal (if it’s even Marla ), and secondly, even if he did do so, Dylan would then have to manage damage control by telling Robyn that he wanted to go to the prom with another girl, who accepted his ask, and there is just no way in hell that Dylan what have the balls to pull that off. That would be a mess that would cause him great anxiety.  Dylan would feel pretty sheepish about himself for breaking his commitment to Robyn and acting like a royal douche bag player. I think he valued his friendship with Robyn, he did her a favor and agreed to her ask and his character is such that he would not be sneaky in asking another girl behind Robyn’s back.   

I know that Marla says that Dylan asked her out in her statement but I question the validity of that simply based on the fact that Dylan didn’t even know when prom was.  The only thing on his mind was when NBK would occur (basically what amounted to his grandiose suicide mission) and thinking of the reward that awaited him: the happiness in the Halcyons, with the ideal Muse of his dreams.  For him to make the actual effort to ask a girl he liked to prom would’ve taken too much effort – it was a ‘human thing to do’ and he was already checked out of that sort of superficial minutia. If Dylan hypothetically asked Marla out and she refused, you can bet he would’ve omitted that from ‘the reality’ of his journal.  Conversely, he didn’t write about going to prom with Robyn and a bunch of friends either.  Dylan rarely, if ever, wrote about specific happenings in his life.  Less than one percent of his journal is superfluous tidbits like ‘the church rec thing was fun’. He tended to write figuratively about his concepts and feelings and not about actual events that he was a part of in life.. likely because he didn’t feel much a part of them. 

Also, to be fair, Dylan’s parents gave Dylan money so that he could properly enjoy the prom with Robyn. The expenses likely took care of the dinner out, his tuxedo, Robyn’s corsage, split limo costs, money for the gambling table After Prom. So, I don’t think it’s fair assessment to assume that Dylan’s parents bribed him to go.  It was an encouragement gift – sort of a “we, your parents, support you in having a very fun time at your senior prom” type thing. And they knew Dylan required that little extra incentive nudge because of his social reticence.