Tag: prom

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

Do you think Dylan genuinly enjoyed prom night?

I think he dreaded it at first and was looking forward to it being over. However, I think he found himself kind of pleasantly surprised in the midst of it all and by something he thought he would loathe so much. He was surrounded by some people he knew in the limo, some of which were part of the same gifted program in elementary school. They were all cutting loose and joking around. He was at ease enough with Robyn, enough to compliment how she looked and to hold hands with her as she initated that with him. The two clowned around over dinner pretending to light themselves on fire ( and what’s not to love here, hm?) Robyn and Devon managed to coax him out on the dance floor, and Devon got him to slooow dance with him to “Take My Breathe Away” – I mean, how is this miracle possible????!! Well, it apparently it was and so he must have felt o…k enough in himself to participate as much as he did – and part of that may have had to do with the fact that he was living this as if it was his ‘last party on the earth’. Celebration before death day countdown. He was going to do everything at that dance for the very first and very last time in his life, so why not? Just let go. Eric wasn’t there to set boundaries that he shouldn’t dance because ‘it’s ridiculous looking’. Dylan was with people that wanted to pull him in and get him to participate. That’s what he did to the best of his ability. 😊 Later, at After Prom, he got to rejoin up with Eric and his other dudes and they hit the gambling tables. I’m sure he was good at poker and figuring out all the right card deck moves and the right advantages to win. Guys eat that sort of stuff up, and he was no exception. Then Robyn took him home.. I love how Robyn drove him to and from prom – very cute that she was a bit ‘in charge’ that way because she claimed him to be the dude to go with her to prom. 😏 Yeah, I think he had a pretty good time, certainly better than he ever expected or hoped for.  Sue mentions that Dylan was actually effusive when he got home and confessed to her  “I had the best night of my life” according to her book “A Mother’s Reckoning”. I think that he meant that genuinely..that it was a pleasant surprise.

thewarmestseasofpurehappiness:

“They showed me family photo albums and home videos. I was particularly struck by a video of Dylan on his way to his prom, three days before the massacre. He’s a little churlish in the mode of adolescents, but also has a sweetness about him; he seems like a nice kid. It would never have occurred to me that he could be on the verge of wanton destruction. His long hair pulled back in a neat ponytail, he’s adjusting his rented tuxedo and complaining that the arms are a little short, smiling while his date puts on his boutonniere. ‘Dad, why are you filming this?’ he asks. Then he laughs and says, ‘Well, someday I’ll watch it again, and I’ll wonder what I was thinking.’ It was impressive dissembling, because he imparts the feeling of someone who will one day remember being dressed up, with a pretty girl, on the way to the biggest party of his life.”

                                       —Andrew Solomon, Far From the Tree

ericharrisblog:

Saturday, April 17

Cigarettes. A white stretch limo. A girl in a royal-blue prom dress and soft blonde curls. She’s holding his hand.

This was one of Dylan Klebold’s last nights.

Prom night for Columbine. Hardly the outsider, he was one of a dozen dressed-up kids who piled into a limo and dined at a ritzy LoDo restaurant. Then it was off to the dance at the Design Center on South Broadway in Denver.

Dylan wore a black tuxedo, a pink rosebud tucked into his lapel. His long wavy hair slicked back into an uncooperative ponytail.

His date was Robyn Anderson, now a valedictorian contender with her straight-A average. She asked him to the prom — just as friends.

In recent months, Robyn and Dylan’s relationship had been wobbling along that murky territory between friendship and romance.

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.

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

Dylan even agreed to bring pizza because he worked at Blackjack.

Back in the limo, no one was drinking anything stronger than Pepsi, Jessica recalled.

The car’s TV was off. The radio was turned to a hard-rock station and on so low the kids drowned out the music. They were being, well, normal goofy teens enjoying themselves. Cameras flashing. Lipstick smiles. Whisking through the night in a mirrored-ceiling car.

“We were flipping people off because the windows were so dark. We were making fun of people,” Jessica said.

Dylan even talked of everyone staying in touch after he left for college in three months.

“He was in a really great mood that night,” another friend in the limo, Monica Schuster, said.