Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1954-06-12
After
Eliminated by
AlI-Night Prom
Anucostic Students
Kept Out of Trouble
By ch0peroned Affoir
By Fronk Sortwell

Some 45O Anacostia High
School students and friends to-
day were recovering each in his
own way-from q night-long
senior prom.
Some went home for sleep.
Others took OF for the beach
to continue the party. 9
The. eight-and-one- half hour
affair, a repeat performance
from last year designed to keep
the kids out Of trouble after the
big dance. began at $50 pm. in
the schools gyms.
The boys in their summer
tuxedos and girls IN their frilly
dresses swirled about the floor
and drank fruit punch in the
corridors.
Shifts Of Chaperones.
Around the dance floor sat the
first shift of chaperones. Three
other shifts-a total of about 100
were to follow. Some stuck 1t
out to the dragging end.
At midnight the dancing
ceased. The celebrators filed out
under a long canopy to the street
where buses waited to take them
to a movie.
Mrs. Opal Cookery. principal.
had the parking gate locked to
remove temptation from those
who might have wanted to drive
the three blocks to the AnacoStia
Theater. Or Someplace else.
Under the watchful eyes OF the
Rev. George Reid of Assumption
parish and Capt. William I.
Murphy of No. IL precinct-the
teen-agers got on the buses.
The teen-agers saw KNOCK on
Wood" with Danny Kaye, whose
antics aroused considerable
laughter, but not enough to keep
all the chaperones in the back
rows awake.
Past His Bedtime.
Father Reid did not go to the
show. It was. he said. past his
bedtime. However he heartily
Endorsed the all-night party.
Why?
"I've seen proms before" he
said. "I've seen them the stu
dents) wander off afterward. I
went to public high school my
self"
BY the time Mr.. Kaye had
triumphantly married the her.
oine-2:45 a.m.-there were a
few yawns among the party. The
buses carried them back to the
school, where they we're greeted
by fog from the Anacostia River.
cooler temperatures, and a vol
ley of song from a mockingbird.
The party goers entered the
school in evening dress at the
front door, and came out the
back, for the most part, in bath
ing suits, They walked to the
nearby swimming pool and min
iature golf course. Some dived,
swan, splashed and ducked. A
few unabaShedly slept.
A towel-draped fellow from
the West Coast said the all-night
socializing was much better than
the custom where he came from
-"after big dance there every
body goes out, gets drunk and
gets in fights"
A sophisticated young lady de-
clared it wasn't as much fun as
last year-the novelty had worn
off.
The schools athletic staff
watched the bathers. Most OF
the civilian chaperones preferred
to make their presence felt at
the golf course, where a fence Of
handy height was available to
lean on. They looked beat.
Ready for Breakfast.
The swimming evaporated
about Ais am. The golf lasted
a bit longer. BY 5 o'clock all
hands were ready for breakfast.
They trailed back to the school
cafeteria as the steel-blue dawn
reawakened the mockingbird.
and ate scrambled eggs. bacon.
biscuits, cornbread, butter, jelly,
orange juice, milk and coffee.
Many an intricate couture had
been reduced to a pony tail by
the chlorinated water. Many a
quick-moving youth moved
slowly. Many a young head was
propped up by a young elbow.
But many escaped the symp-
toms-and said heigh-ho for the
- 4.