Forty-seven years ago, I was an excited 18-year-old senior at Nathan Hale High School.

The big news was that I was about to graduate and earn my high school diploma. That set the stage for my entrance into Tulsa Junior College (now Tulsa Community College) in the fall and a year later a transfer to The University of Oklahoma. I almost transferred to Oklahoma State University but a recruiting official from OU convinced me that OU was a better choice for my chosen field – journalism.

In May of 1972, I had a real bad case of “senioritis.” Senioritis is when a senior high school student does not want to go to class, does not want to study but does want to have fun.

That fun included the high school prom. For Hale seniors that year, the prom was at the Camelot Hotel. The Camelot was a regal building on Peoria Avenue (the “Restless Ribbon”) just north of I-44. That’s where President Nixon stayed when he came to town.

A few years ago, it was torn down to make way for a new Quik-Trip. (I guess Tulsa doesn’t have enough Quik-Trips?) The Camelot had a big meeting hall and it was quite an elegant prom.

Back then, all the guys rented tuxedos for the prom. I went to Al’s Tuxedos at 41st Street and Yale Avenue to rent my tux. I think it cost $20.

It was light blue with dark blue lapels and black tuxedo slacks. It came with a cummerbund, a vest, a white shirt, a bow tie and black patent leather shoes.

I looked good. I looked like a guitarist for the late Johnny Cash.

Back then, you had to have a date for the prom. Going stag was just not acceptable. And guys had to take girls – guys couldn’t date guys and vice versa. If two guys had come as each other’s date back then, they would have been dragged out and who knows what would have happened to them. Oh, there were some guys who were “light in the loafers” in our class of 850-plus but they had the decency back then to keep their sexual problems secret.

I wasn’t dating anyone back in high school because I was too chicken to ask anyone out and I was too cheap to spring for dinner and a movie – the standard date activities in 1972.

But I was determined to get a date for the prom.

I asked a really cute girl who was a friend but she said no. Basically, she said she was waiting for a better offer from someone more popular. If you asked her about this now, I am sure she would have forgotten that I even asked. I saw her at a recent class reunion and we spoke. I was hoping she had turned ugly and weighed 350 pounds but that wasn’t the case. She was still charming and petite.

I had been in school with Carla Sue Longmire since kindergarten at Burbank Elementary and then at Bell Junior High School. We were friends but there was no romantic attraction.

Through the grapevine, I heard she wasn’t dating anybody but she wanted to go to the prom. Bingo. I asked her to be my date and she said yes.

What a relief. For both of us.

Dressed in my rented tux, I picked her up at her house in a neighborhood near 4th Place and Memorial Drive. I had never met her parents before but they were nice. Her dad took several pictures of us (I still have one) and her mom kept giving me that look – the one that was sizing me up as a potential son-in-law.

Sue (she went by her middle name) was dressed in a pretty pink dress and she looked beautiful. We double-dated with her best friend and a friend of mine.

We had so much fun. We ate steak dinners at Shadow Mountain Steakhouse on the hill on Sheridan Road just up the road from 61st Street. Shadow Mountain Steakhouse is no longer there but they didn’t tear down the building. I guess we didn’t need a Quik-Trip on that hill. I think it’s some kind of sushi restaurant now.

We danced. I guess you could call it that. I don’t know how to dance and as I recall, every dance turned into the Twist because that was so easy to do and it was so popular back then.

We went to an after-prom party. We didn’t drink alcohol and we didn’t fool around – although some of our fellow classmates did both. We did stay out all night and ended the date with breakfast at Denny’s Restaurant on Yale Avenue near 51s Street.

I have never seen Sue again. I heard she got married and I hope she has had a good life. I haven’t seen her at any reunions.

It’s hard to recreate the excitement of being a recent graduate, of going to the prom and getting ready to go to college. Life has different stages and that’s OK.

I wouldn’t want to go back but it’s nice to have pleasant memories.