Promposals Today vs. 1993

In this episode of Midlife Moms Pod, Melanie and Allison travel back in time to 1993 and revisit our Proms. This episode starts with a few censor bleeps as Allison loses her mind followed by us laughing our way through what can only be described as take 3 of our attempt at recording this episode.

Once we shake off our technical failures, we share stories of our prom days of yore and compare them to the outlandish promposals and prom shenanigans of today.

As per usual we veer off course for a bit and discuss how Melanie wants to go to prom dressed up as an inflatable dinosaur (not sure I got that right) and how we think our kids would handle going to prom.

Allison stuns Melanie by telling her that kids today don't always get their driver's licenses as soon as they turn 16. We also share our marriage proposals and how they're not always those seen in a fairytale.

Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction

3:37 Prom Season Nostalgia

9:09 The Evolution of Prom Attire

14:56 One word: Pantyhose

19:50 Shark Tracking Adventures

23:55 Back on topic…Promposals

26:42 Veering Off Course - Halloween Costume Plans

32:25 Vintage Prom Dresses and Hair

34:11 Upcoming Prom Events and crashing pre-Prom Dinners

37:25 Kids and Drivers Licenses

40:55 Romantic Proposals

46:07 Wrapping Up

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Transcript

Welcome to Midlife Moms, a podcast where two friends come together to discuss marriage, motherhood, and all things life can throw at you.

We're your hosts, Melanie and Allison.

Hang out with us while we discuss what it's like to be a 40 plus mom in this crazy world.

I apologize.

Are you serious?

Yes, I'm serious.

What is it ever love them?

Welcome to my world.

Oh my gosh.

Okay, so I, I listened to the Reality Gaze podcast.

I know that I sent you an episode one time, right?

And they start talking and they always have to check to see if they're recording.

Maybe we should start.

So we are going to need to start doing that because I am so sorry.

This is the second time.

I think I should be fired for my job.

No, I don't think so at all.

So are we recording now?

Testing, testing, one, two, three.

See how you can see we're recording.

So welcome to another episode of Midlife Moms.

And I just have to start out with a story.

And I am probably going to get the dummy of the year award.

I really want to swear right now.

This is the second time that Melanie and I have sat down to record an episode and lost the audio.

Let's just say that the last time we did it, it was amazing because we were at the discount auto part.

We were.

My car had just broken down.

I needed a new battery and we got a plumber's crack show that morning.

And that episode did not save.

It was so good.

It was really good.

We had a lot of laughs that morning.

And then Melanie and I have been talking for what?

Maybe for 30 minutes?

Yeah.

And we've been talking about prom and promposals and going into stories about how we were in prom and the ridiculousness of today's kids.

And then I said, should we check to see if we're recording?

Which we weren't.

We were not.

And that is my fault.

This is the second time it's my fault.

I'm in charge of engineering.

I am the director of engineering for Midlife Moms.

It's a title I just made up.

But I think you're shooting proms.

You need a raise.

I think I should be fired.

So I apologize.

We're going to just do a little time check.

Are you okay?

What do you have going on today?

I have nothing until I have to get Emily proms.

Okay, well, I don't have that kind of time.

We are completely fine.

We've been doing this since eight o'clock though.

I'm upset that it was so good.

I know, I'm so sorry.

I don't remember what I said.

It's not your fault.

It is my fault because-

It's the computer's fault.

Well, let's blame it on-

I'm going to blame it on Zoom because last week Zoom had an update and we used Zoom as our recording.

So before, when I started these meetings, like we're recording on Zoom, it's very fancy.

When you start a meeting, usually mine are set to record automatically.

So during this update, that button must have unchecked because last week I had the same problem where I started the meeting and then it had just updated and I had to click something and I thought it was recording.

I can see the microphone moving, but I didn't see the recording up at the top right-hand corner.

I know this is boring for you.

You don't want to listen to my woes.

But then this morning, same thing happened.

I started the Zoom meeting and it was not recording.

So I will fix that after our meeting today.

I will go in and make sure that every time I start, it's recording automatically.

Oh, yes.

Right?

So you see the little Zoom microphone?

Well, I will help remember that.

Microphone and recording.

So rewind.

That's a car breaking.

Promposal.

So yes, we had started talking about promposals because-

Basically because prom is everywhere right now.

It is.

It's prom season.

And how did I come up with, I started seeing these-

Because you were at your reunion get together thing and it was prom night.

Right.

Thank you.

So yes, I just went down to Naples.

That's where I went to high school.

So we were all kind of a group of high school friends got together Saturday night, and we were all sitting at this table.

There were probably about 20 of us.

So nice though.

I'll tell you another thing we all had in common.

So anyway, first, the promposal idea came because a couple of them, their kids were at prom.

So we were all talking about it and kind of reminiscing about our good old prom days.

And we started going around the table about who we went to prom with.

So which is so funny because when you're in high school, that's all you think about, right?

It's like you know who everybody went to prom with, but 30 years later, like us, we can't remember.

Right.

So we all had to go around and like say who we went to prom with.

So.

Oh, I have a question.

Yeah.

So in those people, are any of them married to who they went to prom with?

Did they make it past?

There are people at that table who are marrying.

I want to say one couple.

I don't know for sure, and I'll have to revisit my yearbook.

I'm not sure if they were together in high school.

Or they got together after high school in college because one of the other things that I noticed that a lot of us at the table had in common is that we went to the same college.

So we had a group of about 20-ish people there.

And I kind of mangled.

At one end of the table were people that, I mean, I knew everybody at the table.

So that's one thing my husband asked me.

Did you know everybody?

I was like, yeah.

Yeah.

There wouldn't be a newcomer that you wouldn't know.

Right.

But then I walked over to the other side of the table, because it was this huge table.

And I was saying hi to all the guys.

Oh, that's right.

Because most of the guys sat together, and most of the girls sat together.

Like high school.

Like just like high school.

So I went over to all of them, and I'm like, hey guys, hey friends, good to see you, blah, blah, blah.

I had just seen them in September, but we all kind of hugged and did all that.

And then I was like, wait a minute, you went to UF, you went to UF.

And then another person said, I went to UF too.

I was like, okay.

And then Kristen went to UF, and Matt went to UF.

I was like, there were a bunch of people that went to Florida after high school.

And a lot of them, not all of them, but a lot of them were at the table.

And some of them I had not seen since we graduated UF, or even before that, you know, because you get to your junior and senior year of college, and then you're in your major, so you don't, I experienced, I didn't get to party as much.

So that was kind of fun.

Like we-

Yeah, that's interesting.

Yeah, we-

And we talked a lot about, I thanked one of my friends, Andy.

I thanked him for allowing me to stay over on his couch a lot of nights or on the floor.

So that was fun.

And interesting fact, I know this has not anything to do with proposals, we'll get back to that.

But interesting fact is that Andy lived in Williamsburg Village in Gainesville.

Do you know where Williamsburg Village is?

You have to give me a straight name.

It's off 16th.

So like you go down Archer, and then it forks in the road to 16th?

Yes, I know where that is.

So on the right hand side, there was Williamsburg Village Apartments.

We went there fall of 93.

And in 1992, Danny Rawlings blessed Gainesville with the Gainesville murders.

And I'm being sarcastic about that, it's not blessed.

He killed five UF students, Danny Rawlings.

And that's where they started doing the wall, right?

They did the wall on 34th.

Is that from him?

That's from him.

Two of the people that he killed were in Williamsburg Village, and they were in an apartment below where Andy lived.

And so we talked about that because when you went to Andy Schaap's apartment, you would know it was all boarded up, it was all dark, so it was closed off.

But we were all like, we wanted to go down there and see it.

So we talked about that once.

Wow, I remember that wall too.

People painted some really beautiful things on that wall.

But that mural is still there.

They will not paint over it.

And I think every year a group goes in or-

Right, redoes it.

Yeah, I remember that because I remember when we lived there, we would drive down there and everybody would be painting a new thing and whatever, but they never touched that.

So that was like a memorial kind of thing for them, which was nice, but it could have happened anyways.

Right.

Let's see if they're here for me.

I'm way off topic.

I've had too much coffee today, obviously.

I was trying to think how our prom, I just don't remember our prom.

Who did you go to prom with?

Tim, my husband.

Still.

Both years?

Both years, yeah.

Did he ask you to prom?

I've known him a long time.

No, he kind of just knew it was happening, so he just kind of was like, go get your tux.

That's our promposal.

We didn't have promposals back then, right?

Here's what's funny.

So first junior prom, he wore just a regular tux.

Senior, he wore tails.

Ooh.

Oh yeah.

Oh, he was all decked out.

So it was interesting.

That is funny.

That's funny, he wore tails, right?

It is funny, yeah.

Which normally has a Metallica or Guns N Roses t-shirt on in jeans.

I know.

It's like, he was like, I'm gonna get tails on somewhere, okay?

In Kids Today, I've been looking at prom pictures, and some kids have those dinner jackets on.

They look kind of sharp.

Like they're, I don't know, they've got like a Paisley pattern or some other printed pattern.

That's funny you say that, because what I noticed is all the boys that were walking into prom from the Daddy Daughter Dance, all of their pants, I kept thinking, they are way too tight and way too short.

But I think that's the style right now is that they wear their pants and then they wear, I call them boat shoes, but I don't think that's right.

Yeah, they're like the brown.

Yeah, but they're not, I don't know, we need to look it up.

But so this one guy comes in and I'm looking at him and I'm like, first of all, they make them way bigger now because I thought it was-

Yes, they do.

A grown man.

You're talking about the kids.

Yes, I thought one of the kids was a grown man.

He literally had a full beard.

He was so tall, so big.

And I'm thinking, is he a teacher or is he a kid?

And I'm thinking, oh gosh, I could probably be his mom.

That's where my brain always goes since we had Emily late.

I'm like, I could have this age of kid right now.

Right.

But yeah, those pants are so tight and they're so short.

And then they wear like a, want to call it a boat shoe, but I don't think that's right.

Well, is it like, so here I'm showing Melanie a picture of my nephew who just went to prom Friday night.

Oh yeah, see how their pants are more tapered?

Okay, but that's not what I was talking about.

But his shoes, do you see his shoes?

Yeah, but do you call those boat shoes?

I don't know.

They've got a white sole.

You know, I'm not up to date on these things.

They are, I don't know.

I don't know.

I just noticed that the guys that, oh, and the other thing was, is I saw no prom dresses that were short.

Interesting.

Yeah, like, cause I was looking, I was thinking, okay, there's going to be a girl that comes in that has a short prom dress.

None of them were short.

They were all long, but they had a really long slit on them.

So like on one side, so like the dresses would go to the floor, but then on one side, it would go all the way almost to like, I felt like they could do a panty line.

You know, like, like if you, if you shimmied wrong, you might be seeing Victoria's secrets.

Or Spanx.

Yeah.

Have you ever worn Spanx?

Yes, I have to wear Spanx all the time.

I've never worn them.

So I wore them this weekend because I wore a dress and I've got a big booty.

I can't help it.

It's a family tradition.

And I have to wear Spanx all the time.

And so I wore a long skirt this weekend, or a long maxi dress, and it had a slit on the leg.

And I had to be careful because when I sat down, I had to be careful that it didn't show my Spanx.

Well, I remember I really was lying.

Hashtag real life.

Well, we're not, we're definitely real.

Okay, here's the picture that I was talking about.

So see how this guy's pants are?

They're above the ankle.

That's the new style, apparently.

They're above the ankle and they're more tapered and tight.

And then they wear like these boat shoe things.

God forbid you move.

Right?

I mean, it would seem like it would be uncomfortable for a guy.

That's just my opinion.

What happens if you bend over?

It looks like a sausage casing.

Well, not like that.

I meant the leg, not that part.

I meant the leg, not that part.

I know.

But yeah, I did notice the fashion was...

Cause I mean, our husbands' ages, they wear an actual, you know, pant, almost like a khaki, but...

My husband wears a pleated pant.

Do you think any of those kids wear a pleated pant?

Pleated pant, yeah.

Do you think any of those kids, no?

No, no, but I mean, a lot of them...

I don't know.

I mean, I would say 89% of the guys wore suits like that.

Yeah.

My nephew did.

My nephew.

And last year, that was all the rage, were those short dresses, like...

Yeah.

Or was it homecoming?

Well, somebody told me, I'm trying to think who it was.

Oh, my friend Desiree, she was telling me this weekend, because I was telling her about that I didn't see any short dresses at prom.

And she said, that's not prom right now.

It's the homecoming is where they wear the ones that are almost like a stretchy material.

That's what it is.

But I remember going to prom and girls wore, I mean, of course this is 93 and 94, so who knows?

But I remember that they were shorter.

I mean, they weren't like mini skirt, but they were some short dresses.

Yeah.

But I don't remember seeing, and I saw a lot, cause I was the guard at the door at the daddy daughter dance, not letting our girls leave.

I'll have a look back in, I'll be getting out my pictures.

Oh yeah.

That's always fun.

I love to look back at pictures.

And I do remember we wore shorter dresses cause I'm thinking back to my junior prom.

I've got a picture probably more easily accessible than the others of me and my prom date getting into a car.

And it was above my knees or short, you know, but it was prom.

It was prom.

And I wore pantyhose.

Oh yeah.

Pantyhose people.

You know what's funny?

It's okay.

So the other day I was like, I don't ever want to wear pantyhose again, because why would you do that?

Right?

But then I'm like, is that even still in style?

I don't think it is.

I mean, for girls, they wear tights, you know, because of that age group, but I don't think you wear tights anymore.

I mean, pantyhose.

Well, I remember they used to come in an egg.

Yes.

Legs or whatever.

This is probably a past trauma, but I've been out of the banking world for five years, right?

So I've been working at home for five years now.

When I worked at my former employer, that was a financial services institution, i.e.

bank and or credit union, when I wore a suit, I had to wear pantyhose.

Yes.

And let me tell you, I learned, like I love wearing suits.

I just do.

But if I was going into the, yeah, I don't like wearing pantyhose, but if I was going into the boardroom, like doing a presentation or something, I would be judged if I was not wearing pantyhose.

They were in the dress code.

And it was mentioned if you wear a skirt that you needed to wear for pantyhose.

Melanie's giving me this look like, are you for real?

And I am for real.

So I started wearing pants, even pant suits, because you could get away with not wearing, you could wear like nylon socks, or they're not nylon socks, but they're, they're called knee highs.

Oh, yeah.

Old fashion, like I've been out of that world for five years now, and I cannot imagine going back to that world.

How old fashion does that?

Yeah, I was trying to remember what we were supposed to wear at the credit union.

Oh, I think we could wear, well, our credit union, because I worked at the one in Gainesville.

Campus credit union.

I think we could wear jeans on Fridays, and then the other time she had to wear like business casual, but there was no like, you have to wear panties.

Well, it's probably changed since then, because I do follow it on...

I don't even see panties.

You know that in the day we would shop?

Yes.

There used to be an actual, like, aisle, and you would go and pick out, there were some that were in those eggs, there were some that were in the pack.

You remember?

Yes.

You don't see that anymore in stores.

You do not.

Now that I think about that.

I remember going shopping with my mom when I was a teenager, and I was like, oh, I need some pantyhose.

And we would go and there was a whole aisle.

I have a basket in my dresser of pantyhose.

I probably can throw that out, right?

I was going to say, just keep one pair, just think, oh, shit, I needed it.

But in winter, I did wear tights.

Yeah, and I can see like up north too, like a lot of people probably wear tights, but here in Florida, it's kind of like that wearing white after late May, or whatever it is.

I've never followed that rule because I live in Florida.

Right.

I do know, like my friend, Katie, she used to live up north, and they do follow that rule.

And I always make the joke, well, is it because there's snow on the ground, and then if you're wearing white pants?

Yeah, and I went to Naples this weekend, and I wore a white skirt on Saturday, but that's the first time I've worn a white skirt since Labor Day.

So I know definitely in South Florida, that rule does not apply.

I feel like in Jacksonville, it's a little bit more traditional.

I think it depends on how old you are.

Maybe.

Like I think the older mom, even my mom doesn't follow that rule.

She doesn't, no.

No, but she's been here since she was 21, I think.

Cause to me, this feels more wintery here.

So that's why I'll wear tights with a skirt.

So like thinking black, like if I wear a black skirt, I'll wear black tights, just because Sundays are chilly.

Well that too.

And I noticed like we went to the beach the other day and I'm like, oh, I need some sun.

I know.

Well, that's the other thing.

Like Casper the ghost and-

I'm getting ready to go to the pool.

It's almost pool season or beach season.

Cannot wait.

Yeah.

I would rather just sit at the beach and do that.

Well, me too, but yeah.

Although we went on Saturday and I literally sat the whole time I was there.

You did?

Yes, it was great.

But it was really too cold for Emily to get in.

So she kind of played right there at the very park, but yeah, sat the whole time and also this is amazing.

Yeah.

We're almost done with baseball season.

So I think we have a game this Saturday and I think that might be the last game unless we have playoffs.

And then it's beach time.

And then it's beach time.

We have a Sunday baseball league too, but that goes a little bit longer.

Well, we can always do beach on Saturday.

Saturday, yeah.

So-

Only Matthew can do singing casts and do all that.

Yes.

And we can sit and watch.

We can, yes.

I'll make a better spectator if I do it.

Speaking of the beach, Emily asked me on the way to school this morning.

She's like, Mommy, she said, now can great whites come up, like the other sharks can come up shallow?

You know, there are sharks that can come up shallow.

And I was like, well, they can come up, not as close to the regular, you know, the regular sharks that can come right up to them.

And I said, but you don't want to see a great white.

You don't want to have that encounter, ever.

Well, I think she was asking because she doesn't want to have a pressure, right?

Oh no, she wants all that.

She goes, I really would love to see a hammerhead come up.

Can I see a hammerhead?

And there are hammerheads that do come because there was a guy fishing off a mickler, I call it.

People call it Mikeler, but anyway.

And he caught a baby hammerhead shark.

I'm showing Melanie the shark tracker.

Why is the shark tracker on me?

Is it just the shark tracker for one shark or is it for all sharks?

It's for all sharks.

So there's one off of what?

One off of St.

Augustine.

And what kind of shark are we talking about?

He's pretty far out.

Does it say?

His name is Scott.

Is Scott a great white?

Scott is a mature male white shark.

He's an adult and he weighs 1,600 pounds.

So he's a great white.

And he's 12 feet.

Yes, he's a great white.

Holy cow.

So I downloaded the shark tracker app.

We love this app.

That's his picture.

Yep, that's his picture.

When he's getting tagged.

Okay, I'm gonna have to download it now.

Now I'm interested.

Because Matthew and I follow sharks.

Yes, yes, you can follow them.

So you can see where they are.

So like right now, they're right on the southeast of the US.

Is that a great white right there?

Yeah.

He's really far in.

That's, I mean, he's close.

It's pretty close.

Yeah, I mean, if you were on a boat and you went out there, yeah, you might see him.

Look, I mean, as long as you're not in, where's this?

Look at that one, off Ocean Isle.

That's too close for my comfort.

He's like right on the line.

Oh yeah, he's looking for, oh yeah, he's right as it starts to get shallow.

Yeah.

Okay, I'll be downloading that app.

Yeah, it's fun.

So I used to live in Massachusetts, and in the summer, I mean, it is shark fest.

That's where they made Jaws.

Oh, I cannot stand that.

So in June or July, you'll get pings, like I follow Massachusetts Cape Cod News, and I get pings every day that there are sharks.

Like this beach is closed due to shark activity.

This beach is closed.

So that's why I downloaded this, because when Matthew was really young and he was interested in, we watched YouTube videos on sharks and all that.

And that's just the ones that have been tagged.

These are just the ones that have been tagged.

These are just the ones that have been tagged, but yeah.

Okay, I'm totally downloading that.

So it's fun to watch, and also to be aware while you're at the beach, right?

So you can then say to Emily, no, you're not going in the water.

Yeah.

Yeah, she was schooling me today on, I said, tell me the difference between a shark and a dolphin.

How do you tell what's what in the water?

And so she knows how to tell the dorsal fin.

Oh yeah, she's a Florida girl.

She knows all about that.

But yeah, they all have names, and then they ping them, and then they'll update you on where-

And they are huge.

Their last ping is, yeah.

So they get-

I'm like first, like you are with roaches.

Like I would see-

Yeah.

I told you about that, right?

When Tim would turn it on Shark Week.

Yeah, you did tell me that.

And I would scream out, oh shit, yeah.

And there might be other shark trackers.

This is just one.

This is Osearch.

Osearch, okay.

I'm gonna definitely download it because-

O-C-E-A-R-C-H, global tracker.

Wow.

That is-

Fun.

Where were we?

I don't know.

We've lost track.

Completely like-

Promposals, yeah.

I do like the idea of promposals, but I think it's way too stressful.

I just think it's, you know, I cannot imagine being a kid these days, and trying to not only impress a girl, but like, what if you don't know them that well?

Right, that's very, yeah.

That's mental gymnastics for me that I don't even want to touch.

But again, like, is that something that kids really worry about, or are these like the outliers?

Oh, that's right.

Right?

Like, are we only seeing those kids that post-

Just put it out there.

Right, but do all kids really participate in this?

Or are there a crowd of kids at school that are like-

Yeah, that's not me.

Right.

I don't know.

And I'm old school.

Like, I want a guy to pursue me.

Right.

I would never ask somebody to prom, which I never had that problem because I already had Tim, you know?

I rolled my eyes on Melanie.

But I would want guys out there need to know that they-

I mean, I think girls like that to be pursued.

Yeah.

But I also think guys like that too.

So it's like, I don't know.

You have a boy, I have a girl.

So it's like-

Yeah, I don't know.

And I can see Emily, she's very headstrong.

She'd probably be like, dude, you're going to prom with me.

Get it together.

Right.

You know what I'm saying?

Kind of like her mom.

Yeah.

Outspoken and outlier.

So I was trying to think what I would do if I was having to do a promposal to somebody.

What would you do?

Like if you had to?

I don't know.

I haven't had to think about this.

Yeah, me neither.

Did I mention?

Let's see.

Now this is the problem because we recorded earlier that it wasn't recorded.

Did I mention one of the ones I thought was really cute was the Chick-fil-A one where he dressed in the cow?

I don't know if that was on the recorded or not recorded.

It was the not recorded.

Oh, it was?

So you need to tell it because it's cute.

So one of the promposals I saw was this kid in a cow costume, not the inflatable cow costume, but the one, the furry cow costume.

Right.

And it had udders, right?

Which is interesting, a boy would wear it.

Well, yeah.

So he was standing out front of the sign, and his girlfriend was next to him, or this girl.

I don't know if it was this girlfriend, but he had written on the chick-fil-a sign, will you be my chick at prom?

And I was like, oh, that's really cute.

He must work at chick-fil-a or something.

Yeah, because I mean, I would assume they'd make you pay to put it up there if you're going to do that.

But yeah, you were right.

He probably did.

Or his dad owns it or mom owns it.

So I have two things.

One is I liked the one where they had hung the sign around the dog's neck.

Oh, yes.

That's right.

It'll be rough without you going to prom or something with me.

And then the second thing, speaking of the costume, and again, this is going to go way off topic.

I want to dress for Halloween in one of those inflatable costumes.

The dinosaur is so hilarious to me.

Or there's one that's like, I mean, you go for it.

But wait a second.

I talked to this guy because we do the Newfoundland parade every year.

You're going to dress like a Newfoundland.

No.

I'll let you talk.

That guy was dressed up as a dog.

I don't know what kind of dog, but I said, oh, my gosh, I totally want to do that for Halloween and dress up in one of those costumes.

And he says, don't do it.

It's too hot.

And it was December, and it was not that hot out.

He said they even have a fan.

That's how they do it.

They have a fan.

He said it was so hot in the air.

He's like, don't do it.

I only know this because my mother-in-law, God bless her, she, yeah, she dresses in those costumes.

She has a cow one that she bought one year.

Okay, that is a satirical party city.

And those are like $60.

I think.

Well, every Halloween, we try to do like a family.

Yeah.

What do you call it?

Help me think.

I don't know.

Then everybody goes together, like Emily chooses what it is.

And then we pick something that goes along with her outfit.

So like last year, what were we?

I was Harley Quinn from-

Oh, you're talking about for Halloween?

Yeah.

Yeah.

So we try to make something like all-

Theme!

There you go.

Thank you.

Okay.

Thank you for the vocabulary word.

I could not think of what I was trying to say.

But yeah, so we try to do a theme.

Do y'all do a theme, or does Matthew just-

No, Matthew just dresses up, and it's usually painful because he can't make up his mind what he wants to be.

So he'll say, like, what did we want to be last year?

And I was absolutely not.

Oh, it was Pennywise.

Oh gosh, yeah, no.

It's too young for that.

No, he cannot dress up and has a violent monster clown.

I don't even let him watch those movies.

So where he gets that idea of Pennywise, I have absolutely no idea.

Somebody at school probably watched it, and then they talk about it.

Yeah.

I don't know.

Or because, you know, a lot of our kids age have older siblings, so maybe they see something.

Yeah, but we fought on that last year.

It ended up being Cristiano Ronaldo, because he had the Ronaldo jersey.

He's a soccer player from Portugal.

Emily was a vampire last year.

But it's not even fun, because all the kid does is put on this jersey that I bought him, and pretend like he's Cristiano Ronaldo.

It's like, it's not...

You should have dressed up like the coach.

Like, can you paint my face, or, you know, which I guess I should be thankful for.

I've learned I've started hating Halloween, so...

No!

Yeah, I just hate the whole costume idea.

See, and I hate it for a completely different reason.

I hate it because of the candy.

Oh, well, yeah.

Because all it does is she does trick-or-treating.

We pick out what she can have, and then Tim eats the rest.

Right, and that is true.

Matthew came back with a bag of candy.

So, yes, that's another reason, but also just dressing up in a costume.

I guess I don't enjoy it.

Yes, see, we started doing one year, Emily was a dead cowgirl.

Is that right?

What did she call it?

A spooky cowgirl.

Okay.

So she was part, she had a cowgirl outfit on, and then I blackened her eyes out.

I think she was two, maybe three, but that was her idea.

And so then I dressed up like a cowgirl.

Oh, that's cute.

And he was like, no, I'm not doing that.

So he just like walked around with us, you know?

And then Tim was, what's his name from?

Do you watch The Walking Dead?

No.

Me either.

Keegan, Regan, I don't know, one of those.

And he had a white shirt with a leather jacket and a bat that had chains or whatever on it.

That's what he was when I was Harley Quinn.

But I can't remember what Emily was.

Oh, she was Ghost Spider.

So we were all like superheroes.

And Brent will dress up.

No?

No.

Well, next year, y'all should come and do Trick or Treat with us, and we'll all dress up and we'll make him dress up.

We should, because last year, like each year, it's gotten less and less that kids come around to our house for Halloween.

They'll come to our house.

We have fun.

Do you?

And we, like, we'll get in the car now, and I'll tell him, let's go to the other side of the neighborhood.

So, like, we've got kind of like a front part of our neighborhood and then a back part.

So we all should just come for us.

Yeah.

Because what we did, we did Trick or Treating, and then we come back, and normally my friend Martha that lives across the street, her husband's a chef, and then he makes, like, last year, they had, like, tacos, beef and chicken tacos, and we just sit out in chairs on the driveway in the tiny house.

So, yeah, and then the kids run around, and we have eight kids right there that are pretty much the same age.

I have to worry about Poppy, but Poppy comes with us now.

I was going to say, bring Poppy.

She would love it.

Yeah, and she so the last two years I've taken Poppy, she's got her own costume.

Okay, see?

Yeah, we dress Willow up too.

Yeah.

So, yeah, she was super Willow when we were all love it.

I made her a little thing that said super Willow.

Oh, so she was a superhero.

But yeah, you can bring Poppy to our house.

Willow loves it.

She loves, I mean, she's not rough or anything, so she would love.

No, and Poppy's not aggressive with dog.

She doesn't sometimes want anything to do.

I was going to say, she probably wouldn't know what Willow even was.

No, she probably will just stay with me.

Yeah, that's usually what she does.

Yeah, that needs to be your opinion for this year.

Okay, we're completely off.

Anyway, we're off to Halloween.

It's kind of like prom.

You get dressed up, right?

Yeah.

I mean.

I liked my dress.

Like, my first dress was real, and I wore, it was royal blue, and I wore my royal blue contacts.

You did?

So they were like, shocking, like.

Wow.

Yeah, just because of, you know, because it kind of reflected the dress.

And then my senior one was all black, except for right at the top part, bust area.

Was it white?

It was like a white patch thing, and it went on my shoulder.

I'll never do that again, because I was having to pull it out, and I've got a lot of that going on.

Yeah.

I'm like, always like, I was panicking, you know, like, oh my God, that's just gonna be like a nip slip.

Who did that?

Janet Jackson?

I'll be like, nip slip.

Nip slip.

So I worried about that.

I don't remember if I had strapless.

I will be looking for my prom dress pictures the next day or so.

Yeah, I'll find mine too.

Because I have...

Yeah.

And Tim had long hair then.

He did?

I love it on those TV shows, right, where you like go back in time.

So I'm trying to think of one where...

So, King of Queens, right?

Like, they'll do...

Like, they look back, and then they always have long hair.

Right.

I know Tim had long hair in the back and short in the front.

I was like, he had a mullet.

Yes.

Business in the front, party in the back.

Yeah, and his hair is curly.

He always wanted long hair, but then his hair wasn't conducive to having long hair.

But his brother, who has long blonde hair, still has long blonde hair and he's over 50.

It's time, you know.

Yeah, time to cut those parts.

I'm sure it's not in the best shape either.

Yeah, he really doesn't look his age, but neither does Tim.

Well, I wonder how many Proms there are this weekend.

Oh, let's look that up.

I always love going out to eat on prom night, and then you see people from prom.

Like, that's happened to us a couple of times.

You know where I want to go again is Ruthcress.

We have been to Ruthcress before.

Will Matthew go to Ruthcress and eat?

I'm sure he will.

We should do that.

Because he likes...

Because Emily loves fancy.

Really?

Oh, yeah.

She is Miss Prim and Proper.

Her manners, the way she sits, she puts her napkin in her lap.

Wow.

This is the difference between girls and boys.

Matthew will get dressed up for me, but it's a fight to get him to put the napkin on his lap.

Or even to use his fork.

I'm like, really?

You can't just use your fork?

Yeah, so she's all about it because she wants to go, and she's like, I want the filet mignon.

How do you say it?

I can't say it.

I don't know.

Steak.

What kind of mignon?

Thank you.

I could not say that to save my life.

My gosh, that's so funny.

She likes that.

And every bite she takes, she's like, this is so good.

Wow, we should have you over for filets one night.

Oh, yeah.

Because we make filets right back here.

Yeah, she would love it.

We get them from Costco, and they're smooth like butter.

It looks like there are, this is St.

Augustine, I think.

Oh, those events will be published?

Yeah, it's right here.

Enchanted Forest, April 27th.

So the Contemporary Art of Jacksonville, South of Laura Street.

Yeah, so there's two proms, it says, on the 26th, two on the 27th, Murray Hill Theater.

Oh, wait.

Discover Adult Prom Events.

Oh, no, we talked about this earlier, didn't we, of doing like a girls night out, like kind of like a prom.

Now that I'm thinking about it, I'm like, oh, that might be fun after all, like to get...

To dress up.

Kind of dressed up and yeah.

But I was just thinking, you know, at prom, people would probably go to like Ruth Chris or fancier type restaurants.

I mean, I agree.

But I wonder if they do food now, because I know that, like you were saying, you had to sit down, didn't I?

We went somewhere before senior prom, so I don't remember them serving food.

And I think they served us dinner at the Ritz, but, you know, the Ritz was like a dining room, ballroom kind of thing.

We must have had a big budget.

Can you imagine having prom at the Ritz?

I'll have to look to see if that's where they still have it at my high school.

Yeah, where do they get the money for that?

I don't know, I'm telling you.

My high school was kind of like Beverly Hills 90210, so we...

I went to a public school.

Well, it is a public school, but the area it's in, there's a lot of money.

So kids drove BMWs or fancy cars.

My dad let me drive his Corvette one day.

Yeah, I had a Corvette.

Did he ever let you take it to school?

I don't know why I drove it to school.

I drove it to school a couple of times.

No, because I went to school here and he lived in Orlando.

So no.

But they used to have this thing, it was called International Drive in Orlando, and that's where everybody would go Friday and Saturday.

They do?

I drive?

Well, no, I just didn't know if they still did the whole driving, because that's where you went.

I am sure they do.

Yeah, I don't know.

Oh, I don't know.

But the other thing we talked about too, is that some kids don't get their licenses until 21 now.

What?

Yeah, because they turn 16 and they're not ready to drive, so they don't get their license.

I had a couple of friends who were expressing that their college kids didn't even have their license to drive.

So how did they get to and from school?

Their parents?

Parents or friends.

Yeah.

And my cousin's daughter, she got her driver's license just a few years ago.

She's 24.

She's going to be 24 in June.

And I think she just got it last year or something.

Driving is not a priority to kids.

What?

So when I turned my birthday at 15, I went and got my restriction.

My birthday at 16, on my birthday, my driver's license had my birthday on it because I went to get my driver's license at 16.

That's wild to me.

I was there, like, yeah.

Because if my kid was saying, oh, I'm 21 and I'm not getting an ID and you're going to drive me off, no.

You've got to get yourself together.

Yeah, I'm not taking you everywhere.

But I do have Emily who drives a frozen car that's a battery operated, and she said, can I drive this to Publix?

So you never know, maybe our kids, right, maybe our kids' generation now will be back because Matthew wants to drive now.

Oh yeah, because it's an independence thing.

If they have that independence, that drive, what is it with that age group that doesn't have drive to like...

I don't know.

Because let me tell you something, if my kid was in that age group right now, they would be doing something because I'm not that mom to be like, oh, you can just hang out.

We'll have to ask my cousin because her daughter didn't get her driver's license until...

and she went to college, I guess, she just either took Uber or had her friends drive or walked.

I don't know.

But no interest in getting a driver's license?

No interest at all.

I think my cousin forced her to get her driver's license.

But is it because they don't want her driver's license because then they're going to have to pay for insurance and a car?

I don't know.

Or is it they just don't want that?

Because see, my dad got me a car when I was 16, so I could drive, help my mom not have to fool me around.

You know, what is it?

There's got to be a reason why you don't want to...

I don't understand that mentality.

Because as soon as I turned 16 and I got my driver's license, I made up some reason I had to go out that day.

I remember pulling out of my parents' development when I was 16, driving my mom's car, and I was like, this is my first time driving by myself.

Where am I going to go?

Because I had to make up something to get out of the house to drive.

Well, we should talk about kids and the differences of kids because...

Yeah, so that would be another topic for another day.

I think that we probably should close our episode.

We are still recording.

Well, that's a good sign that we're still recording.

You mean that it's actually working?

It's actually working.

Well, it's some other weird thing.

Last time it did an AI thing.

It did because Zoom had just had that update, and I misunderstood.

So I clicked on the button, but what it did was it translated everything that we talked about, but it didn't record it.

So it gave me this nice summary of what our meeting was about, but it didn't actually record the meeting.

And so it's the same thing, because I had to push that record button.

We'll remember that from now on.

So I will go into my Zoom settings, and I will make sure it's automatically recorded.

Well, I don't know how long we've been taping, but I was going to ask you one thing because it went with promposals.

Yeah.

How did Brent ask you to marry him?

I think I'm hungry.

So it's very, very romantic.

Hold your horses.

So we were in London.

We went to London.

We were in London.

So we met, and then like six months later, we had planned to go to London, and we went to London together.

So that was March of 2008.

We went to London first time.

Then the next year, we planned another London trip because we had such a great time the first year.

So he's like, let's go again.

So we went in March of 2009 to London, and we were there like the first night.

And the first night we were there, it was fine.

I think we went for a drink, and then we went back to the room because you were like so jet lagged.

Then the next day, he was talking about going on the London Eye, and I was like, that's cool, we've never done it at night.

Sure, let's do that.

So we were drinking in the pub, and that's what we like to do when we go there.

So we were drinking and we had dinner, and he was talking, so he had probably had a little bit too much to drink, and he was like, do you really want to go to the Eye?

He asked me something so weird, and I was like, yeah, I think that'd be cool to go at night, or should we just wait till the morning?

And I was like, I don't know, I'll let you decide, because maybe we can go another night, it's fine.

We're here for like six days or whatever.

So afterward, we went back to the hotel because we had to go to the bathroom, because we had been drinking all day and we had eaten dinner, right?

So we were comfortable with each other enough to be like, yeah, I got to go too, or whatever, right?

So we're getting ready to go, or we're just kind of taking a break in the hotel room, and he comes out and he like, oh, we stopped at this store to get a bunch of snacks.

So Brent is a foodie, and we like candy.

So we went and stopped and got a bunch of candy at the store.

We got these like treats that we can only get in England.

Like they have different chips there, like different Lay's.

They come in different flavors, and you can only get them in London.

So like we bought a whole bunch of shit at the store.

And so we like went to that or whatever, came back out, and then he was eating his snacks.

And I was kind of laying in the bed like looking through a book.

I don't remember if I had my phone at that time.

I must have because I did call my parents.

So, but anyway, he looked at me, and he had this thing that he pulled out of his pocket, and he was like, can you open this?

So I opened it, and he's like, I looked at it was a ring, and he's like, so we looked at each other kind of like you and I are looking right now.

And he was like, will you marry me?

I was like, what?

He couldn't wait to get on the eye?

He could not.

He had too much to drink.

And I learned something about him is that he cannot hold surprises.

Like he can not hold surprises, just couldn't hold it.

That's so funny.

Tim has that same thing.

That's how he asked me to marry him.

I love the London part.

That's a good story.

It was in London, but he did not get on one knee.

Guys are so funny about it.

You don't think they're nervous like the way that they do.

Because we went to dinner, when Tim asked me to marry him, we went to dinner, we drove all around, we drove to the beach, we got out, we went to the beach.

We did all this, I'm like, okay.

And then we got back in the car and we drove all the way back home.

And he took me out to Jillington Creek, right there, where we grew up, jumping off that dock, and asked me there.

But I was like, we have gone all over the free world.

So why didn't he ask you at the beach?

To be like, chicken out?

Yeah, I think he was just nervous.

We never made it to the London Eye at night on that trip.

Right.

And then he told me, he was like, well, I really wanted to take you to the London Eye.

I was going to do it on the Eye, but I couldn't wait.

Yeah, that's nice, though.

That's sweet.

Yeah, Tim was nervous, I think, because normally he's just...

But I also think it came with age, because he was only 23.

Oh.

So it was like he was young, and we were both young.

But yeah, I do think it comes with age and whether or not they're nervous or...

Well, Brent was 41.

Or maybe he wasn't 41.

Maybe, no, he was 41.

Yeah.

But I think his has a lot to do with drinking and...

But he was nervous.

Yeah, and that's probably why he drank, because he was nervous.

Yeah.

I mean, y'all drink anyways, but I'm saying he probably overindulged.

He overindulged a little bit, but it was fun.

We had a good time.

We always have a good time together.

Yeah, that's...

We did interview them.

I'm telling you, that would be hysterical.

Yeah, it would.

Because, I mean, I think it would just be fun.

So anyways, we can...

I'm just curious because we're talking about promposal.

Oh, so promposal.

We should find out how we got to...

But I had no idea, so it was a surprise.

Yeah.

Well, that's fun.

Yeah.

I think that's...

And you were in London, you can say, oh, in London.

So that's why, you know, like we traveled to London while we were dating.

We've been to London, I think, a total of five times together.

Well, thanks for another great episode.

Join us next time on Midlife Moms, and you can find us on our new website.

So we're trying this out, but it's midlifemoms.buzzsprout.com.

And then you can also find us on Instagram at We're Melanie.

Midlife Moms Pod on Instagram.

Right.

It's all one word, no spaces.

Yeah, find us on there.

So, okay, see you next time.