Staff writer
Dancing to the theme “Diamonds are Forever,” Bob and JoAnn Good reminisced Saturday at the Marion High School prom about the time 50 years ago when they attended their first prom together.
She was a freshman at Durham High School and he was a senior at Marion.
That first dance in 1966 was at St. Mark’s Activity Center. The banquet was in the multi-purpose room at the elementary school. Saturday’s prom was at Eastmoor United Methodist Church.
JoAnn remembered the theme of that first prom: “Days of Wine and Roses.”
She said her mother made her light green dress, and she wore white gloves decorated with green ribbons.
“I had long hair and wanted it piled up on my head,” she said. “I think the hairdresser never wanted to do that again.”
Bob remembered that hairdo.
“I was a sucker for long hair, and it was really different to see it like that,” he said.
He wore a white dinner jacket and bow tie that were passed on to him from his brother, Tom, who graduated in 1962.
After-prom parties were private parties back then, JoAnn said, but Bob had to take her back home to Durham, so they didn’t attend a party.
“The dance was the only show in town,” he said, “and I had to have her home by 1 o’clock.”
When JoAnn was a junior and Bob was in college, she invited him to the junior/senior prom at Durham.
The Goods have a longtime connection to the Marion school district. Bob began working as a maintenance man in 1976, and JoAnn has been teaching foreign languages since 1980. Bob is retired, but JoAnn’s connection allows them to continue to attend proms.
They have missed a few proms in their lifetime together, but they always have made sure to view the promenade.
Bob remembered the exact day they met. It was Dec. 28, 1965, when they rode in the same car with other young people to Kansas Wesleyan University in Salina. They were married in 1969.
“I was really impressed with JoAnn,” he said. “She’s my girl.”
They are proving that diamonds really can be forever.