Did you go to prom or whatever it's called where you are?

Sadly, the UK has imported the idea from the States and it's now, in my opinion, totally ridiculous as parents compete to dress their young people in more and more expensive and showy outfits. When I started teaching in the mid 70s the end of term disco was a most pleasant occasion and although the kids got dressed up smartly, only a very few went OTT. Bit by bit it's moved towards something which excludes a certain kind of youngster who would've turned up and sat quietly on the edge, but now feels they've got to ask someone of the opposite sex out or be ridiculed. I know this from speaking to recent school leavers who found the whole thing complicated.

At my boarding school we used to have an end of year dance/social with our partner boys school. It wasn't mandatory and it was very informal. I nearly got banned for teasing the boys 🙄

My daughter's school has abandoned American-style proms as they put too much financial and social pressure on students and parents and really are not that much fun.

I did. It wasn't mandatory but if I hadn't gone I would have been the only one and I didn't want to be that one weirdo when even my friends went. Here it's very formal, it has structured program and parents are invited as the audience. It was an interesting experience. Food was supposed to be fancy but it was truly terrible, I didn't even finish it but luckily cake was delicious. We went to a bar after that and I got so drunk from potato rum that I still wouldn't touch that stuff except for cooking.

We went to all the formal dances at our high school. My wife, who was my girlfriend beginning her freshman year, was always my date. I was not available for her senior prom, so we agreed that she could go with someone else. As I recall, I usually bought her a corsage of cymbidium orchids.

Proms were(/are?) the name given to the formal dances at the end of the school year. End of the junior year = junior prom. End of the senior year = senior prom for the school that was giving the formal dance. The other formals were the holiday formals and the fashion show had a formal as well as the typical “father-daughter” and “mother-son” dances. And that’s all I can remember. I went to the sophomore winter formal and junior and senior holiday formals at my school as well as the junior and senior proms for my school. It was pretty much social suicide for those who didn’t go.
I was invited to the junior and senior formals for other schools from sophomore year on. And I didn’t exactly enjoy them but they were really just an opportunity to go to parties typically at local hotels where entire floors were reserved and things got hazy. I remember checking out with sunglasses on 😎 Pro tip.

We had a Prom at my school, I don't remember it being mandatory but pretty much everybody went.

No such thing here, there was an informal one but it sucked big time.

Last day of school we all diserted and gone to an acquapark instead, that was the only thing with near 100% attendance lol