Senior citizen prom brings generations together

FULTON, Mo. -- Cassidy Jones, 16, held the gold-and-red velvet coronation crown over her grandfather's head.

As she put it in place, Kenneth Jones, 75, beamed. He had just been crowned king of the Senior Citizen Prom.

For the past 14 years, members of the North Callaway High School chapter of the National FFA Organization and senior citizens have gathered annually to dance.

This year, it took place in January at Callaway Christian Church. More than 80 people attended; about half were teenagers and half were at least 50 or older. They came from all over central Missouri, including Fulton, Auxvasse, Kingdom City, Mexico and Farber.

For many of the older group, it may have been half a century since their high school prom.

Prom queen Darlene Behlmann dances with Ed Winkelman on Jan. 29 at the Callaway Christian Church in Fulton, Missouri. (T.J. Thomson ~ Columbia Missourian)

"This is my second time around," said prom queen Darlene Behlmann, referring to her senior prom in 1967.

The FFA chapter puts on community events at least three times a month, but many in the chapter said in a year-end survey that the dance is their favorite.

"I actually just had a student say to me, 'I didn't think this would be fun at all but I'm having a great time,'" said organization adviser and North Callaway High School agriculture teacher Katie Milhollin.

The Easy Rhythm Band, a country-Western group from Fulton, took the stage to play old standards and familiar tunes. It was their eighth-year providing entertainment for the prom.

The music is "different than it was when I was growing up in the '60s," said Farber resident Cindy Evans, but the atmosphere is more comfortable. Most at the dance were friends and neighbors who mingled comfortably, compared to in the '60s and '70s when girls and boys stood across the room from one another, too scared to dance, Evans said.

The student-organized dance is similar to others for senior citizens in the mid-Missouri area, said Mexico resident Kathy Beasley. Beasley is in a band called Silver Wings, which has played dances put on by various senior activity centers around mid-Missouri.

But this prom is special, several said, because it connects the younger generation to the older one, especially in terms of what the teenagers can learn from those with more experiences in farming.

"It's nicer to know what the older generations did," FFA chaplain and co-event-organizer Kenneth Taylor said. "There's a time gap in there where we think, 'we should do it this way,' or we can ask the people who grew up in an older generation and give us a better knowledge of what to do."

Kenneth Jones and his wife, Betty, have been coming to the dance for "uncountable years." Most of their many grandchildren have been part of the FFA.

"This has been special that the kids are dancing with the seniors," Kenneth Jones said. "It helps to re-establish a respect from the young people for the old. Part of that's kind of been missing in society. This kind of brings it back to light."

"It's a pretty good time," Bailey Keme, North Callaway High School FFA president, said. "We really respect them because they're older, and it's a chance to dance and talk with them. We can learn so much from them."