Prom

The big night has finally arrived. You've chosen the perfect dress, shoes and hairdo. Your date, arriving in a limousine rented for the occasion, hands you a corsage of roses that sets off your ensemble perfectly. It will be a night that you'll remember for the rest of your life. Like most things that appear effortless, high school proms require a lot of planning to bring the night off without a hitch. That's why Echelon Mall and Seventeen magazine sponsored a prom preview weekend Saturday and Sunday at the mall.

This time of year, with school drawing to a close, I'm always put in mind of two things - one of them, my graduation from high school several decades ago, and the other, the vastly more exciting prom. Of the graduation ceremony, I remember little more than walking down an aisle to the tune of "Pomp and Circumstance" and feeling silly in my robe of navy blue and that funny square hat with the annoying tassel swishing before my nose. My mother caught me on film sailing by, and even in profile I look as if I am being herded to the guillotine.

DRESSED IN HER PROM BEST, Michelle Winter, a student at Bristol High School, visits with residents at the Mill Run Personal Care center on Wilson Avenue in Bristol before attending her school prom. Admiring her are Gertrude Rosenstein (left) and Minnie Rosenfeld. Winter was among a number of gowned and tuxedoed prom-goers who visited the retirement center before the festivities. Many arrived at the home in limousines.

THIS IS a cute prom story about my granddaughter, Ameena Watford. Ameena had planned to double-date with a friend on prom night, but it didn't work out. Ameena would sometimes visit this small church in her neighborhood run by Mr. and Mrs. pastors, the Masons. They had a nice new car. Ameena came up with an idea: She wrote a note to the ministers and put it on the car window. She wrote: "Hi! My name is Ameena Watford. I'm a senior at Box High School, I need a ride to my prom.

For at least one senior at Upper Darby High School, Friday's prom was a night to remember. Instead of dancing the night away, the 17-year-old girl, her date, her mother, and her mother's boyfriend all spent the evening in jail after getting into a fight with three police officers outside the prom. The girl, whose name was withheld because she is a juvenile, showed up at the prom with her date, Joshua Douglas, 24, of Philadelphia, after the two-hour window for students to arrive, said Upper Darby Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood.

Like millions of American teenagers this spring, members of the New Paradise Laboratories theater company are dressing up and heading for the prom - or, in NPL's case, PROM, the company's new production at Drexel University's Mandell Theater. However, if artistic director Whit MacLaughlin's own promgoing experience is any indication, expect things to quickly take a turn for the strange. "I had this girlfriend," he recalls of his big night, "who was a year older than me. She had gone up to college, but had a lot of mental problems.

Camden School Superintendent Roy J. Dawson Jr. said yesterday that he approves of the disciplinary measures taken by school officials against Camden High School seniors who misbehaved on a recent class trip to Orlando, Fla. But he also said he supported the parents who are arranging a dance - called "A Night of Elegance" - to take the place of the school prom, which was canceled after the Florida trip. Dawson said he had met with a group of parents who had been critical of the way the trip was organized and of the disciplinary measures.

As far as I'm concerned, the newspapers tell us too much about the dispute that Warner Communications and Paramount have carried on over Time Inc. while telling us far too little about the dispute Tomontra Mangrum and Marlon Shadd have carried on over the prom at Palm Beach Lakes High School. The merger argument is obviously the same old story with different players. Ever since American corporate executives realized that there was less money to be made in minding the store than in buying or selling it, takeover battles have amounted to a lot of repetitious tap-dancing in front of the curtain while the stage is being set for the grand finale - a lavish production number done by the Japanese.

A jury of seven men and five women continued to struggle with legal questions yesterday as it ended the second day of deliberations without reaching a verdict in the manslaughter trial of Donald Hinrichs 3d. As on Tuesday, jurors once again asked Superior Court Judge Joseph F. Lisa for assistance in defining "recklessness" as it pertains to the law. Jurors also asked for guidance in assessing the alcohol-related aspects of the case. Hinrichs, 23, of Clayton, is charged with aggravated manslaughter in the drunken-driving deaths of Tania Mokienko, 17, and Joseph Berry, 18, both of Franklin Township, who were struck and killed on the shoulder of Route 55 after their car ran out of gas on April 22, 1995.

Donna Thaller, 55, was set for the big night dressed in a leather-trimmed, two-piece knit. On the arm of her husband, Joseph, 64, she was off to the prom. The couple, along with 500 other couples from the Homestead at Mansfield, a retirement village, were invited last November to a prom sponsored by the Mansfield Board of Education. The party was a gift from the students and school officials - a thank you to the older adults for supporting education through taxes even though they had no children in the system.