Prom Night Necessities: Dresses, Boys--and Mom

The very last person most teenagers would be willing to take to the prom is their mother. Puh-leese. After all, the treasured evening is supposed to give them a taste of adulthood and independence, with a private party that sparkles with grown-up elegance.

So, like, a baby sitter? Don’t think so.

But Greta Ridley, 15, is not only taking her 38-year-old mother to Costa Mesa High School’s junior prom tonight, they’ll be wearing matching dresses. Three of Greta’s friends will wear the same dress too, all five in varying pastel shades, and five male friends will don matching zoot suits.

“It’s a late Mother’s Day present for her,” said Greta, whose nickname, G.J., helps distinguish her from her mother, Greta Anderson. “It’s like a dream come true for her.”

Not only did G.J. go against the conventions of teenage life, but she had to overcome the objections of school officials to bring her mother to the prom.

Anderson never went to a dance when she was growing up, and as a student at Garden Grove High School, she was a self-described tomboy with lanky limbs and stringy hair.

“The last thing a guy wanted to do was go to the prom with me,” she said.

Added older sister Heidi Anderson: “She was the girl all the boys asked for advice on who they should take to the dance.”

So G.J., who had been planning to attend the prom with several friends, decided to include her mother in the group. She started by requesting a guest ticket from school officials.

She was turned down. Nonstudent guests cannot be older than 20, they said.

She pleaded with them, told them about her idea to treat her mom to a dance. Sorry, they said.

G.J. was determined. She went back with a new request: Make my mom one of the chaperons. Then she can get dressed up and go and still be with us. Again, she was turned down. We don’t need any more chaperons, they said.

But G.J. didn’t give up. Bright beyond her years--she skipped the eighth grade and recently earned her diploma by passing the state’s high school equivalency test--G.J. tried a different approach. She compromised.

“They finally said she could come, but not for the whole thing,” G.J. said, unable to hide a hint of lingering frustration. “So she’ll go with us and hang out for an hour and then leave.”

It’s more than enough for Anderson, who has never ridden in a limousine and admits she has been practicing how to walk in her high-heeled shoes.

“I never wear dresses,” she said Friday, modeling her peach-colored gown. “It’s shorts and sneakers year round for me.”

Her beauty arrangements for the big night have been made by G.J., who is insisting that Anderson wear a matching bow in her rolled hair. The group of teenagers have planned a 1940s-style theme for the prom, complete with buns and big curls for the girls and pinstripes for the guys.

Mother and daughter will get their hair and makeup done together this afternoon, just in time for dinner at the Orange Hill Restaurant in Orange. Then it’s off to the Discovery Science Center for the dance, where Anderson figures she’ll have until roughly 11 p.m. to soak up her first prom.

“I feel like such a kid, I’m so excited,” she said.

Her daughter shrugged. She knows she may get a few odd looks, or even smirks, from some students when she shows up tonight, mother in tow. And she doesn’t care.

“Not all moms could get away with this,” G.J. said. “But mine’s different. She’s cool.”