To Promenade historically is a rite of passage as the first time a person enters an adult social event such as a ball or gathering. In England we did not have a promenade as such more an occasion by the social elite where the young ladies of the finishing schools would be shown to society during the season such as ascot/Henley etc I do believe our illustrious editor was such a lady. In American schools there have been “Proms” since the late 1880’s where school leavers would have their final school dance.

For me there was no such thing as I left school just a relief never to return to “staluge luft longmead” our local comp but the big film the year before I left school was Grease when the Prom was a big part, and to solve an argument I prefer good Sandy.  

In the late 1990’s there was a rash of cheesy American movies that focused on prom nights and so it was that somehow Proms sneaked into English schools in 2000’s. They are now huge business and a whole industry has grown around them with huge dresses, suits, limos and the like all trying to outdo each other. This has now also become a spectator event as each tries to outdo each other.

This year Spike a stalwart of the rally scene as owner of Razorblade badges and the victory snack bar put out a call, to as he calls it his extended biker family, as his daughter Jessica was heading to her prom. After a few bad years at school she decided she would go out in style with an “up yours” prom arrival.

As ever, knowing the way biker things go,  it was always going to be last minute, as Spike frantically rebuilt his rat/custom/moto sort of bike known as “panzershrek” only passing its MOT and taxing that morning and a replacement trike being found for Jess . My bike was only returned from repairers the day before that was close call.

Despite spikes initial fears there were soon around about 60 bikes at the meeting point with people coming from far and wide to support Jess.  We then enthusiastically blatted up the A3 escorting the trike and our arrival at the venue was definitely noticed. There were a few casualties along the way in the queue  as bikes over heated in the torturous entrance wait, as huge limos tried to steer round posh sports cars and tractors! But eventually it was our turn and it was definitely a huge “up yours” as bikes were revved madly and horns blared loudly. I think they got the point.

Afterwards Spike held an after ride event for all and best of all Jess won best entrance to the prom, even beating an arrival by helicopter (bet the arrivee there was gutted). Here’s wishing her all the best for the future and her dreams of joining the RAF. A brilliant and different way to spend an evening and it shows how the community comes together.