Story 8, Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories Summary

The Junior Prom is the event of the year, and the narrator knows that as a member of the human race he is required to participate in the ritualistic rite of passage from childhood to adulthood. Such rites are set and difficult and practiced today as much as they have been in as far away a place as Micronesia. When asked by Flick and Schwartz, the narrator tells them he plans to ask Daphne Bigelow. The dress code is summer formal, which must be rented at Al Swank's Formalwear, where they are fitted with a white jacket, dark trousers, shoes, socks, shirt, tie, boutonnière, and cummerbund. The matter of the prom is considered by the narrator's entire family. The Old Man believes one's prom date can somehow foretell one's future...