This Teenager Took His 93-Year-Old Gran To Prom

School dances might not be a big thing in the UK (thank fuck), but we're all more than a little familiar with the concept from American TV and films, or movies as they like to call them.

From the look of it, the traditional high school dance is a concept fraught with potential pitfalls and opens the prospective dance floor visitor up to monumental embarrassment.

As the films show, potential ramifications of putting yourself through 'the dance' in the vain hope of pulling (which is, let's face it, why people go) naturally include having to dance (Grease, Footloose) despite having no ability (kids, don't worry, it comes with age and alcohol) to extremely unlikely but never totally impossible telekinetic mass murder carried out by the unpopular kid with special powers (Carrie).

Yes, the tradition, which is about as American as that pie named after America and pyramid scheme-style healthcare systems, is the last thing any of us would want to think about.

So it's with some astonishment that we read of a teenager in South Carolina (the most southern of all the Carolinas) who chose to take his 93-year old grandmother with him instead of someone several decades younger and closer in age, as is tradition. He's like a Heffner in reverse. And bold. Very, very bold.

Last year, Connor Campbell, a junior at Pinewood Prep in Summerville, SC, promised his nan (Betty Jane Keen) that he'd take her to his high-school dance, and that's just what he did.

"It was wonderful. It was really great," Keene said when interviewed for ABC News. "He had told all his friends. Every boy and girl. It was about 100 children at that dance and it was so lovely and they all came up and shook my hand."

It's possible Connor thought bringing his nan with him might be the perfect get out from having to dance. Unfortunately for him, the 93-year old was having none of it.

via GIPHY

"I got Connor to dance with me," said Keene. "He's not a dancer, but I am."

Maybe he's just really nice. Keene picked out a lovely pink dress for the event, had her hair, nails and make-up done while her grandson got the pair matching pink duds for the event.

Taking into consideration the sort of ridicule Campbell could have opened himself up to from jocks (and the internet at large now that he's been splashed across computer screens the world over), you have to take your hat off to him.

He could have taken someone else. He could have not gone at all (though apparently that's worse somehow). He could have done what we would have done and shuffled awkwardly at the side of the dance floor counting down the hours until he could go home alone and cry into his pillow that time when I was 19.

But instead he gave his granny the night of her life (could probably have phrased that better), and so we salute him. And what about next year? Will Connor's successful first date be followed by a sophomore event on the dancefloor with Grandma Keene?

"I won't go next year," she said with a laugh. "I want him to find a girlfriend."

Seems she's not keen. Probably just as well.

Words: Ronan J O'Shea

Topics: prom

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