No one thought I was serious, but every year when prom rolled around before I was in high school everyone asked, “ Are you going to prom when you are older?” My 10 or 12-year-old self would say “Yes, but only if I can go in camouflage.”
The reality of the matter rolled around when I was a junior in high school. I went to get my hair cut at a friend’s salon and the question came up again. Are you going to prom? What are you wearing? Camo? And there it started. My friends at the salon said they were going to kidnap me and take me to buy the material.
I had no intentions of going to my Junior Prom, but when March rolled around my senior year time was getting tight. I had no camo material, no accessories for the dress, and no one to make it and Prom was in May.
My mother and I got on the ball. I searched the net and called 1-800 numbers looking for satin/silk Mossy-Oak material as my mom called a friend whom agreed to make my dress. I could not believe it was actually happening. The first dress that I would ever wear was going to be a Mossy-Oak satin and silk Camouflage dress!
And that was just the beginning. A writer for the local newspaper heard about my dress and wanted to put an article in the local paper about the dress and me. The day before prom a picture of me wearing my dress was on the front page of the paper titled “Dressed to Kill.” The inner article by Chris Dickson of the Fernandina Beach News-Leader told about how my idea got started and the actions we did to get my dress made. (http://www.fbnewsleader.com/articles/2005/05/07/around_town/02atprom.txt )
The next day my boyfriend and I strolled up to the Amelia Island Plantation for prom, me in my camo dress and him in his black tux with camo vest and bowtie. Maybe it was because no one could see us because of the camo, but we had no complaints, only compliments.
After prom ended, I thought everything would return to normal. However, the following week a lady wrote into the paper saying that, “The picture of her [in the paper] holding a gun is especially disturbing and sends the wrong idea to young people (basically that it is OK to carry a gun and kill innocent animals! She kills innocent animals just for the thrill of it.” * http://www.fbnewsleader.com/articles/2005/05/21/opinion/05editletters03.txt
I felt it necessary to respond and wrote in and “fired back” as the newspaper called it. In my letter to the readers of the paper and this ignorant lady I explained that I had completed hunter safety courses, shared how meat from hunting is better than processed meat, and elaborated further on how hunting helps the economy with statistics to back up my claims. Following my letter my mother and another citizen wrote in supporting me. Their letters are at http://www.fbnewsleader.com/articles/2005/05/28/opinion/06editletters03.txt" and http://www.fbnewsleader.com/articles/2005/05/25/opinion/06letters04.txt
So that was the end of the story for a while. I graduated high school and went about my business while continuing to hunt.
In a college speech class I choose to spend the whole semester doing speeches about hunting. Little to my knowledge did I know that wearing that camo dress a year and a half before this time would now help me in speech class. In my final speeches to inform and persuade, I used my camo dress, the article, the opinion articles surrounding it, and other statistical information that I researched to convince the class to SUPPORT HUNTING. I walked away from the class with an A and had convinced at least a handful of people to look at hunting in other aspect besides just shooting an animal.
Without that dress my arguments for my speech would have been weaker and I would not have had background research to support my claims. I don’t have any regrets. Wearing that dress made at least one person a believer in hunting.
It truly is amazing what the affects of one small decision can do.
