Homecoming may have evolved into a dance of near epic proportions, but it wasn’t always the hyped up week students have come to enjoy. It was once a casual school dance right after the football game.

Take dresses, for example. In 1961, Joyce Van Tassel noted, “Some wore skirts or maybe cocktail dresses, no fancy dresses.” Unlike the knee-length dresses of today, according school nurse, Ann Little, in 1974 “dresses were long, to the floor.” Homecoming has grown fancier throughout the decades, and now every girl keeps her eyes peeled for that perfect Alice+Olivia frock to impress even the least fashionable person.

In the past, invitations were simple. “We would get asked during class, or in the hallways at school,” remarked Krista Doyle, a 1987Edinagraduate. If anyone were to do that nowadays it might result in mockery and ridicule.

Going with dates had much more appeal in previous years than it does now. “It was kind of a date thing. You didn’t go if you didn’t have a date. Now, going in groups is so smart,” commented social studies teacher Betsy Nimmo, a 1977 grad.

Coronation has changed the most over the years. Nimmo remarked, “Coronation has taken on broadway production elements that we didn’t have back in the day. There were no last year’s King and Queen, no video show, no family watching like it was the proudest day of their kid’s life.” Ann Little recalled, “They didn’t have a high tech coronation, there were no power points and they didn’t introduce all the couples like they do now.”

Finally, the dance ticket prices of Homecoming have risen significantly. The September 28, 1979 issue of Zephyrus notes that tickets cost $7.50 per couple, significantly less than the $25.00 per person fee today.

Even if Homecoming has taken on crazy-over-the-top qualities that it didn’t have before, it still continues to be just a fun school activity to meet new people, or just dance the night away.