Rose petals and candles too much?

By Kristi Lambert

Brittny Gunnell opened her front door to find Branden Fuller decked out in a sombrero with guitar in hand. He began to serenade her with an original song he wrote. This was not a proposal, but rather an invitation to attend the upcoming dance at Logan High School.

“It was so cute,” said Gunnell, a senior at LHS. “He gave me a piñata and a rose after he serenaded me.”

High school students will go as far as rose petals, candles and garbage just to ask someone to a dance. Brittany Lambourn filled Issac Parkinson’s room with trash— trash from the recycling to be exact.

“With all the trash I put a sign that said, ‘I know you’re not trash, but I’d really like to take you out.’ It was really funny,” said Lambourn, a student body officer at LHS.

Spencer Knowles became known for his creativity after he made his date pop 100 balloons and go on a phone chase to receive hand delivered pluots, a plum and apricot hybrid, with his name.

“In the past I’ve done a lot of crazy things. There all long and detailed, but the pluots topped it” said Knowles. “Then I was like, dang it, now I have to keep it up. I felt like I had to keep my reputation. It’s almost like a competition.”

Now, with sweethearts and other dances approaching, LHS students are plotting how to ask their potential dates. Finding creative and intricate ways to ask each other to school dances has become a tradition for many high school students in Utah— and only in Utah.

“I think it’s weird,” said Montana native Austin Arlint, a junior at Utah State University. “I don’t know where it comes from at all, but I would hope to make some conjecture that it comes from the Mormon culture and the whole excelling in everything. Then apply that to the dating realm. I don’t understand it, but it definitely didn’t take place in my high school.”

“I just went up and asked them. I think it’s really strange,” said Kayla Klingberg, a junior attending USU from Maryland.

Devin Gillespie, a sophomore at USU, is from New Jersey and agreed that he found it a little strange.

“I didn’t even know about it until I came to Utah,” Gillespie said.

“People in Texas don’t do it. My friend moved here from Huston and she thought it was weird because they just ask in the hallway,” Lambourn said.

“I think the Mormon culture probably has something to do with it a little bit,” Gunnell said.

Whether or not this tradition is subject to Utah or the Mormon culture, some say the whole process of asking is getting out of hand with elaborate posters, scavenger hunts and more. But many LHS students disagree.

“Sometimes I’d like to just ask face to face to save yourself trouble and get it done quick. But it makes things fun and entertaining,” said Knowles. “It adds to the mystery because you have to find out who’s going to ask you. So it’s fun.”

“I think when you ask more creatively it takes the awkwardness away. When you ask face to face it might be more like, oh uhh… It’s always fun to do something a bit more creative,” Gunnell said.

“I love getting asked, but I hate answering,” Lambourn said.

(K. Geisler)