I have been more than six feet tall since seventh grade. My paternal grandmother was more than six feet tall and so was her mother.  So the tall gene runs in my family.  And I can tell you from personal experience that being more than six feet tall in seventh grade was a peculiar kind of hell that came with zero social life.  One of the teachers “fixed me up” with a date to the senior prom, and it was a miserable experience.

A few years ago, when the first of my granddaughters shot past me in height while still a freshman in high school, I understood the problem. Ditto when the next two followed suit.  Believe me, when the four of us are photographed together, I am definitely the runt of the litter.

But it turns out that my granddaughters’ tall genes aren’t MY tall genes.  Those granddaughters’ DNA hails from my husband’s side of their family and from the family of my husband’s first wife, Lynn Korn Schilb.  All of the Korn uncles I ever met were tall drinks of water, too.  But with the girls in high school, I could see the issues coming in their direction and decided to do something about it.

I told them early on that when it came to Prom and Homecoming dresses, I was the grandmother they needed to call.  And they have, time and again.

The first prom dress shopping excursion happened in Tucson.  When Lauren and I went to the first shop and the saleslady didn’t reach either of our elbows, we gave each other a look over the woman’s head and bailed.  We found a gorgeous blue dress at the next shop, and we were off.

Bill with granddaughters #3 and #1.

So far we’ve done four homecoming dresses and three prom dresses.  Today we’ll be shopping for the fourth one.  The youngest of the “tall” girls is a senior in high school, and today is the day.  Now that the latest round of editing is out of the way, I’m looking forward to having some Grandma time.

After this one, the next set of prom and homecoming dresses are a few years away, since Audrey is due to go to Junior High next year.  That will be a different problem altogether—one on the other end of the height spectrum, but we’ll sort it out.  It’ll be fun.

And then when the lonely grandson gets to that point—a year or two later—it’ll be tuxedo shopping time instead of dress shopping time.

In an interview recently, someone asked me about what keeps me going.  I answered with the words “family sustains me.”

And makes me happy.

Now it’s time to fire up the Amex card and hit the shopping trail.