As many of you may know, last Saturday was the Moorpark High School Senior Prom. This is a big event in a senior's life.

My daughter and her friends had arranged weeks earlier for a limousine to take about 20 of them to the Regan Library for the festivities.

All of the students and any parents who wanted to come were invited over to our house to wait for the limo and to take photos at a little park right down the street.

Everyone was in high spirits in anticipation of the evening's event as we gathered at the park. We took the photos and settled in to wait for the limousine. After a little while, we heard a large vehicle coming up the street. What we saw defies description.

This thing looked like a motor home that had been in the middle of a tornado and just got smashed into its present shape. It was bigger that a van, smaller than a bus and as strange looking as anything that you'll see in a museum of modern art.

At least the artists of the works in the museum had enough paint to finish the job. The same could not be said for this vehicle. There was no identifying logo to be found.

In addition to the looks, this thing was not new. It may have been the world's first SUV, a stupendously ugly vehicle. Do you remember the old Johnny Cash song, "One Piece at a Time"? Well, this was something like that. About the only person I can think of that would be happy with this vehicle would be an independently wealthy, overly dedicated, party hardy SWAT officer.

My son joked that our classy limo had arrived and we all had a hearty laugh as this thing drove on by. A few minutes later, someone pointed out that it was turning around and heading back. Again we laughed until our sides hurt.

We were all still laughing when the driver stopped at the park. We figured that he was either lost or about to run for his life away from the thing. It was then that we realized that this was to be the kids' ride to the prom. How this came to be is a long story; but it did.

Now, I would have probably jumped on in and considered it an adventure but the prom-bound students wanted nothing to do with this rolling piece of modern art.

I was just about to spring into action, along with several of the other parents when we noticed that some of the kids had already taken matters into their own hands. With no help from us, a new limousine was ordered from another company and was already being cleaned up for us. All one of the parents had to do was supply the credit card when our new driver arrived in a really classy limo.

On the face of it, this really isn't much of a story until you realize that except for the credit card loan our (up until now) little children took care of the matter in good order. In fact, after the initial shock and the search for a new vehicle I think everyone realized the humor of the situation and once again, everyone had a good laugh.

You may have wondered whatever became of the first driver. Once the replacement limo was secured and on its way to us, the first driver was dismissed. He could have gone back to the garage and taken the rest of the night off. Instead, he went down to the corner and parked whatever it was that he was driving. It turns out that his prom was a little less than perfect and he was determined to wait until he was sure that the second limo had arrived and the kids were on the way to their big night.

From what I was able to gather, a good time was had by all and it will be a night remembered for all of the right reasons.

I hope that they remember something else. The first vehicle may not have been very classy on the outside but, on this night anyway, there was plenty of class on the inside.