Ah, the dating game. From calling cards and love letters of long ago to today’s text messages and social media; tiptoeing through romance under the watchful eyes of grown-ups remains a familiar rite of passage. As each generation adapts to social and technological changes, the conversation about what’s appropriate continues – even in the advice columns and advertisements of local newspapers.
In the 1950s and 1960s ‘going steady’ was a popular term for when a couple would see each other exclusively. The Saline Reporter’s January 28, 1959, issue devoted its “You Said It” column to a survey on whether dating teenagers should go steady and at what age, with both adults and teenagers weighing in. While the adults were decidedly against it, explaining that kids should just enjoy themselves without being so serious; most kids shrugged it off as long as they were a certain age or mature.
The Chelsea Standard’s November 26, 1964, advice column “For and About Teenagers” also brings up the topic of going steady, explaining in lengthy detail that “going steady can hardly be recommended for the teenager just starting to have dates.”
Technology also has a big impact on how couples communicate and meet. The General Telephone Company cleverly promotes its rotary toy phones and extension cords by placing a full-page advertisement in the June 5, 1968, Saline Reporter. The benefits are clear, according to the advertisement, as they claim that long extension cords will help “loosen Don Juan’s tongue”, and help young men gain confidence in asking a girl out. Apparently, a guy could ‘freeze’ with the “whole family listening in,” and an extension cord offers privacy.
Today, methods of communication have long since transformed from rotary phones to mobile phones with emojis and text messages, and many teenagers have social media profiles and dating apps. Which by the way, all seem counterintuitive to privacy.
I wonder what the folks at General Telephone Company would say now?
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