The Dating Game

This post isn't about me and Dan. Or romancing a spouse. But it is about romance and dating before getting married--and how much it has changed over time. With this generational living we are part of, we have a lot of teens in and out of this house and we really do enjoy it.

But, as we watch them interact with each other, I get nostalgic for the days when a date was a date and going steady was seeing only one guy.

I remember being asked to go on a date to the movies, out to eat, to get a pizza, or just to go get a 'coke' (we called all soft drinks cokes) at someplace kind of like Sonic. Then, if you went on enough dates, it would be said that you were dating that person. I suppose you could have been dating several people at a time. But then, just as now, that didn't always go over well with everyone. So, most times, a couple ended up dating only each other for a while and that was called going steady--just a step away from engaged...or maybe several years away--but they dated only each other. I miss that phrase, going steady. One never had to wonder what it meant.

Now days teens mostly go out in groups (which is a good thing) but when the time comes to travel within that group as a couple it can get a little confusing. When teens say they are dating they might mean they are going steady. If a guy asks a girl to go with him, he doesn't necessarily mean on a "date". He might mean see only each other. It's kind of confusing sometimes. I think for them as well as for some of us older romantics.

I think everyone would be better off going back to dating, going steady, and maybe, just maybe, one day being engaged. I think it was more romantic when I was a teen. Or maybe my memory is just fading . . .