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U N Z I P P E D
Prevent wandering eyes --
bring back dating!
Is the monogamous dating etiquette of
the '90s leading to forbidden lust?
C O U R T N E Y+W E A V E R
"i envy you," I said to my mother. We were two hours into a three-hour car journey, roaring up Interstate 80 to a family wedding. "You lived in an era when dating really existed." My mother frowned and glanced into the rearview mirror. "Don't you date?" "No," I said. "Dating implies a certain plurality. As in, 'Tonight I'm going out with Billy Bob. Tomorrow night I'll go out with Jackie Joe. Maybe the next night, if I'm lucky, I'll go out with Hank.' Somewhere along the line, all that fell by the wayside." I turned on my side, irritable and hot. "Could we turn on the air-conditioning?" "No. It makes the engine overheat." I sighed, started to make a smart-ass comment about her car, and thought the better of it. "So, Mom. Did you go out on lots of dates? Tell me how it went. Did guys call you up and say, 'Hello, is Peggy there? This is Jimmy Jake, and I'd like to take her out for a soda and a movie.' Was it like 'Happy Days'?" "Yes, it was like that," she said, slowly. "Although I don't know where you get these names. I grew up in South Dakota, not Mississippi." She glanced at me. "Things were much more defined in those days. Boys asked girls out. Girls played hard to get. A good girl never phoned a boy. You know the story. Blah, blah, blah. It was awful." "It sounds sort of nice," I said. "I wish we all knew what the rules were." N E X T+P A G E+| "This really has everything to do with sex." |
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