OMG I couldn't have said it better myself. I feel the SAME way.

I have a 14 yr old boy who is barely in the house from school and the long distance lolita is ringing the phone from St Louis. I love the girl esp cause her mom (from Britian, great dry humour and wit plus a brain surgery patient so she and I always pulled up the rear on field trips-the slow walkers! plus we had master gardened together(oh the damage we could do buying plants) when these guys were tots never knowing we'd have kids in the same school a while ago(they had to move boohoo), we'd make great in-laws but LATOR, the girl's a cute sweet thing but a little bit of a mover now?)but at this rate these guys won't probably be talkin come end of high school if they burn this flame now. I keep tellin my kids be friends with everybody then you don't have to choose sides of who to be friends with when ya breakup.

Let romance come lator after they've grown a more mature brain! Besides believing in romance and rituals (that's why they're called rituals!) I believe all good things come to those who wait...... I really liked my hubbie in high school but kept it to myself and we met after we were both out of college and were married 2 years lator and just celebrated our 20th anniversary. Freaky thing- I have a photo i took of him at graduation from high school, just floors my kids cause at the time we were "just friends" deja vu!!! signed old fashioned too

I'm with you, Kim.

My son started receiving calls from girls when he was in 1st grade. And that just accellerated as he got older.

What is it that gives today's girls the 'balls' to cold call a guy....I never would have even dreamed of doing that.

Kimberly;

I know how you feel from a male point of view. I get unconfortable about a female calling me unless she's family, a close friend, an established romantic interest, or has permission to call.

I've had women call me and ask me out on dates. That is a VERY uncomfortable situation to be in. My upbrining says to be a gentleman with her and accept, but my paranoid side tells me to turn her down because she's too desperate.

I defently was born a century or 3 too late.

Michael

i love all you guys to death , but i am so far away from you on this issues i guess you would all call me a 'shameless hussy' ...maybe it's because you are all, or mostly, Southern. i have never liked formal 'dates', and am just as likely to ask a man to 'hang out' with me as he is. John and i both asked each other out during the same conversation.

i prefer to call my lifestyle 'androgynous' when my in-laws invited me to John's niece's bridal shower, John went, too, much to his mother's chagrin (he told his niece that he was an 'honorary lesbian', which made her crack up )

if i lived in the antebellum South, i would be like Scarlett O'Hara, an early hero of mine. she had more brains than all of the people in her town put together, except maybe her father. i would have had a heart, though, and i would have held on to Rhett.

sandy

Well hang on here. Who has the patience to wait till a guy calls? Hello? What's wrong with going after what you want? Being aggressive? Direct? Honest? Like I must of been absent the day they taught southern manners on how to act like a lady, cause I was brought up during feminist times. Maybe cause I'm a liberal yankee too. But if I am interested in someone you can bet I'm calling him and taking matters into my hands, it is called taking control, and I do that quite well.

Sorry Kim, can't agree with ya here.

Pam

Kim

Women as well as men left calling cards in the mornings to both sexes to line up their 'appointments' for the afternoons. It wasn't nrcessarily about romance, it was about the practicality of knowing if someone was going to be at home to receive your visit. You could also think of them like today's answering machines because I'm sure they were probably used that way as well when a person didn't want to 'receive' a certain guest. Oh, to have the servants today so that the system of calling cards would work.

Jean

JEAN,

I AM HAPPY TO KNOW SOMEONE OTHER THAN MYSELF KNOWS THE HISTORY OF CALLING CARDS!!!!! HOWEVER, SINCE THIS WASN'T A HISTORY OF CALLING CARD BLOG, FOR THE PURPOSE OF CONTEXT, I OMITTED THAT PART. I WAS SURE THE GENERAL PUBLIC WASN'T AWARE OF THE HISTORY, SO I LEFT THAT OUT TO "BETTER FIT" THE CONTENT OF MY BLOG. ( I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN YOU WOULD KNOW, LOL)

HOWEVER, THE CALLING CARD WAS USED MOST ASSUREDLY USED FOR ROMANCE, AT LEAST DOWN HERE AS WELL AS ALL THE OTHER REASONS YOU MENTIONED!!!!

KIM

Kim,

Yup, calling cards were most assuredly used during courtships. Romance books and folklure have made it seem as if that was the only time the cards were used which, of course, we both know was far from the truth. I have a collection of etiquette books going back to the 1700s. I love that kind of useless information and, boy, are you right about women's behavior having evolved into something hardly recognizible from as close back as the 1950s and 60s. For the most part, I think the changes are good ones.

Jean

About 35 years ago..i visited/lived with a family in Mexico City for over a month.. this was the family of a young man my mother befriended while working in a large hotel in Tulsa, OK.. i was kinda on an unofficial exchange program. While there i became attracted to one of his nieces.. who was was my age.. In my home in 1970 if i ran into someone like her i would have asked her out on a date or something....to a movie etc.. without thinking anything about it.. I told my host, my mom's friend's brother, about my wish to see their neice on a "date". where upon he told me it was proper that i had to ask her father's permision for such an thing.. I was stunned.. couldn't believe it.. but since i was in 'Rome' then i did what was necessary.. I bet this protocol since exist today there and in some places in the USA.. makes for a better situation don't you think?

if i would ask for my father's permission to date i would probably still be a virgin , sitting home and taking care of him and my mother ....he would never think that a guy that i would be interested would be good enough for me, and i would never be interested in the nice Jewish boys that he would pick for me. the nice Jewish boy that i unconsciously chose to 'please' my parents was the mother of all AFGOs

i think that i've done very well for myself in this life. i don't need anybody to pick my dates, my house, my career, or my hair color.

i remember that when my dad came out of his persistent vegetative state for the second time since he stroked, in 2004, i had cotton candy pink hair (temporary color). he couldn't speak, but if looks could kill, he would have burned my hair off. i just told him, 'and WHAT are you going to do about it? you never listened to you anyway, so i'm not going to listen to you when you're paralyzed' i know that was what he was thinking, because i'm just like him, and we're close. i'm the only person that he'll talk to on the telephone

BTW, why can't the girl's MOTHER pick her dates??

sandy

THAT REMINDS ME OF SOMETHING I FORGOT TO MENTION, TYVM TOM. WHILE MEN/BOYS DIDN'T ASK MY FATHER IF THE COULD TAKE ME ON A DATE, ALL OF MY HUSBANDS DID, AFTER MY SAYING YES OF COURSE, ASK HIM IF THEY HAD HIS BLESSING TO MARRY ME!!!!!!!!! LOL

I THINK NOW THOUGH, AFTER 3 MARRIAGES AND AT MY AGE, I DON'T FEEL THAT IS NECESSARY OR APPROPRIATE ANY LONGER. BESIDES, DADDY IS PROBABLY TIRED OF HEARING IT!!!!!!!