[CENTER]Corner Nostalgioso – Issue 7[/CENTER]
And then there were girls! – I just know you’ve all been waiting for this exciting hormone packed episode! The innocent ‘good buddy’ years passed and the ‘testosterone kick start’ began. We knew of course the girls were there, but they did their thing and we did ours! But at some mysterious point in time that wasn’t heralded by a newspaper announcement or workshop presentation, and usually in spring time, the hunt was on.
It usually started with one of us, not all at once. One guy would ‘smell the scent’ (remember Al Pacino in “ The Scent of a Women”) will we thought of it first, and the rest would follow. So soon the gang of lads had started hanging out with the gang of girls. Non-verbal messages we sent and we mysteriously all paired off. But these were never to be long term relationships. These were the practice runs for the real disasters to come later!
But it was a new challenge, we had to learn how to speak a bit differently and not to swear so much and dress up a bit smarter some times. One of the favourite meeting places in those day of a formal and social nature was the Scout Club of course, which ran ‘rock and roll’ nights every Friday or Saturday night. My younger sister and I practiced our rock and roll steps until we could twist and swing with the best of them and then let loose on the club floor. All the girls invariable sat on one side of the room and the lads the other. Yes it really did happen like that not just in the American movies! So Fridays/Saturdays, were a time to dress up, put on the brylcream and aftershave, winklepicker shoes, blue jeans and strut your thung.
Peacocks in a barn house! But it was all good innocent fun, and no one seemed to get pregnant in those days, well at least no females. Apart from dancing, there were romantic country walks along canal banks and across farmers’ fields, with heavy petting under the oak trees, but still no pregnancies!! We were either slow learners in those days or more controlled! But this process did change the course of things. The courting rituals of course took us away from the lads get togethers and when we did get together it was more about discussing our recent conquests and bragging about the impossible!
School life was of course another avenue for romance, and all schools had become co-ed, which made it much easier, but more distracting too! There were several instances of the more ‘seriously romantic’ couples thwarted by the parents, eloping together for several weeks until tracked down and returned home. Most of us just looked on in amazement, this was seriously dangerous behaviour. How could a young lad be so bemused!
I’m sure many of the romances stood the test of time, and I know of one young couple who met at school, eventually married and I now correspond with regular in another state in Australia (no names no pack drills). We all had the same chances but some of us didn’t take them!! On average most of us would have had up to six ‘romances’ over a two year period. My six varied from meeting a girl at church, to neighbourhood friends and school. One of my school girlfriends lived a few towns away, so that entailed me cycling in all kind of weathers to meet.
Most of our time was spent walking along the canal walkways, which in those days seemed to be very quiet for most of the time, ideal for serious courting couples. Several years later after I had left home this particular girlfriend won a Rose Queen accolade. I can remember reading about it down south and thinking “wow missed a good one there!”
These early ‘romances’ were the training period for most of us, and we then turned to more serious things like motorbikes and leaving school and getting jobs. Many of my contemporaries including myself, developed careers, left home and it wasn’t until we were in our early to mid twenties that we got into romantic encounters of a different kind, and eventually got married. Living together with your girlfriend in the 50’s and 60’s was never an option; social norms did not permit this frivolous behaviour! So there you have it the rise and fall of the ‘testosterone period’.
Looking back, and with foresight, perhaps relationship workshops would have been useful so that young people could learn about the mysteries of the opposite sex. But we did it the hard way and many would say the more exciting way!
