You always hear people saying, “Wow how the times have changed!” especially in the case of dating and romance. As a follow up to my last article,”Is dating a thing of the past?” I asked four All Saints’ teachers about their first dates, their opinions on relationships, technology, romance, and of course some interesting stories about themselves.
My goal was to ask a variety of teachers from different backgrounds and walks of life about their pasts. I started off by asking Mr. Gonzales, Middle School Division Head, some questions. including how he proposed to his wife.
“Actually, she proposed to me! Her mother did not like me, since I was on the wrong side of the tracks. I was a good guy, but I wasn’t rich and famous like her mother wanted me to be. So, I was afraid to ask her for fear that she would say no. But we were both in love with each other so she said ‘why don’t we just get married?’ And so we did; we went and got married, kind of like Romeo and Juliet.”
But, let’s back up to the first date. Was it romantic?
“Our first date was to a Jim’s, an older version of a Sonic Drive-in, and they brought us two Dr. Peppers and an order of onion rings and we sat in the car and talked for nearly four hours.” This is a much different kind of date from the current generation, where it seems like you always have to be doing something non-stop.
My previous article touched on the increase of technology use in dating, so it was natural to ask Gonzo to compare then and now.
“Of course, when we started dating, we didn’t have cell phones, so we would go through time periods where we wouldn’t talk or see each other for three or four days at a time due to my work or her school. When we would see each other it was based much more off interaction, while now I can text her constantly. We still love to talk to each other but I see now with this generation that people text even more than they talk.”
Gonzo’s opinion was interesting to hear in complete contrast with what Mrs. Hoad, the Middle School religion teacher, had to say about technology in relationships.
“I know that technology has had some negative impacts on relationships but I see mostly positive changes.” Hoad said. “There are friends that I don’t see everyday that I can keep up with more because I can send a text to them and we wouldn’t be doing that if I didn’t have that immediate connection that technology allows me to have. I think a lot of people worry that technology makes relationships shallow and that’s not what I have seen necessarily, I think it just allows people, if you use it right, to be in better contact with people.” These two contrasting views show exactly how different generations agree and disagree on this topic.
I had to inquire about some first date stories, so here is Mrs. Wright’s, one of the Upper School English teachers.
“My first date was as a sophomore in high school,” Mrs. Wright said. “We went to Pizza Hut on our very first date. It was right down the street from the football stadium and it was after a football game that he had just played in. So I sat across from this sweaty, stinky, gross guy that I just thought was so cute, and he ate a bunch of pizza but I didn’t because I was trying to be the dainty girl. It was a real date to me because he drove me home. In my family, we had the “front porch light rule” which meant that when the light went off it meant it was time to come inside. So of course, we were sitting outside in his car and he was about to kiss me and then my mom started flickering the lights on and off. It was SO embarrassing.”
So if you’ve had Dr. Fanning as your 10th-grade history teacher, you probably already know he was secretly a spy (and probably still is). Subsequently enough he gave an example that pretty much fit the description of a spy. I asked him if he met any foreign girls on his many travels and gone on any dates with them.
“When I first went to Europe in the summer of 1971, I sailed on the Queen Elizabeth II Ocean liner and I met a girl who worked in the casino. She worked the roulette table. When we got to London I went on a couple dates with her, and then she passed me onto her sister and I went on a few dates with her too!”
If that doesn’t sound like a spy, I don’t know what does. I mean a girl at a roulette table?! C’mon now! These varying stories from our own teachers really show how the times have changed, and that the old saying “how the times have changed!” really does have meaning behind it.
