Show KATHLEEN NORRIS Every Generation Has Dangers WHAT ABOUT my teen age VT V daughters women from Maine to Monterey have been asking me during the last puzzling years What about dates and night clubs I and going steady I Yes what's happened to the tho kids elds demands India Roberts of Denver Col Are the year olds In your town talking beaux and dates and who Is going with whom My Vly husband and I are nearly franIc frantic fran- fran Ic Uc the letter goes on Our Phylis Phyllis Phyl- Phyl is liz is 13 Frances two years older They are lovely girls good students helpful at home gay and they are all our world But ever since school started last fall we have been flooded flooded flooded flood flood- ed with girl boy talk long legged young creatures infest our downstairs downstairs downstairs down down- stairs playroom and every week weekend weekend weekend end presents a problem Fran has gone steady with a aboy aboy ajoy boy joy for tor months little Phil Is rapidly following suit They only want to todo todo todo do what the other girls mothers let et them do but isn't that a lot lotmore lotmore lotmore more than girls so young ought to tobe tobe tobe be allowed to do Movies in hi parties of four or six school dances house partIes artles And they all pair pah of off oU as naturally naturally na- na as if it they had been marrIed married mar mar- ried ned for years Dangers and Advantages Now isn't this very unhealthy Doesn't it stimulate desires and U. U h 1 4 uL L 1 Wt 10 u la ier eI years Doesn't It take the bloom off oU our girls Youve You've been asked this question thousands of ot times tunes what is your solution Well India in the first place this situation Isn't all wrong Like every other custom of every other generatIon generation genera genera- I tion it has its dangers and Its ad ad- vantages There are good things in hi this sudden leap from rom childhood i Into understanding understanding understanding-understanding understanding on this question of sex if It back of the girl and the boy there Is a sane affectionate family as a rock of ot se- se I M. M will wilh girl-boy girl talk lalk n to which they may anchor their dancing craft Girls years ago were simperIng simpering simper simper- Ing ignorant romantic misses so protected so sheltered so kept Inthe in inthe inthe the dark that marriage to them was often a serious disillusionment and anda a shock Managing mammas Inveigled inveigled inveigled in in- the groom into proposing and pompous papas arranged the dowry Without that dowry European girls could not hope for tor marriage at atalL alL We who were school girls 50 years ago didn't have the managing mammas mam main mas and dots and were never American Institutions But we did have all the awkwardness shyness ignorance that made social events agonies for youngsters of both sexes And be believe eve me we took just as poignant and obsessive an Interest In the subject of ot sex as do girls of today only we knew nothing about it and were not not allowed allowed allowed al al- al- al lowed to question For us it was all suspicion tittering surmise and mystery Dances were miserable I I uncertainties until ones onea card was full I recommend Rosamund Lehman's Lehmans Lehmans Lehman's Lehmans Lehman's Leh Leh- mans man's delightful novel Invitation To The Waltz as a perfect picture of ot what a dance meant then to a ashy 8 shy unpopular girL Going Steady Now strangely enough today's teen teen-agers have accomplished what chaperons and mothers and patronesses patronesses patron patron- esses have vainly tried to achieve for whole genera generations Going steady merely means In the life lIte of ot a protected dignified small girl that she has a sure partner for movie companionship at school dances on day all parties She likes him with all the honesty she shows her girl friendships they save each other endless uncertainties endless chances to establish an inferiority complex an unpopularity complex for all the years of ot their lives Victorian girls never talked to tomen tomen tomen men at all except when in the presence of their ciders elders Girls of ot my generation confined themselves to endless friendships with their own sex but became muscle bound affected and nervous when men came around Today's custom does away with both these unnatural conditions But like all other new things things' f we have to see in it a challenge to a anew anew anew new moral Like the rules we make for our children concerning radio movies motors planes we have met this juvenile development with an Increase increase increase in In- crease of dignity self control duty |