So a commitment, concentration, temporarily a devotion. Sometimes, it is easy to stay with a book. For a time, I am locked onto a single book. When I have a spare moment, I get back to the one book I am reading. All through the day, I return to that same piece of writing. I don't worry about what is happening to Mma Romatswe while I am learning how flexible human habits and mores about marriage has been in Stephanie Coontz's "Marriage, a History". It is easy when just about every paragraph has something quite surprising, often astounding.
Just today, I read about the change from a guy "calling" on a young woman to them going on a date. Lots of other things were happening at the same time. Clerical jobs were opening up and more and more businesses hired young women. Those businesses often had cafeterias where young women and young men met, talked and ate together. Calling on a girl meant going to her house where the caller and the girl might sit in the living room or on the porch. My grandparents described exactly that situation when explaining how she was smoking a cigarette (!) when her mother popped out to check on the young people. My grandad took her lighted cigarette and put it directly into his pocket to try to avoid a scolding. I was told it worked.
Prof. Coontz explains that the girl extended an invitation and that generally, no guy called without her invitation. Then, movies! Cars! Dates! At first the word "date" was a new term to mean an outing two young people would give themselves. They had been to the movies and learned quite a bit about how to kiss, "neck" and "pet" and now they could drive off alone to practice these newfound skills. A major point is that the switch from "calling" to "dating" switched much of the power of initiative from the girl to the guy, something that can matter in the politics of the sexes.
While I am being loyal and focused on one book, it pays to stay that way. Sometimes, I am torn between two or three and sometimes I am afloat without anything gripping my attention
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