Living History

What they don’t know won’t hurt them

I was 23 when I went on my first date. I know this seems like mature age to start dating, but back then it was normal. It was 1943 and ‘dating’ as we know it today didn’t really exist. It was more a strict process of courtship that was followed, in my world at least. Our parents controlled most of what we did, and where we went. We never had to have a chaperone (thankfully!), but our dates were planned with the approval of our parents and we had strict times as to when we were leaving and coming home.

Even though our parents thought they knew what we were doing, they didn’t really. We would tell them we were going out for dinner or going to a show and we would end up around at a friend’s house drinking and having fun.

Sarah, Western Australia

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