Courting in 1915
As a mother of five children—three girls and two boys—I have sent them off in their finest to proms and dances, heard their heartfelt concerns over relationships both good and bad, and given two daughters to fine young men in marriage.
Dating rituals down here in the Florida Panhandle have dramatically changed since my grandmother was courting in 1915. For my grandmother and her friends, courtship came only after the man asked permission of the woman’s family. Once he had the family’s approval, he could court his chosen girl, but they could never be left alone. There was always a chaperone, usually an elderly aunt or family friend who tagged along to keep a close eye so that nothing “went amiss.” The thought was that in this way a man and a woman took the time to get to know each other emotionally and intellectually first before they married.
Annie Laura’s Triumph ends with the fictionalized wedding day of my grandparents. In real life, they, too, courted with a chaperone. Their marriage lasted seventy-one years.
I wonder if we might need to rethink our modern dating rituals?
You can read the fictionalized version of my grandparents’ wedding day in my novel, Annie Laura’s Triumph, published by Mercer University Press.
