Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Date Night In The Mid-1980’s

     One odd day at the office, my law partner Jeff and I discussed the rudiments of dating out during the mid-80’s.  It struck us that while he was from the Ateneo High School and I’m from La Salle Greenhills, we lived in like but parallel universes.  We dated girls from the same peer groups, went out to the same places, bought flowers from the same shop (probably wrote the same bullshit).  Sometimes we got lucky, sometimes we got busted.   We never met during that period, but there was an undeniably unified experience shared.
The Pre-date

     The pre-date starts with the jarringly hard call to your crush’s house.  In the days before cellphones you had to call a land line, yes folks a land line (with cross lines and party lines to boot but that is another story altogether).  You will normally encounter maids with thick Visayan accents, a tough dad, an asshole brother or an overly bearing mother.  If you are lucky to get through, you face your worst enemy “YOU”.  Tongue tied and with little conversational skills, you might need to write a pre-made dialogue akin to a movie script unless you want to hear crickets on the other side of the line.  The pre-made dialogue may be a set of index cards with a conversation flowchart where the answer will mean using other dialogue cards specific to that conversation flow.  When things go well, you will receive that most important YES, an affirmation that she will go out with you.

     The next step is to figure out what to wear.  In the 80’s you were either new wave or preppy.  I tended to be preppy with my topsiders, Ralph Lauren polo shirts and khakis.  Dating meant wearing long sleeve dress shirts which Filipinos interestingly call polo shirts, slacky pants correctly called slacks and loafers (Cole Haans, Weejuns (by Bass),  Sebagos or Haruta depending on your budget).  You either bought these at PX stores or Rustan’s.  To lessen costs, borrow clothes from your vain and stylish brother.  Your scent choices were Gray Flannel, Polo, Azzaro, Drakkar Noir or Eau Sauvage.

     Your ride or what we fondly call “wheels” then were limited to box type Mitsubishi Lancers or hatch back Toyota Corollas (okay if you had ties with the ruling family you can borrow your dad’s 123 body Mercedes Benz).  The economic situation brought about by the Marcos regime meant cars were expensive and the average age of cars were 4 to 5 years old.  Toyota Philippines was closed all throughout this harsh economic period, it was probably like a mild form of how the Cubans feel about the U.S. embargo.  Interestingly, due to the fall of the Peso, cars were actually appreciating in value.  Date night meant that Saturday morning was spent cleaning the car.  It may translate to a steam wash in your favourite gas station, a change of white seat covers after a thorough vacuuming of the carpets.   The car scent of choice then was orange scented My Shaldan from Japan,  Pine air fresheners were strictly passe.  To top off the clean car look, don't forget the huge box of tissues above the glove compartment.  Cleaning the car meant the stereo was in full blast listening to James Ingram’s One Hundred ways.  Mr. Ingram gives his all out advice for date night.  (more on the date itself on the next article)




-amg

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