Courting.Breckinridge.HISTORY-OtherFrom: KyArchives [Archives@genrecords.org]
Sent: Saturday, September 23, 2006 9:15 AM
To: Ky-Footsteps
Subject: Courting.Breckinridge.HISTORY-Other


Courting  
Breckinridge County KyArchives History Other 
Book Title: A Glimpse Of The Past 
In the early days of our country, courting was much different from today.  
There were not many places for young people to go to get acquainted.  Church 
was the one generally chosen.  If a guy was brave enough, he could sit with his 
girl on the women's side.  Of course, you might also sit with a girl in the 
choir.  If it were hot weather, you could fan your girl and yourself. 
Sometimes there was a big to do in the community.  There was sometimes an all 
day picnic on the Fourth of July, a quarterly meeting at the church or a 
revival.  Dinner on the ground went with the all day preaching.  Sometimes a 
guy brought the young lady to church on such occasions, but they usually came 
with the rest of the family.  The yong ladies were eager to feed the guy to let 
him know that she and her mother were good cooks.  The older couples sometimes 
would sit out in the buggy during the afternoon preaching.  The courting was 
always in the public or supervised. 
When the late Victorians were yong, the frankness of today's manner would have 
been a little short of insulting.  A well bred did not ask for a date.  There 
would be a go between.  With the coming of adolescence one grew proper in 
manners, courting was made a serious and beautiful thing.  Small brothers or 
sisters of the boy made many a nickel by acting as note-carrier between the two. 

An older, more experienced person sometimes made the oral date and came back to 
report. 
Sunday afternoon was a proper time for the courting.  The front room, formal 
living room, was open up after Sunday dinner.  A fire was built in the 
wintertime in the fireplace or stove.  The young gentleman would call on his 
favorite girl. 
Nothing has changed more radical in the last two or three decades than the 
methods of courting, even though the later methods seem quite as successful and 
quite as romantic. 





Submitted by: Dana Brown 
http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00005.html#0001067 



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