Information through the ages

When I arrived in Ohio to begin freshman orientation, a close friend of the family gave me some reading material that she thought would interest me: her Oberlin handbook from when she was a freshman. I considered presenting all the ways that Oberlin hasn't changed since 1943, but then I was inspired to excerpt some of the bits about dating, instead, to accompany this entry.

• There are two main types of social life in Oberlin: (1) the inexpensive, and (2) the not-so-inexpensive.

• Type One includes walking with your friend around the campus, down through the Arboretum (the nearest thing in Oberlin to a "lovers' lane"), and then back up-town to the Varsity or Campus Restaurant for a milkshake or coke.

• The "walk" is a good thing for more reasons than one. It is healthful exercise as well as inexpensive for the male member of the duet. If he becomes well-liked by his female partner, it won't be long before he can skip the refreshments at the end of the stroll. But then eleven cents, including Ohio State tax, isn't too much for one evening.

• The walk or "coke-date" is by no means restricted to after dark. Some of the better dates take place between classes in the morning, or after a gruesome zoology lab in the afternoon. (It's surprising, men, how vulnerable females are after they've spent two or three hours cutting up a defenseless earthworm.)

From what I can tell, this is all oddly similar. Well, except for the eleven cents part.