Q Dear Miss Abigail:
Is it forward for a girl to call a boy on the telephone just for the sake of conversation?
Signed,
Jon
A Dear Jon:
The results are in, and it appears that us girls should call you boys only if there is a dire emergency. Well, maybe it isn’t that severe, but my advice to all young women out there is this: I wouldn’t fool around if I were you. Use that phone very carefully.
1956: If a Girl Must Telephone a Boy
In a poll of high-school boys more than two-thirds said that they do not like to have girls call them on the telephone. They feel that this is a boy’s privilege, and that a girl seems forward when she phones a boy. They furthermore report that their families tease them about the girls who call them up at home.
Yet there may be times when a girl really must call a boy with an urgent message, to give him an invitation, or to make a request that cannot wait until she next sees him. When such a call is necessary, the girl must be unusually careful to observe the expected telephone courtesies. She should protect both the boy and herself from embarrassment by keeping her call short, and not telephoning him too often.
Source: Duvall, Evelyn Millis. Facts of Life and Love for Teen-Agers. New York: Association Press, 1956.
~ p. 136 ~
1963: When Does a Girl Call a Boy?
Any time there’s a change of plans, any time she has important news, any time she wants to ask him to a party. But not just any time. A boy you see a great deal may ask you to call him now and then, but be wary: if you call often, young brothers and sisters may tease him about it; parents, possibly taught that girls never call boys, may be sharp-tongued about your excessive interest in their son. If this keeps up, girl may lose boy. You can also call a boy when he’s phoned and left a message for you to return his call. (That doesn’t happen often.)
Source: Haupt, Enid H. The Seventeen Book of Etiquette & Entertaining. New York: David McKay Company, Inc., 1963.
~ p. 132 ~