Beach(es) Beat

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Back in the days when I was a golden youngie, adages and bromides were the order of the day for male behaviour. Now that I am older than a boulder, I realize that this is not necessarily the case and I am not quite sure just exactly what to make of all of this.

I know that modern society has become a good deal more relaxed in many areas and I have no quarrel with that, but the old advice and sayings and customs meant that we could cope with situations without really having to think much about it.

"Drink your milk because it is good for you," mother would command and down the hatch it would slide without anyone giving it a moment's thought. It was the same with your recreational time.

When you went outside to play, you headed for home the minute the street lights came on because that's the way the system worked back then.

When you entered the teenage years and discovered that wonderful creation called girls, you always walked on the outside when escorting them along the sidewalk, and a few years later when Dad trusted you with the family car you unfailingly opened the passenger side door when your date slid in to the front seat with a shy smile and a tantalizing whiff of perfume that still makes my nose twitch at the memory of it.

Nowadays, everything is different and those societal changes have left me reeling in confusion.

A reliable witness informed me recently that he was seated in a smart cafe opposite a table occupied by a young man and his woman friend and when it came time to settle the bill the woman picked up the tab. I am still grappling with the significance of that because that just did not happen in my day. Men always paid and I hasten to explain that it wasn't because women were to parsimonious to pony up but being 10 times smarter than guys on average the ladies wisely concluded if that is the way things worked it would be silly to spoil a good thing.

However, times change and it is true many of those changes have been for the better. But I still miss those wise old sayings although some of them were a little tricky to figure out. A penny saved is a penny earned is still sound advice but I confess I fail to see the logic of a stitch in time saves nine.