SO JUST HOW DO YOU KNOW NOW?

It was so easy back then. Back in the days of bench seats in cars. There were buckets, of course, but predominately when a teen drove his first car on a date it was a borrowed one from his Dad. With bench seats.

It may just have been his car of necessity throughout his high school days. And it was easy to tell. Easy to tell if his girl liked him or not. If she did, she moved her body (well, I had to work in the picture) next to him. Her vision obstructed by his rearview mirror.

If she didn't particularly care for him, then she hugged her door, leaving a noticeable gap or space between the two. It was very defining. If she really was into the guy, then it might appear that there was one driver with two heads. All the while, he might be asking her to move closer to him.

These were days of seat belts, but they were lap belts only and not many used them. There were no laws about requiring them. If there had been, I suppose two could be strapped into one seatbelt, though I doubt that was the intent of the law.

"Why don't you scoot over here, next to me?" a whole bunch of guys must have asked. "I'm fine, thanks," was a too often response. I mean next to going steady, the body language of the girl as she rode with the guy was tantamount. It was an announcement in a small town. They were a couple.

Like American Graffiti, the place to take your huddled, cuddled girl was to the drive-in restaurant to be seen. In MTV, it was the famous Mug drive-in, with a huge marquee of a root beer mug tilted with froth spewing out. Everyone who was anyone passed by The Mug a half a dozen times on a weekend night.

The only revelation of my past high school days that I'm sharing in this entry had to do with one Summer night. One Summer night in my dry days when girls were sparse, had disappeared for "See You in September" days, or had no interest in even sharing the end of the bench seat in my Dad's Oldsmobile with me at the wheel.

A cute sophomore from the northern part of the state was visiting her grandparents who lived near me. They happened to be adults in the 'hood who liked me. So when I went to see her at their house and we drove away, she sat next to me. Off to The Mug.

I had to declare, of course. But none of my good friends, kinda good friends, people I knew were there when I drove around. Whoa. What was going on? I continued to drive the normal teen path by the park, skating rink, rec club, Broadway, South 10th by Maid Rite Drive In and back to The Mug.

No one was anywhere. I couldn't display. I couldn't roll down my window and talk and show her off.

I must have driven by 6 times before just giving up and taking her back to her grandparents'. I don't recall even having or offering a coke.

She stayed for awhile longer with our neighbors/her grandparents. We talked on the phone a few times, but we never went out again.

What was the use when there was no one to know about her? Except me.