Formal Dating in La Crosse Curbed by Lack of Ready Cash

Dating in La Crosse today draws more crowds than couples. Safety in numbers may have its application in the dating habits of young people here. At least it protects the modern day seldom bulging wallet. Eating out on a weekend is traditional in this Mississippi Valley city of 50,000 but restaurateurs can number few of the college set among their clientele. "No one at La Crosse Slate University aspires to live on love. Tuition, room and board carry top priorities with expense accounts. That combination leaves precious little in the kitty and when the hank is busted, and it generally is, the indulgence is more likely to he for cigarettes or an inexpensive beer night out with the boys than a formal date with a pretty coed. Don't Have the Money Bui what the young eligihlcs of La Crosse lack in money they make up in ingenuity and improvisation with the occasional girl of their choice. Movies and dinner dales are bi-monthly affairs, if that frequent. "We just don't have the coins," is the familiar lament. Replacing the traditional dating hangouts are off-campus student apartments
regularly thrown open to dormitory dwellers for highly popular, informal parlies. Typically anywhere from three to seven couples will descend on "a friend's" apartment where they "drink some beer, talk a lot and dig good music." A generous amount of collegiates in La Crosse have access to these apartments which, according to those who live in them, can often be had for less than it costs to live in a dorm — "if you don't need the Ritz." Teen Bars Popular Other popular entertainment centers are the teen bars. But when these places are the objective for a festive evening more often than not friends part. Or rather don't get together until later in the night. The reason is the 50-cent to $1.25 cover charge which acts as the great deterrent to dating a girl and taking her to a beer bar. The accepted procedure is for both sexes to go slag in fairly large groups. Once safely inside, the process of pairing off is smoothly effected as live music and easy atmosphere lend encouragement. In their own words the coeds are quite aware of the stringent circumstances of their boy friends and both sexes enjoy the independence which goes along with paying one's own way into a bar. Dales Materialize Later Frequently two people will have an understanding of sorts that a dale, also of sorts, will materialize later in the evening. The agreement is far from written: "See you about 10 tonight" is the word. Any one of a half doxcn popular college hangouts may be designated. The idea is that "X" will go with a bunch of guys to the bar and "Y" will join a few girl friends with the two colliding sometime between 9 and 11 that evening. This type of en masse dating practiced by the college set in La Crosse is also popular with the area's high schoolers. It's called "hustling" at the dances. Adjourn (o Park The general procedure after a dance is lo adjourn to Granddad's Bluff Riverside Park or Castle Point on the Minnesota side of the river where the young people practice their craving for beautiful scenery with typical avidity. Dances are prime time for dating with proms and homecoming cherished occasions. Athletic events may also provide an opportunity for holding a blushing beauty's hand although these affairs usually turn out to be group nights. Movies also have a greater appeal to high schoolers who can usually better afford them than room and board-paying collegiates. Parental Advice Missing Most high schoolers are not old enough to qualify for the teen bars and fake identification cards "are not as available as we'd like," one junior admitted. Parental dating advice on the high school level typically expresses concern for the background of the boy or girl being dated. Such advice diminishes on the college level. A majority of the formal dating among college students in the La Crosse area is done within the fraternity-sorority social
circle. The "Greeks" number about 500 to 600 of the university's 6,000 student enrollment.. If a guy can dig up his frat dues in the fall he can look forward to four or five dress-up dinner dates during a typical year's agenda with a bagful of beer socials and dances an almost weekly happening at. one of the campuses' frat 'houses. Couple Dating Limited The consensus is that couple dating is generally limited to special occasions — a birthday or a homecoming. Even to qualify for bonafide date is exacting; ''i usually cut out cigarettes or lose my appetite for a week before," was how one senior described financing an infrequent date. Freshmen quickly become conditioned lo the dating habits of the more seasoned students. Barring an unlikely "catch" at initial fall dances the underclassmen and his frustration adjourn to the beer havens: "I can always tell a freshman at the bars," one senior coed remarked. "They're hungry for noise and action — it's in their eyes." Those anxious faces readily outnumber the upperclassmen in such 'haunts probably because freshmen cannot live off campus.