# How did dating work prior to the Internet? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 29, 2011, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-dating-work-prior-to-the-internet/604504 "2011-11-29T23:02:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2011, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-dating-work-prior-to-the-internet/604504/41 "2011-11-30T19:27:03Z")
Anywhere alcohol is involved. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2011, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-dating-work-prior-to-the-internet/604504/42 "2011-11-30T19:28:55Z")
> [@SirRay](#): > > Lots of ‘College’, ‘College’, ‘College’ responses. > Of course, some of us went for Engineering Degrees in college (in colleges known for Engineering and Science, not so much for Liberal Arts and Business). > With a ratio of 1:4 Female to Male, college was NOT by far the best time to meet plenty of people of my preferred gender… If you were female, it might very well be. 🙂 Of course one’s personal circumstances vary, but my guess is that for most people, college (or school in general) represents the most easily accessible potential dating pool of people. I dated much more after college, but there were far more options available to me during college. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2011, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-dating-work-prior-to-the-internet/604504/43 "2011-11-30T19:44:56Z")
If you’re a single male and not anti-religious, church. Single women everywhere, of every age. And not necessarily bible thumping Jesus freaks, especially if you go to a more liberal denomination. My Episcopal church has plenty of attractive single non-crazy women between 25 and 40. My wife and I were set up by my roommate’s college buddy’s wife and sister. Wait, I mean, his wife, and also his sister, worked together to set us up. Not that he married his sister. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2011, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-dating-work-prior-to-the-internet/604504/44 "2011-11-30T19:47:53Z")
I don’t know how dating works, now or in the past. ---
**Author:** ![Lukeinva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lukeinva/32/17872_2.png) [@Lukeinva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lukeinva)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2011, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-dating-work-prior-to-the-internet/604504/45 "2011-11-30T20:23:22Z")
Waaaay back in the past Zog would just club his, um, selection and drag her off by the hair. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2011, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-dating-work-prior-to-the-internet/604504/46 "2011-11-30T21:08:57Z")
Let’s see: met girls in high school and college, of course, including some with whom things only became interesting years later. Met a couple of women through college friends after graduation, met a couple of women, including my wife, in grad school, even though I was studying mathematics. One girl I dated was a friend of my sister, another I met through caving buddies, another at a retreat for volunteers at a crisis hotline, a few through personals ads in alternative weeklies, and a couple through chance meetings: one time I got in a really good conversation with the woman behind me in the checkout line at a store, and another time I was in a restaurant with some friends, saw an attractive woman at the next table, and sent her a dessert. All of this was pre-1990, so very very pre-Internet. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2011, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-dating-work-prior-to-the-internet/604504/47 "2011-11-30T22:06:36Z")
Funny thing, I was the chef at a major night spot in San Diego in th 1980’s. Cocaine in the bathrooms, dirty-dancing, nudity in the photo booth, high-priced drinks, cover charge, gorgeous lady customers and co-workers. But I never got laid. 😕☹ anyone remember **Confetti**? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-dating-work-prior-to-the-internet/604504.md?page=2)