When in recent history were certain pick-up lines used? How have pick-up lines changed over time?
Written by Julie Loop, who interviewed her grandparents (Raph and Maryann Moore)
Movies may let us think that flippant pick-up lines have been the main way to “get the girl” for decades, but that is not actually the case. In the 1950s and 60s, people were more likely to be direct in asking someone on a date. Lines like, “would you like to go to the fair with me on Friday?” were more successful than you’d think! Without our current advances in communicative technology, there wasn’t much competition in terms of who you were able to date. Therefore, proving you were worth someone’s time with a great opening line wasn’t exactly necessary. If anything, there is a good chance they already knew who you were before you even asked. The best modern examples of these types of pick-up lines are asking people (that you weren’t previously dating) to Homecoming or the Sadie Hawkins dance. My grandparents implied that local dances were the most common reason to ask someone out back then.
Not to mention, the average age of marriage was nearly ten years earlier than it is now (19 years old versus 28 years old). Marrying earlier requires dating earlier, which meant there was a good chance you’d date someone you grew up with. So your opening line might not need to convey your personality in five words or less. It’s likely you were in the same club or sport as them, and that’s why you decided to ask them out in the first place. In my interviews with my grandparents, they mentioned that, throughout their generation and the generation before, people often married childhood friends or previous acquaintances from their home town.
Interestingly, the “friends to lovers”-like narrative gave us the opportunity for non-verbal pick-up lines. Have you ever communicated silently with one of your friends among a group of people using only looks? Well, people in the 1950s and 60s were no different. My grandmother mentioned that the best pick-up line, in her opinion, was just a simple look. A mutual interest conveyed through physical expression instead of words.
To be completely fair, the silent pick-up line was probably the most effective for heterosexuals in that time period (1950-1960) because most young, single women were only allowed to hang out with men in large groups of both men and women. Therefore, they would plan a get-together, where everyone was invited, and they would use these gatherings to get closer to their love interests. Often this behavior would form a social grouping that would stick together throughout their years in school. Some people would end up dating within that friend group; a great example is in the movie Grease with the T-birds and the Pink Ladies.