By Terseer Mnzuulgha
WE SURE SUFFERED!
Young men these days are having it real easy! Just get the girls number or name & she is yours already!
Those days, we have to sleep for a week with Oxford advance learners dictionary to construct a love letter. In addition, we have handy an 80 leaves note book containing words & lines we wrote down by playing & pausing cassettes of sentimental musics as well as words & lines we copied from Pacesetter, Hadley Chase, Mills & Boon novels etc we read!
After construction, there is another 3 days in school during break when 2 of your trusted intelligent friends will proof read & vet the letter which will entail further additions or subtractions. After, the most daring of your friends will be selected to deliver the letter to the girl.
This too is not an easy task! It’s not easy to see girls alone those days. In school they are always in company of their friends. After school they are always at home & if they must go out for any reason, they are either with their parents, siblings or older relations. So, the delivery man has to lie in wait like a sniper man waiting for the least opportunity she is alone to make his delivery & disappear immediately!
Another 1 or 2 weeks of apprehension & intense audible palpitation will follow before a reply will come. Good for you if the reply is positive otherwise you will have to avoid the girl for the rest of your life.
And pray too, the letter wasn’t discovered in the intervening period between writing & reply by your parents, a school prefect or form master!
In the case of your parents discovery, after the normal flogging & rubbing of pepper all over your body, they will march you to the girls house at night to warn her parents!
If It’s discovered in school, the letter will be read in front of the whole school during morning assembly & devotion after which strong form 5 boys will pin you down for the Principals 24 strokes in your naked buttocks in front of everyone.
Even with all these stress, you will still never be able to see the girls pant till the end of the relationship as sex was never in the picture. It’s all about having a girl you could refer to as your girlfriend. That’s all. All you get is the chance to be with her during break periods, exchange novels, steal a few wait & take pictures together holding hands near a flower during inter house sports competitions, science exhibitions, inter school debating & quiz competions, excursions & October 1st celebrations at the stadium.
Any guy like me wey fit get a girlfriend those days, I hail you. It wasn’t an easy feat!
I guess too, those were the glorious days of respect for the girls. We were careful not to get them angry or provoke their jealousy by staying clear of other girls & do whatever will make them happy.
But today, the young men treat them like rags & sex tools to be discarded at will, then move on to another hot girl with hot pants the next day or better still keep 10 of them at the same time.
After all, it’s all about getting her phone number or name and chat her up in messenger via facebook!
Everything is really cheap these days including love!
