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I never thought much about being the only girl in our family until I got old enough to look around for someone to play dolls with me. There was no one! Oh sure, if I wanted to play cowboys or trains or army or run a race, I always had a brother to help me. That's when I think I learned my first big lesson about boys: keep them interested!
Whenever I used to talk about my dolls or start off on some girl subject, Bill, Bob, John, Barry, Paul, Dick.. . they'd all start to groan and moan real loud. I'd get mad and if they didn't stop, I'd start to cry. That really turned them off!
They'd get mad at me and wouldn't speak to me for hours, sometimes even days. Boy... I learned that lesson. If you want to talk girl-talk, talk to a girl! Guys get tired fast of who's wearing what and how you're going to wear your hair. The truth is (I discovered this after a couple of years of asking useless questions), boys just don't care what a girl wears. You could be dressed in jeans at a senior prom and if you looked pretty, they'd think you were Cinderella herself. Isn't that nice?
HONEY BUNCH
Paul's the one I always thought would notice lots of things like who was wearing what. But he doesn't. He's the serious one of us and accepts responsibilities pretty easy. That's why all of his girlfriends haven't been the type who bat baby-blue eyes and call him "Paulie-snooks" or "Lamb Chop" or "Honey Bunch." He hates syrupy girls because he says they're not like a date, they're like babysitting someone's little sister. And he should know cause he took care of me a lot!
Now don't think a girl should be all somber and pinched out of shape like a schoolteachcr whenever someone has fun! Bob's a funny guy . . . he's always clowning around but he used to put me down pretty hard if I tried to clown in his spotlight.
Like, if a guy's a lot of fun already, he really doesn't need a girl who's going to act like she's auditioning for Ed Sullivan on every date. Bob likes fun girls (and he just married the girl of his dreams!)... but he wants them to be relaxed and casual, not all caught up in trying too hard to please him or make him laugh. And boy, does he hate gigglers! Those girls really turn him off!
REAL GIRLS
Boys, according to my brothers, like REAL girls. Girls who don't try to be something else . . . like putting on a phony accent or dressing too nicely to move around comfortably. They detest a girl who won't let her hair down and laugh. Besides, guys like a girl who can take a practical joke or a lot of teasing. Crying over something like that's the quickest way there is to lose a boy completely.
Barry's just a naturally nice (a little nutty, too) brother. Once I remember Barry had a girlfriend over to the house who was okay until she started getting very formal around our parents and trying to impress them with how smart she was and how fantastic her house was and everything. That was the last time Barry saw her!
A girl should be pretty flexible around a boy. I think that boys make up their minds what to do on a split second and if they say, "let's go to the beach and walk in the waves" and a girl says, "I don't want to get my hair damp, I just had it done,"... count her out!
GOOD SPORT
Barry likes girls who are athletically inclined. You know, he likes to play catch or basketball, things like that. He never plays hard with a girl . . . guys never do ... and he never expects a girl to catch all the balls or do as well as he does but he likes a girl who's a good sport. I mean, if he and a girl are in the back yard and I see Barry throw her a long catch with a football and she just stands there and lets it go by, I know she won't be around to join us for dinner.
John is the kind of brother who's always interested in something. From John, I've learned that a girl should always be eager to try something. Nothing bugs John more than asking a girl where she'd like to go and say, "Oh, anyplace really." Or you know the girls who always say, "I don't care" about anything—what they want for dinner or a present or anything. That really bugs a guy. A girl who doesn't seem to care about anything isn't very interesting to them.
All my brothers fall for groovy girls. I don't mean that these girls are extra special because they're pretty or anything. My brothers say they really don't trust girls who are too pretty or too neat because they figure they aren't quite real. They like groovy girls-girls who are fun to be with. In fact, thinking about it, I think all my brothers like one kind of girl especially: a girl who knows how to laugh. All guys are clowns at heart and if a girl can really laugh with them (make sure it's their jokes at first), they fall head over heels. But if a girl gets clutchy or starts making plans for them without asking first, my brothers all run the other way!
GOING STEADY
Once I remember that Bob met this girl who had him going steady with her after the first time he asked her out. Bob hadn't asked her—she just told everyone they were and figured he wouldn't say anything. Boy, was she surprised!
I guess the last thing I've learned recently is that boys all want an honest girl. If they catch her telling just one little lie, watch out! See, to a girlfriend you can say that so-and-so drove a fantastic car and have it turn out to be a 1950 Rambler and she'll understand. But if you tell a little fib and a boy finds out, forget it!
See, a boy wants to trust a girl with his problems and his fears and his hopes and dreams and he doesn't want to risk all this on a girl who might be a liar. Boys aren't always as strong as they seem (but don't ever let them know).
It's a truly groovy girl who can laugh with a boy, have fun, talk to, fall in love with and eventually marry one of my brothers—or maybe one of your brothers. I want to be that groovy myself. Don't you?
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