– Riverfront Times, June 30, 2021 –
Marian Amies biked around the streets surrounding Tower Grove Park in 1992, feeling like she could be forgotten.
“Well if I fall off my bike now, nobody’s gonna know,” she recalls thinking.
Amies, who is originally from England, was 52 at the time and fresh off a divorce that ended a 26-year marriage. She was enjoying her newfound independence, but her bicycle rides around St. Louis made her realize how much she wanted companionship, too.
“I used to ride my bike in Tower Grove Park at six o’clock in the morning, and maybe I’d stop at the diner on South Grand and have breakfast,” she says. “And it was — sometimes it was dark. And then I would sometimes go to the Bread Company, and I would feel so single when all I could see was sort of like couples everywhere.”
So, she decided to put a Person-to-Person ad in the Riverfront Times, hoping to find a guy interested in some of her favorite things. She included a list: “… dance music, exploring the countryside, cafe, eclecticism, rubber chickens ….”
The personal ads ran from 1979 into the 1990s under one name or another — functioning like Tinder, way before someone could swipe left or right on a smartphone screen. They were ads where someone could publish a passage about themselves — physical traits, passions, romantic interests — in hopes of finding a friend, lover or partner. Then, respondents to an ad would call an extension number and be charged a few dollars per talk minutes.
Amies’ ad, which she says cost “£50,” before correcting herself — it cost $50 — ran in the October 27, 1992, issue of the RFT. At the end of the ad, Amies wrote that she wanted to meet a man in his 40s or 50s who would make a great companion for “fun and adventure.” Keep Reading / Image by Erin McAfee
Victor Stefanescu 