You should consider yourself lucky! I was a kid in the North of England in the 1960s!

You didn't talk to or play with girls, ever. In school, the sexes were separated at 11. You weren't supposed to socialise with the opposite sex until you left school at 16. But boys were supposed to be engaged by 22 and married by 24. Girls were expected to be engaged by 18 and married by 21.

How that worked I'm not sure. Being a swot, into SF and Horror, possessed of an acidly sarcastic tongue and known for being quick with my fists, I got a 'bye' on the usual rituals. People assumed (correctly) that I wasn't interested.