<p>Curm, what I've seen is that the groups of friends hanging out slowly devolve/evolve (depending on your perspective) into couples. So yeah, friends===>couple.</p>
<p>I'm not so sure it was any different in my day. Thinking [way] back to my high school days, the guys I dated (went out with) were all guys I met through/with groups of friends...in my case, church youth group, summer camp, and a wilderness expedition. We didn't call it going steady, but that's in effect what it was. And except for the occasional formal dance, I rarely went out just with the guy; it was usually a group of us that had coupled up.</p>
<p>I guess I'm with Garland on this one; what you're describing as "dating" bears more resemblance to what I know of my parents' concept than to my (or my daughter's) reality. Maybe it's a regional thing?</p>
<p>P.S. I'm embarrassed to admit that, with the exception of four days in San Antonio about 15 years ago, the sum total of my knowledge of Texas culture comes from "Friday Night Lights"!</p>