Saturday, Feb. 14, 1998

Where the singles might be:

The Clubs

   The Chaparral Street strip hosts the usual roundup of meeting places. However, many professionals said they don't go to bars. Among the most popular with professionals, happy hour at the Executive Surf Club, Thursday and Friday nights and The Dragon Lounge, where prime time is 11:30 on Friday nights.
   Church Singles Groups
    First United Methodist Church and Gardendale Baptist Church are among the churches that provide singles ministries for professionals. The 300 singles that First United Methodist Church ministers to each week tend to be older than 35, divorced or widowed; the church's focus is a healing ministry, said Craig Olney, director of the singles ministry. About 20 percent never have been married.
   Said Pam Woods, co-director of the Singles Ministry at Gardendale Baptist Church, ``Singles ministries are big in larger towns. Churches in Corpus Christi are just now beginning to realize that that population exists.''
   The Corpus Christi Caller-Times Matchmaker service
   Averages 250 calls per week. Calls peak in March, April and May. Calls drop off in November, December and January.
   Personal ads have become a more widely accepted way of meeting people than 20 years ago, said Michael Wiederman, assistant professor of psychological science at Ball State University in Muncie, Ind. ``They are still stigmatized, and the average Joe still thinks those who use them are losers,'' Wiederman said. ``But everyone has taken to reading them.
   ``First, people just read them for fun. With experience, they don't seem so strange. Then they may answer an ad, and finally when the resistance goes down, they might place them.''
   Bookstore Cafes
   Singles tend primarily to be of the student variety; college, high school and military in the cafe at Barnes & Noble. The singles profile at Cafe Calypso is similar, but singles of all ages are mixed into the crowd, said Marcy Okumus, the cafe's co-owner. ``I know a lot of people feel it's a good safe place to meet, over coffee and not over a drink. I see people browsing the books and striking up conversations over the books, or saying `Can I share your table?'|''
   The Supermarket
   Still a classic spot to meet - something at least one H-E-B manager has thought to capitalize on.
   ``We're planning a singles night in May,'' said Dan Kara of the H-E-B at Saratoga and Everhart. ``We may be playing the dating game and a variety of other games. We have a lot of apartments around us, and that generally means a lot of single folks.''
   It's also a sign that Corpus Christi may becoming more hip to singles - Kara had a similar event in a supermarket 10 years ago when he was working in Austin.