They learned how to handle the boys

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Change Partners

Stephen Stills

All of the ladies attending the ball

Are requested to gaze in the faces

Found on your dance cards

Please then remember

And don't get too close

To one special one

He will take your defenses and run.

So we change partners

Time to change partners

You must change partners

Again

This is how most of our ladies grew up

At the country club dances

They learned how to handle the boys

Gently but firmly

They learned to say no

There were four more young men

Who were waiting in the color and the noise.

So we change partners

Time to change partners

You must change partners

Again

All of the ladies attending the ball

Are requested to gaze in the faces

Found on the dance cards

Please then remember

And follow your list

'Cause the dear things get hurt

And the broken hearts make you feel hard.

So we change partners

Time to change partners

You must change partners

Again

A lovely, almost quaint song about an old reality that is in fact not so old.  Indeed, still relevant and prevalent in some corners today.  And still imparting usefully practical knowledge.

Ahh.  This explains it.  From Wikipedia:

Stills was born in Dallas, the son of Talitha Quintilla Collard (1919–1996) and William Arthur Stills (1915–1986). Raised in a military family, he moved around as a child and developed an interest in blues and folk music. He was also influenced by Latin music after spending his youth in Gainesville and Tampa, Florida, as well as Covington, Louisiana, Costa Rica, the Panama Canal Zone, and El Salvador. Stills attended Admiral Farragut Academy in St. Petersburg, Florida and Saint Leo College Preparatory School in Saint Leo, Florida, before graduating from Lincoln High School in Costa Rica.

A good southern boy from a military family.