Playboy: My life long readership

Sunday, October 3, 2010 4:24 PM

<img border="0" align="right" style=''margin:10px;" src="http://j64.net/ts/pb1271.jpg" /> When my parents got married, my mother's mother gave her a very revealing nightie and her father gave my dad, his new Son-in-Law, a subscription to Playboy. Each year after that my grandparents would do the same at Christmas, a new nightie and a renewal. This tradition played out with my three uncles and their wives as well. My dad saved each Playboy. He had been a salesman for a period of time and had some large sample cases. He kept them in those cases. Dad must have had a couple hundred Playboys in those cases at one point.<o:p> </o:p> As most kids do, we played in every part of the house and I came to find that stash. I was a kindergartener. These magazines interested me a lot of course. I took to looking at them quite a bit over the course of the next year or so.<o:p></o:p> Us first grade boys would band together against the girls on everything. I knew this was the way, and it wasn't just for us 6 year olds, but for all people of all ages. Boys against girls, men against women, us against them. I also knew that no man would ever let a woman know anything about this magazine. A few days before Christmas, our class was huddled around the art table and we were making decorations for families. I quickly finished mine and went back to my desk and sat alone. I had brought a little reading material from home that would keep me busy. Confident that my brothers have not let the cat out of the bag, I pulled a Playboy out and read it at my desk. First I had it on my desk leafing through it. Then I slouched back in my chair and held the magazine in my hands, cover towards the art table. What happened next totally caught me off guard. Evidently there had been some betrayal in the ranks and my teacher indeed knew what a Playboy was. I'm not sure who was more shocked, this fresh out of college teacher or the 6 year old boy. You can imagine how the rest of this unfolded. My Dad was not afraid to whip me with his belt. However, I didn't get in any trouble. Nothing was said. The sample cases disappeared for several years. It wasn't until I had graduated high school that I asked my Mom about it. I thought maybe it was some sort of "false memory". Nope, she confirmed it. And she confirmed it was the most embarrassing day of her life. To this day I still don't know who told my teacher about the secrets of Playboy magazine.

8 comments

Dudester
•
14 years ago
For me, 1974 was the seminal year for bunnymag. I was twelve and local shops started selling bunnymag and other men's mags to me. That year, though, Marilyn Lange, a stunning, natural DD Playmate (and later, Playmate of the year) was the only large breasted woman who dominated my fantasies.
samsung1
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14 years ago
I am a subscriber to Playboy but I doubt I will renew my membership. I would rather subscribe to Penthouse or Hustler instead.
RocStarsky
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14 years ago
When I was a kid I too found a playboy stash. I got a hold of one, cut around the naked girls pictures, saved it up, put back the magazine so not to cause suspicion, went to my room to have fun... with my collage I had to turn in the day after. Teacher wanted pics of people I recently read about... Playboy bunnies! If I were to subscribe to a magazine it would be Hustler. I just got a free Hustler magazine from an event and it is good! I have it in my bathroom.
shadowcat
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14 years ago
Back in '63 or '64 when I was stationed in Japan, the based commanders wife got him to ban the sale of Playboy and the other similar magazines. I stopped reading(looking)at them in the '70s. Kid stuff to me now.
samsung1
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14 years ago
I got a free issue of Penthouse when I went to their strip club in Detroit. Playboy seems more interested in opening up night clubs instead of strip clubs like PH and Hustler.
DoctorDarby
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14 years ago
After years of joking that "I read Playboy for the articles" I can now honestly say that I read Playboy for the articles. While it provided many sexual thrills in my youth, Playboy barely qualifies as even the mildest porn to my jaded adult tastes. Aside from the occasional nude celebrity, the erotic value is pretty low; however, the writing, interviews, articles, letters, commentary, and fiction are first rate, so I continue to renew my subscription.
samsung1
•
14 years ago
 It's not about keeping the image of the magazine anymore. It's all about sales and marketing (competing with Playboy for the softcore market). For that reason, I say that Penthouse has sold out. I'll still enjoy the Penthouse magazines I have that are dated before 2005, but I won't purchase any new issues or get a subscription (even at $2.50/issue, it's not worth it). Penthouse used to be midcore. Playboy was softcore. Hustler was hardcore. Now, Penthouse is softcore, Playboy is fluffcore, and Larry Flynt still won't budge to political pressure because he's not a sellout, so Hustler is still hardcore with a decent price tag. The only thing that has remained unchanged are the articles targeted to the 18-30 crowd, but even Playboy is catching up on that front. The 30-50 crowd just isn't buying the fluffcore magazines anymore. They're buying high-priced hookers instead. If you're in it for the targeted articles (in which case, consider buying a magazine where articles are the focus instead), then go ahead and get it. It'll make more sense to you than Playboy. You could always just go to [view link] or EGM to find out what you "need" to know about popular culture.
georgmicrodong
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14 years ago
When has Playboy ever been anything but fluff? I don't remember that. I suspect what you call "mid-core" is what I call "soft-core", the same kind of thing Red Shoe Diaries used to be. Penthouse briefly flirted with hardcore, with actual penetration and sex acts pictured, but I stopped paying much attention to it when I started perusing the web. :)

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