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• Philip A. Stein

Philip A. Stein

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.
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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>&nbsp;</o:p><br />
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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> <br />
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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It wasn't until I had graduated high school that I asked my Mom about it. I thought maybe it was some sort of &quot;false memory&quot;. Nope, she confirmed it. And she confirmed it was the most embarrassing day of her life.
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To this day I still don't know who told my teacher about the secrets of Playboy magazine.