( To the Ladies, but Men are free to answer!) When you were a teen, did you read:?

Question

Photoplay, Silver Screen, True Story, or ( gasp!) Confidential? And did you ever hide "Romance" comic books from your parents?

Answer 1

I grew up in a tiny little town in Oregon, we had a soda fountain there, I could pay a dime and read all of the new comic books. The lady that owned the fountain used to freeze fountain cokes for me that I would eat with a spoon, there was a huge counter full of penny candies and she would cook me rare hamburgers. I also read lots of library books, no TV at my house, the phone was a oak box with a crank and a black ear piece and speaker on the phone, Helen would answer when you turned the crank and connect you to your friend--then she would listen in of course!! Was never into romance books. I remember my mom used to read True Detective magazines. I used to snuggle up with my dad on Sunday and read the funnies. Then I would get hot water and a basin and a towel and shave him with a straight razor while he was in bed. I was 8.

Answer 2

Well, no, and I still avoid the "Entertainment??" magazines and TV shows ...pure poison. The adulation shown these pitiful losers is beyond me...daily we are pelted with their stupidity as if it were NEWS....Paris Hilton was a headliner, taking precedence over real news...good grief, what in the world is going on. When we trivialize our troops dying in Iraq, yet headline Lindsay Loman's DUI, priorities are really screwed up.
In my youth, I always read Life, Saturday Evening Post, and, believe it or not, US News and World Reports....I came from a very small town and the newspapers were not exactly what they claimed to be. National Geographic was another that I looked forward to, and I was not a nerd. (of course, we didn't have the word, Nerd, then .... but you catch my drift.
I did manage to see all the movies, 2 or 4 came out a week, and I never missed any of them....boy, there were a lot of real stinkers made in the 50's, but then again, some masterpieces were also made.
Boy's Life was delivered monthly, but it was sort of .... fluffy.. in comparison to the rest of the magazines we had. Popular Mechanics was a favorite. You guessed it! Every year, the school promoted the magazine sales to raise money, and my parents always bought the subscriptions. I think my favorite was Sat. Evening Post with the Norman Rockwell covers....

Answer 3

The only True Story I ever read was bought by my mother. I took a look through it one day and asked her how she could read such trash, and turned her on to Harlequin Romance instead. She never looked back.

But Harlequin Romance was a short way station on my life of reading. I actually started off with classics when I was young. I read The Man of La Mancha when I was eight. Catcher in the Rye when I was 10 (I didn't have to borrow that one from the library--just lifted it out of my parent's bedroom and returned it when I was done four days later). Got turned onto science fiction by "borrowing" my brother's books as a young teen. Found out way to much of a teenager's sex life by reading the journals he had recorded of his European trip that same year. :) (I'm not COMPLETELY a saint! [gasp]).

Today I won't have anything to do with such magazines, although my daughters seem to be addicted to them...especially Star (yuck!)

I'm still working through my Jack Ryan novels at the moment. I'm about an hour away from finishing "The Sum of All Fears". Funny how some of what it covers causes me to think long and hard about the terrorist attacks of 9/11. Do you supposed Bin Laden reads Tom Clancy?

Answer 4

Not only did I read True Stories and Confidential, but as a teen I wrote several stories for the magazine! I read these almost more than the Charleton Love comic books?!) I didn't have to hide them from my mom - in fact, when I finished, she would read them......

Answer 5

Yes, I read Photoplay, True Story and Confidential...didn't have 'romance' comics.

Answer 6

Well those were slightly before my time , I was more into 16, Tiger Beat , Flip etc.

I read the teenage type romances but I was a pretty advanced reader as a teenager, the Graduate , Valley of the Dolls etc., bought for me by my mum.

Always was and will be an avid reader, but I still had fun too as a teenager.

Answer 7

My mom used to buy the True Story magazine when I was like 9 or 10. I read a few of the stories a few times, and even at that age I couldn't believe how cheesy they were.

Answer 8

As a girl, I was more into science fiction and superheroes. Now, although I still appreciate those genres, I am also guilty of an occasional romance novel, usually those of the historical or paranormal variety.

If I had been into the publications you mentioned, it would not have been necessary to hide them from my parents. They would not have minded.

Answer 9

I read Nancy Drew, and all the Zane Grey books. I loved the descriptive narrative in Zane Grey. I was thinking of finding one and reading it now just to see what it was like.

A babysitter had a lot of Katie Keene (sp?) stuff, does anyone remember her? I liked Katie Keene, I thought that was cool, you couldnt buy it anywhere, it was already "old"
Katie Keene was much more glamorous than Veronica and Betty ever were IMO :-)

My mother had Peyton Place hidden in her closet, so I read that just because she had hidden it. And a guide to Marriage - :-) so I felt I had to read that too. Figured the hidden stuff was the best stuff --

Answer 10

I couldn't get away with them at my house... my pesky little brother had radar for finding everything. We would all congregate at Brynn's house and sneak her big sisters mags to look through and giggle over. Attempting to copy some of the hairstyles was our biggest aspiration. We walked around looking like satelites. All we needed was a couple of flashing lights and some tin foil and I think we could have taken off for Mars.