I inherited my grandparents' house. Over the years I have been slowly going through things left behind. When I first moved in everything was just shoved in boxes and stored in the basement. Lately I have actually started going through things and what I have found is a treasure trove of vintage stuff of a sexual nature.
I found old magazines disguised as photography and drawing magazines but were actually full of nude women and some men (from back in the day when nudity had to be justified as art), like Candid Photography, Pencil Drawing for Fun, Photo Handbook, Peter Basch Photographs Beauties of the World and Stare. The magazines all seemed to be from the 1950’s.
I also found some interesting books and sex manuals; How to Attain and Practice the Ideal Sex Life (Printed in the US in 1940), Picture Stories of the Sex Life of Man and Woman (which is actually very scientific drawings of the human body’s sex organs and how they work), and a pamphlet titled Sex Knowledge.
The greatest find for me was a pin up calendar from 1955, gorgeous and in wonderful shape and a bag full of pages and centerfolds ripped out of magazines from the 1960’s; Playboy, Swank, Jem, Hi-Life, Modern Man, Clyde and Escapade Annual. What a great find for someone into vintage pin ups.
Some other things that confirmed I come from a family with a heightened interest in all things sexual were: totally cool retro lingerie from the 1950’s and earlier, shot glasses with naked women on the inside, old matchbook covers with scantily clad beauties, and an old “vibrating massager” with several interesting attachments.
Then there were the love letters grandma and grandpa wrote to each other before they were married. At the bottom of the letters were passages written in code, which I deciphered. Let’s just say what was written there was extremely risqué for an unmarried couple in the 1930’s. Wow, some of it made my erotic fiction seem mild in comparison.
I think all the items that I found are so amazing. I’m now actively collecting pin ups and looking for more vintage lingerie. I found some great stuff in my grandparent’s house. Grandma was a wild cat and grandpa sure loved the female form.
I know though that the real treasure hunt lies ahead at my parent’s house. My mom was a teenager in the 50’s and a sex-kitten in the 60’s and 70’s and she never threw anything away. I know her closets are full of vintage lingerie and somewhere packed away in boxes are old magazines and who knows what else.
I’ve always know that my mom and dad were crazy sexual creatures, especially my mom who was a subtle sex goddess in her day, but I never thought of my grandparents like that. Now I know that my interest in all things sexual is definitely in my genes.
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