Catalog Contraband

You know that age-old cliché about how all young gay boys looked with fascination at the underwear ads in the Sears catalog? Let me debunk that ridiculous theory here and now. Honey, please. It was the JC Penney catalog, for heaven’s sake. Sears—how lowbrow!

Of course, today, blossoming queers miss out on all the fun of absconding the colossal catalog from the living room shelf when the parents aren’t looking and finding a quiet place to flip through the men’s clothing. How much fun could it be to go to Google, plug in “hot men” and greet a wealth of naughty blogs and Web sites with no sense of daring?

Okay, actually it’s a lot of fun, but stay with me here…

Today, I got an e-mail about big savings at Macys.com. Click. Oh, my… It was like peeling through the JC Penney catalog all over again, only sadly, as a grown-up, without the nervous excitement of doing something that felt forbidden and daring. But hey, it was still kind of naughty, cause these men were steaming, modeling britches, bathing suits and, hee hee, undies.

I may not be 12 anymore, but it was a nice reminiscence to recall innocent days.