What Before the Internet?

At the age of 15, way back in 1972/3, I used to contribute along with a half dozen or so School Friends to purchase a very racy for the era Magazine called Forum.

Other than many Sex stories and Sexual Questions and Answers, it contained literally hundreds of Personal Adverts.using box numbers in the main with rare Landline numbers listed, usually for somewhere in London's Soho.

Send a reply off in a sealed marked envelope to the magazine to be then forwarded to the advertiser.

This was all so time consuming as it could take weeks or sometimes months to get a reply if you were lucky!

I was terrified to contact anybody so used the ads to order Books, Magazines and Sex Toys, paying by Postal Order.

At 16, I got a part time "Saturday" Job at what we called in those days a "Marital Aids" shop working at wrapping and posting Mail order stuff out.

The very elderly and somewhat pervy owner used to give me and his Twenty-something Male assistant the very latest Condoms, Sex Toys, Books and Magazines on the proviso we gave him graphic descriptions of What, Who, where and When.

I remember selling loads of Durex "Johnnies" to the Lads and having to give most refunds as the condoms weren't lubricated and it was like putting marigold Gloves onto a wet Hand.

They were literally then like Surgical Gloves and coated with like Talcum Powder

I nicked copies of The Joy of Sex and another on Dr Kinsey's Studies along with magazines that would still be banned today.

I wish I still had them today.

Ah, very Happy, Informative and Prosperous times!.

@That Australian: ".Large volumes of assorted personal informatives--true life experiences/excerpts of verifiable medical publications/links to research studies & factual advisories written by very credible professional entities exist here..with MUCH of that information absolutely LEGITIMATE...nothing ambiguous about it !!

Some posts (low percentage) could be found questionable but keen eyed members,moderators & webmaster soon rectify "issues" should they arise & are dealt with fairly promptly...which is why zity is unique amongst it's contemporaries"

Certainly SOME of the information on this site is of the level you describe, but I'd be hesitant to say MUCH of the posts on here are of that level.

I believe it's more than a "low percentage" of posts are of questionable truth. But more importantly to the new member, it is NOT true "keen eyed members,moderators & webmaster soon rectify "issues" should they arise & are dealt with fairly promptly." Quite the opposite, recently in a forum where someone called out another member for a post which was not likely true, a moderator chimed in to say this site generally does not take issue with posts which are most likely not true. That we don't debate the validity of members claimed experiences and the reader needs to decide for him/herself if a post is likely true or not.

Please understand, this is not a criticism of Zity.biz. But it should be recognized that many of the posts cannot be taken at face value and that's fine, as long as that's understood.

Just to clarify, I'm not referring to the information in the "Library," but rather to the posts in the forums.

(edited to add last sentence)

Growing up in the 1950's, most of my knowledge about enemas came from personal experiences receiving them

from mom and aunts.

I do remember studying the Sears catalog section of various enema equipment and going into various drug stores

(growing up in Chicago in the 1950's, most of the drug stores were small "mom and pop"" type of stores) and sneaking

a peek of all the bulbs and bags for sale

In the early '80's, when I was in my late teens, and started buying gay magazines, the whole world opened up to me. I grew up in a small southern town, would go to a larger city on Saturdays for shopping and lunch, and there was an adult bookstore right around the corner from a store we went to, so I would sneak away and go buy a few magazines. And when they had the enema magazines, that was an extra plus!!!

Before the internet, I did what I do now, I go out and talk to people I isn't very hard to strike up a conversation about enemas......

The Australian magazine called, Forum with it's Special Preference Letters was a great little Mag, I finally thought I am not the only one who enjoys these pleasures. Bring back the 70's.

The Australian magazine called, Forum with it's Special Preference Letters was a great little Mag, I finally thought I am not the only one who enjoys these pleasures. Bring back the 70's.

Actually, Forum was an offshoot of Penthouse magazine, originally an American publication. Forum was a sort of sex advice magazine along with being generally informative. I mostly knew of the French version which was called 'Union' and which besides the translated articles, also featured specific articles that would have appealed more to French readers.

Ah yes, Forum!

I knew what day of the month it was delivered to the bookstore nearest my work and, without fail, stopped by on the way home, on that day, and purchased a copy, mostly hoping for an enema letter.

I started giving myself enemas around age 11. What I knew about enemas then was based on the enemas I had been given by my mom and in the hospital. There was very little information outside of medical textbooks that I saw. I always looked at the enema equipment in the Sears and Montgomery Ward catalogs. I remember the first time I read an enema letter on Penthouse Forum. I really couldn't believe it but from then on I looked forward to every new issue to see if there were any enema letters. It was not until the advent of the Internet that I was able to find anyone who shared my love of the red bag and tube.

Was there life before the Internet? Yes, like there was life before the wheel but it's hard to fathom how people got around. Remember when the Yellow Pages used to advertise let your finger do the walking? Well the Internet came along and now literally your fingers do the walking. There isn't a product that you can't buy legally over the net. There isn't a topic that you can't legally that you can't research over the Internet. I sometimes long to be back in college where I could probably knock out a research paper in an afternoon and not leave the sorority house. I have never used an on-line dating service but I have friends that swear by them.

So what did we do before the Internet, we shopped at malls, spent hours in libraries and went to bars looking for Mr. Good-bar and probably went home disappointed. I remember one time missing a dead line and having to drive a couple of hours into the Connecticut suburbs on a Saturday afternoon to deliver my draft.

As far as kinks go, many of us thought ourselves odd and suppressed our desires. Sure there was Penthouse but as a woman I felt uncomfortable buying one in a new-store as a male buying a fountain syringe in a local pharmacy. Folks, as far as kink for a woman, life before the Internet was the Dark Ages.

Ah yes, the dark ages..... Well, I had a couple of advantages. For one, there were a few medical textbooks at home.. and my father owned a pharmacy... When I went away to college I worked in a hospital which provided me with all sorts of opportunities... but for the rest of you, there wasn't much out there. The first mall in my area opened whe I was a high school junior. There were movies, bowling, and major league sports... that's about it.

Remember when the Yellow Pages used to advertise let your finger do the walking?

This reminds me of how during the Cold War days, people would often use the example of the lack of telephone directories in the Eastern Bloc as proof of how awful life was there. Yes, of course people had telephones in the East, only telephone directories were frowned upon by preternaturally suspicious authorities. The basic premise being that if you had any business contacting someone, you would already have gotten phone numbers in a private exchange. And if you didn't have someone's phone number, that meant you had no business with them so there was no need to list telephone numbers publicly.

I can't help but comparing the present day situation where it is virtually impossible to get someone's cell phone number without having personally exchanged numbers. Now, just like in Moscow and Leningrad in the old days, we too no longer have telephone directories ... oh the irony of 'victory' in ideological struggles ... ha ha.

In the old days, there were magazines with grainy pictures and poor typesetting. Occasionally, they would run a column of personal advertisements, but they all looked skeevy to me.

In the old days, there were magazines with grainy pictures and poor typesetting. Occasionally, they would run a column of personal advertisements, but they all looked skeevy to me.

Sometimes skeevy and poor looking typesetting can be part of the charm of old magazines. It gives an under-the-counter sort of feeling when handling them, as if they were something vaguely illicit.

Then again there were expensive and quality magazines that had the same content, only they were meant to be sold to the more monied classes. Think 'la Vie Parisienne' for instance which was printed on glossy paper, had artwork by renowned artists and carried all manner of classified ads offering all manner of suspect services like massages, health and beauty treatments, baths and what not. During the Great War that magazine and similar ones were famed for carrying classifieds sent in by soldiers looking for 'pen-pal' companions of the female sex and the opposite way as well ...

During the late 60s and 70s magazines were published that were not much more than vehicles for partner exchange and swinger ads, often with amateur photos of the advertisers ... they had a certain charm too ...

Even with the internet its the same old shit posting and reposting hardly anything new

Even with the internet its the same old shit posting and reposting hardly anything new

You know, people who study Antiquity and the past diligently and thoroughly, those who really immerse themselves, say the same thing about our present era. There is nothing essentially new to human behavior and relations. We just have new and different and sometimes better machines and gadgets.

my father owned a pharmacy

My father also owned pharmacies. I worked in them on occasional during the weekends, summers and vacations while going to school. I've posted some experiences in other threads.

When I was in ROTC, I was told that they did not publish phone directories in the Soviet Union and other places because they could be used as a source of intelligence information for the CIA and people like that. True? I have no way of knowing.

hankb

I discovered first in a health book which recommended daily enemas while fasting. After that I went to an adult book store and saw a mag with an enema nurse in a rubber uniform on the cover. It was a first edition of "Aggressive women who want you" which ultimately became DDI International. Then I found Belle du jour in NYC who loved to give boys enemas. No internet, just mags and newspapers

When I was in ROTC, I was told that they did not publish phone directories in the Soviet Union and other places because they could be used as a source of intelligence information for the CIA and people like that. True? I have no way of knowing.

I wrote my university thesis on the Cold War and that aspect of life in the USSR was mentioned in books and lectures often enough, so I've always taken it at face value. Mistrust of foreigners and lurid imaginings of espionage lay at the base of such customs. Also remember that information is power and information about communication networks is basic to controlling them. Remember how revolutionaries - be they Bolsheviks, Villistas, Irish Republicans or Spanish Falangists, always aimed to take over the telephone and telegraph exchanges in a city as primary key targets. Control the telephone network and you can control who gives orders to troops among other things.

So, indeed, the Soviet bureaucracy was paranoid about otherwise innocuous information like (private) telephone numbers being available to the general public.

I can't help but find it ironic that we are now evolving back to a somewhat similar situation, where (cell) phone numbers are impossible to know unless given to you personally. But the reasons for this are different. We are now paranoid about establishing and protecting our privacy and anonymity against other individuals. The state now no longer cares much about that as it is virtually all knowing when it comes to communications control anyway.

In those days, in order to buy things like retention nozzles and dildos you often had to bring cash to neighborhoods you were always taught NOT to bring cash into.

It could get dangerous.

Now all you need is an internet connection and a credit card.

So much safer and easier.

In those days, in order to buy things like retention nozzles and dildos you often had to bring cash to neighborhoods you were always taught NOT to bring cash into.

It could get dangerous.

But if there were stores that sold things for cash, then obviously the neighborhoods where those stores were located couldn't have been all that dangerous, else they would have gone out of business for lack of customers because people would have been afraid to go there in the first place. Something doesn't compute with the reasoning.

I suppose there were neighborhoods where it was best not to go in case someone you knew saw you and questioned your intentions there. Of course it works the other way around too, you questioning their intentions ... ha ha.

Growing up I knew some of my friends and neighbors were getting enemas at home too but I was convinced I was the only kid who actually liked them and soon learned how to handle that red bag myself. I read every medical, nursing, and first aid book in the library if it had anything in it about enemas. Then in the early 70’s there was a series of letters in Penthouse titled Special Preference. Holy cow!! There were others who used enemas for other than medical reasons. That was my first indication there were others out there like me. That led me to explore adult bookstores, and occasionally in the bin with other fetish magazines there would be a Water and Power or something similar. One of those magazines had an add for a mail order place called Platinum, I think in Van Nuys, Ca. They sent out a catalog a few times a year and you could order enema equipment, magazines, and videos. I bought several things from them. They disappeared about the time the internet came on. I think most of the enema magazines like Water and Power disappeared about the same time. Everything is on the internet now.

I could have written the statement above. I started liking enemas as a child and self administered every time possible. I too thought I was a freak because i liked them. I too found the Penthouse letters in the early 1970's and Platinum in the late 1970's. I knew I wasn't alone! I ordered every magazine I could find and afford. Then about 1985 I found Beth Tyler with magazines and equipment. Then in the 1990's the internet arrived and the rest is history as they say.

I have enjoyed enemas since I was a kid. I would get them from my aunt. At that time, I thought that there was something wrong with me. This was in the late 1960s. I had some friends that also received enemas but did not talk about them. my aunt also gave my cousin enemas and I think she also liked them. Fast forward to about 1975. Living in Brooklyn, not too far from the subway station, there were newsstands that carried a substantial amount of printed papers. I was in the process of buying a copy of Screw Magazine (I was about 16 at the time) and I saw this magazine of this guy getting spanked. (I also was hooked on spanking too) so I purchased it I think it was Corporal and there was another magazine that I think was called Mystic Dominna. I made the purchase and went home to read them. At the time there was also Penthouse Forum. They all had articles on enemas and spanking. This was a suprise to me as I discovered that there were other people that also enjoyed enemas and spanking. Fast forward to computers and AOL with the 56k dial-up modem. I would look and join the newsgroups. This was around 1995. It was then i realized that there was nothing wrong with these fetishs and I felt like I was a normal kinky guy. I met several ladies that shared the same :-)

Does anyone remember those funny things that came through the letter box?............think they were called letters, met my first lady enema friend via a forum ad, and we wrote these things to each other, seemed to take a week or so to get a reply.......a little slower than my computer now.........but hey..... it worked !

First magazines, soft porn could be purchase at most stores as the magazines were found at the top of the rack. Other porn could be purchased at adult book stores. Cigar shops also carried a wide variety. Adult movie theaters and book stores were often available in a greater quantity than found today

@redbag_in_ny I remember the good old days of getting your sex education at the top of the magazine rack, or those of us lucky enough to remember the “old Times Square”... amazing how many of our kinks came about from having a handful of quarters and a train ticket to New York City...

Before and beyond the information revolution, I keep getting information from magazine, borrowing books from library, reading textbooks of medical devices and clinical nursing skills. I don't know why, a keyword is worth a thousand pictures or videos for me.

As far as enema publications is concerned, Penthouse Letters, Penthouse Forum, and Penthouse Variations was the first to delve into the erotic enema literature venue on any regular basis. Then there was Nugget magazine which was mostly a fetishistic magazine that touched on enemas and also another unique fetish of amputee sex, as well as a cornucopia of other fetishes. Also there was Platinum Press that I believe published Water and Power, which specifically addressed enemas. There was also House of Milan who published Rubber Life and Rubber Nurse, who also jumped into the enema bag. This was all back in the 70's. I have posted one story from Rubber Nurse here on Zity and it is titled Colonic Introduction and can be found in the library. I still believe it is one of the most erotic enema stories I have ever read. I do not know how much is factual and how much is literary license, but I definitely got the feeling that the author and I had a lot in common as far as the fascination and eroticism of the early childhood enemas were concerned.

Does anyone remember those funny things that came through the letter box?............think they were called letters

What is a letter box and for that matter what is a letter?

LOL I'm not that young to not know but I really really could not resist the age joke there. If it were anyone else I might not have done it will!