What magazines were on your coffee table as a kid?

[populistmom]

My husband and I had this conversation recently. Now, he's a smart man, but self-taught man, and he grew up in a more working class family (older WW2 era parents). My parents, on the other hand were very educated (my dad's an attorney who worked in human services related non-profit groups, my mom is a RN), but we never had much money either. They're older end baby boomers (born in 46 and 49).
I think the periodicals of one's childhood end up saying so much about what ideas a person grew up with. I would say for me it reflects a lot about who I am today: interested in world affairs, a feminist who is comfortable with her sexual side, and an appreciation for the environment and interconnectiveness of the world.

Magazines of my childhood:
1. Newsweek
2. Ms.
3. National Geographic
4. Playboy (kept slightly hidden, but not very well)

Magazines of his childhood: (which I find frightening and so does he)
1. TV Guide
2. National Inquirer
3. Star

Magazines we have around now:
1. Scientific American
2. Mother Jones
3. Mothering (although I no longer subscribe I still have a lot around)
4. Girl's Life (my daughter's)

Sarah

[joeybee12]

1. Life, National Geographic, Field and Stream

Don't read any magazines now on a regular basis. I read them on-line or at the library, but there is such a Repuke slant to even the most inocuous of magazines that I can't stand it.

[E_Zapata]

11. are you my long lost brother?

LOL

Same set of mags at our house.

[Wolfman 11]

2. ...

Newsweek
National Geographic
Texas Monthly

[starroute]

3. Talking 1950's to early 1960's here

The New Yorker

The New Republic

I.F. Stone's newsletter

Occasionally other things -- there was some digest of foreign press stories my mother subscribed to about the time of the Kennedy administration. (Atlas? Something like that.)

[Kolesar]

4. Boy's Life, National Geographic, and Plain Truth

Plain Truth was a charismatic evangelical fright-rag by evangelist Garner Ted Armstrong. My father was drawn toward such shameless, manipulative propaganda although he was a Catholic (eastern rite).

On the bright side, though, National Geographic was a plum, and Boy's Life at that time was chock full of conservation philosophy.

[ginantonic40]

5. Interesting question

My parents were depression era. Born in 1910 and 1915. I was born in 50. Blue collar Catholic family.

Magazines I remember around the house:
Readers Digest
Saturday Evening Post
Ladies Home Journal
Popular Mechanics
Look
Life
Better Homes and Gardens
Boys Life (my brothers and myself)
some teen magazine, Tiger Beat maybe? (my sisters)

oh yeah, Playboy, also hidden (under my bed, strickly for the articles of course)


Now days:
Harpers
Utne Reader
World News Review

[Cat Atomic]

6. Newsweeek, National Geographic... that was it.

And comic books in my room, of course.

[2cents]

7. Life,Time

when at the library I'd checkout the National Geographics (hehe).

[eleny]

8. Four come to mind as being in our hosue regularly

Woman's Day
Family Circle
National Geopgraphic
Life

I was born in 1946, to put some prespective on it.

[peekaloo]

9. Look, Life, Time, National Geographic

Readers Digest
Ladies Home Journal

Was it Look magazine that had the little ghost cartoons? A childhood favorite.....always looked for the ghostesses.

[nuxvomica]

10. I grew up in the '60s

So we had LIFE, LOOK, TV Guide, Family Circle and TIME.

Now I have National Geographic, Nation, Consumer Reports and, of course, Homeopathy Today. I was getting Newsweek for a while but I didn't renew because I can read it online.

[BrotherBuzz]

12. Seems our house had lots more newspapers, but....

1. Newsweek
2. Sunset
3. Time
4. National Geographic
5. American Heritage
6. Life
7. Boys Life/ Popular Science/ Popular Mechanics/ Highlights (kids table?)

[Ivory_Tower]

13. Well...

In childhood:

Reader's Digest
Life
Time
National Enquirer (my brother and I used to laugh at it, which annoyed my mother)
TV Guide
Popular Mechanics
Popular Science
Local newspapers
Highlights for Children (well, when I was little, at least)
(Also, my mother had Family Circle and Redbook, and my father had Bowling Today or some such thing. A real 60's family. :) )

I also developed a habit of reading reference books (encyclopedia, atlases, almanacs) so those were usually laying around the living room, too.


Today at home:
Utne Reader
World Press Review
Funny Times
Smithsonian
Skeptic
Travel Holiday (hey, it was a complimentary subscription)
New Music Monthly
Computer Music
Keyboard
Computer Arts
Digital Camera
Astronomy
Sky & Telescope

(I don't subscribe to all of those, but I purchase them regularly)

Today at work:
Space News
NASA Tech Briefs
PC Magazine
Embedded Systems

[realFedUp]

14. Life, National Geographic....Playboys under parent's bed...

hehehe.

[grasswire]

15. I always recommend this...

...as a date question. "What magazines do you always read?"

Tells you a WHOLE LOT about a person in a BIG FAT HURRY. The date could end right there.

[JasonBerry]

20. That is a GREAT idea!

~

[Cocoa]

16. Snips

the sheet metal trade magazine my dad worked for. Exciting black and white photos of roofs and ducts on the cover. :-)

I got my boy scout magazine, my sister had her fashion magazines and music magazines, my parents got some church-related ones I think too.

[scarlet_owl]

17. Omni.

My parents loved it! Also National Geographic. On edit: the only magazines we have now is my stupid gift subscription to Woman's Day. I fucking HATE that magazine! Like I give a shit about low fat recipes, kids costumes, and inspirational stories. I seldom buy other magazines in the store, but when I do it is usually National Geographic.

[populistmom]

25. How could I forget Omni?

My dad had that one too.

Sarah

[Kamika]

18. we have time and national geographic

weve had them aslong as i can remember.

And uhm readers digest

[Vitruvius]

19. Newsweek, Physics Today, Ramparts, Soviet Life, FACT Magazine, IEEE

Spectrum, and more... We also took I.F. Stone's Weekly.

Then there was Reader's Digest -- to keep an eye on the latest Rethug propaganda.

[NicoleM]

21. None.

Except I think somebody got us a gift subscription to Reader's Digest at some point. Magazine subscriptions cost more money than we had when I was a kid.

We get Newsweek now, but only because it was free with my MPR membership.

[JasonBerry]

22. My List

THEN:

TIME
LIFE
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
LOOK


NOW:

THE WEEK (love it!)
TIME
NEWSWEEK
THE PROGRESSIVE
PC MAGAZINE
THE NATION
MOTHER JONES
PARIS REVIEW
BOTTOM LINE/PERSONAL (More a newsletter than a magazine)
CPU
AGAINST THE CURRENT
REAL SIMPLE
SELF
POETS & WRITERS

Edit: Almost left off my favorite!

[HalfManHalfBiscuit]

23. Jugs, Beaver Illustrated, and Housewife Hussies n/t

.

[greatauntoftriplets]

24. Older end baby boomers????

Damn, I was born in 1949 and still kick ass, LOL. Saw my doctor for a checkup on Friday, he suggested I have a baby.

[populistmom]

26. Sorry. I didn't mean it that way.

It's just you take what are the "official" baby boom years (1946-1964) and it spans a long time. Those born in the 40's are at the older end just like those born in the 60's are at the younger end. I didn't mean it like you were "old". I think there's a sort of cultural mindset common to people your age (which is my moms age too) because of Vietnam and all the various turmoils of the time. Maybe a common link of social consciousness that often lacks in more often the people in my age or in those who were of the generation before you. It wasn't a diss, I was just trying to reflect the time and place of the environment I grew up in.

Sarah

[truthseeker1]

27. National Geographic, Highlights - nt

[greyl]

28. McCall's, Redbook, Psychology Today, Tv Guide

With some Shell Silverstein's great "The Giving Tree" so perfectly angled next to them. Those were my Mom's.
My grandma had the the 'good' stuff like Cosmo, Enquirer, & Star.

I've grown into a Discover, Car & Driver, PC Mag kind of person that doesn't keep mags on my coffee table.

[Dogmudgeon]

29. A disparate bunch

My father was born in 1923 (d. 1996), and my mother in 1936, so there was a bit of a gap there. Also, my grandmother, who was born in 1913, lived (and still lives) with us. (FYI my YOB is 1958.)

Father's:
QSL (ham radio magazine)
Playboy (hidden but not well)
Military Officer
Scientific American

Mother's:
Life
Look
Photoplay
A bunch of lovingly preserved JFK memorial editions

Grandmother's:
National Geographic
TV Guide
church literature, abandoned in the 1990s

For "us kids":
Highlights for Children (mercifully stopped when I was in 4th grade)
Boy's Life

That's all I can remember.

These days, we have a bunch of internet printouts cluttering up the house with such exotica as the Independent (UK), many of Will Pitt's essays, and IMDB entries.

--bkl

[mrbill]

30. as a kid...............

on the coffee table - time, life, national geographic, saturday evening post, reader's digest, tv guide.

my then personal stash - boy's life, golf digest, coin world, fate, mad.

[Hubert Flottz]

31. Mad!

:evilgrin:

[laylah]

32. Not only were these

on our coffee table, but there were numerous 6' high STACKS of these in our upstairs hallway, dating back to 1939:

* Look
* Life
* Post
* National Geographic
* Times
* Readers Digets
* Ladies Home Journal
* Family Circle

Mags I have around now:

* Kiplingers
* Mother Jones
* Psych Today
* Birds and Blooms
* Prevention
* Mother Earth News (ok.....so I am an unreformed :hippie:)

When my dad retired and the folks moved to Missouri, Daddy had to build a whole new out-building to house all of my Mom's books and magazines. My ex-husband used to cringe if I had more than 3 mags at a time.........lol

jenn