THLM

Patti McGuire: the star of thousands of my fantasies as a young teenager.

My first job (at 15) was at a men’s clothing store.  This provided two advantages: first, I learned how to dress like a gentleman before any of my friends did; and second, I had an endless supply of Playboy magazines because the store was an advertiser.

One of my duties at the store was to keep the magazines stacked in the stockroom out of sight of the customers. The salesmen used to take them to the floor when business was slow, but I had to keep an eye on the traffic flow and round up the magazines when it got busy.  A running joke was that “S could always find an XLT Polo shirt once he put down Miss October.”

My boss knew I was taking the magazines home for my personal collection, but he never said anything.  He knew my family and I’m sure he didn’t want to be a knowing contributor to my corruption, but then again he didn’t try to stop me from tucking an issue up my jeans leg as I hurriedly rode my bike home.

Patti McGuire was the Playmate of the Month in November 1976. (This was the same issue with Jimmy Carter’s “adultery in my heart” interview.)  But the articles, no matter how historically or artistically important, be damned.

Patti’s pictorial mesmerized me.  She was gorgeous, and it didn’t hurt that she had the same look as many of the older girls in my high school.  Her face, her eyes, her hair— they hypnotized me as I flipped the pages with my free hand.   I imagined what it would be like to slip my hand over the curve of her untouched-by-the-sun rear end, or to experience the softness between those smooth thighs. It also made me a lifelong fan of tan lines.

Even as the collection of magazines under my mattress grew, I always came back to this issue as my favorite. 

—S

(Here’s a link to another blogger’s article about Patti’s pictorial.  He included several photos from the magazine.)