October 19th, 2018

I actually have a subscription to this magazine. It was a gift from Tim but he got it for me because he knows how much I enjoy reading it.  And this is not a recent pleasure.   Not just an, "ok, I accept that I'm old now" kind of thing.  Nope.  I started reading this magazine a long time ago.

I think it was my mother's mother, who originally received a subscription to this magazine as a gift.  I don't know for certain what year it was, but since she died in 1990, it was quite some time before that.   And since I come from a family of readers, we share the wealth.  Anything readable gets passed around. Eventually, it would cross my path as well.  And of all the many and sundry magazines that everyone in my family received, this one, Reminisce, was my favourite.

It's photographs, memories about those photographs and articles about times gone by.  I like history, I like people, and I like people's stories.  Sounds like a match made in heaven to me.

This most recent Halloween issue also had stories about: actor, Gregory Peck; the building of the Gateway to the West St. Louis Arch;  Garage Bands of the 60's;  John Deere Tractors;  unusual pets; the 1946 Fords and much, much more.  It's different every single time and every time it arrives in my mailbox I get so excited.  I wait until I have the time to fully relax and enjoy it before I curl up to read an issue, front to back. Every single page. Magazine Bliss!

It's not the first magazine subscription I ever had.  I think maybe Tiger Beat was the first.  Way back in the mid 60's probably. Oh I did love that one too.  The photos and articles about the coolest and grooviest of bands.  Gradually I outgrew that one, thank goodness. Prior to Tiger Beat, I read MAD magazine religiously, although I did not have a subscription it.  And before MAD was comic books. Lots and lots of comic books. Mostly Superman and the rest of the Super-family but there were some Archies and Richie Rich's in there too.

As a young working mother, of course I didn't have a lot of time to read so magazines were far more likely reading prospects than a novel for any free time I might have.  (Free time as a young mother to 3 boys on a working farm and a job as well? HAH!  that's a laugh)  But here and there was a delicious moment or two to read something short and sweet.  Magazines to the rescue!  I would save all those magazines my family passed along to me until I had a moment now and again to read. Maybe just an article, maybe several. On rare occasions, I might make my way through an entire magazine in one sitting. Oh me oh my!

And what a variety of magazines too! From Good Housekeeping to Readers' Digest to  National Geographic to People Magazine and everything imaginable in between, I just never knew what treasure was going to pop up in those batches of magazines that arrived.

My mother subscribed to more magazines than anyone I've ever known. And she really enjoyed them all too.  I don't know if it's because she could never turn away any kid who came to her door selling magazines for school or how it happened. But it was perfect for her. Outside of Harlequin romance novels, which, let's face it, are pretty much all the same, she never had the patience to sit down and read an entire book, but she could pick up and put down a magazine as many times as she liked and eventually get through an article.  She could read it in the bathtub, at the kitchen table, out in the yard or in the car!    Eventually, she didn't even really read them anymore, but she absolutely loved looking at the photographs.

But my Dad got magazines too. Completely different ones.  As did my Grandmother (who lived with them) and my sister too.  It was a veritable cornucopia of magazine selections!  What fun!

At some point when the boys were older, I treated myself with a subscription to a brand new magazines called, "Victoria".  It's still around but I haven't read one in years.  It was just so girly and pretty and ridiculously lovely.  I think I was drawn to that particular magazines from all those years of being the only female in a house full of men.  The husband, the boys and their friends just filled the house beyond capacity sometimes.  I was happy to have them there. Happy to cook for them. Happy to hear them laughing and talking and throwing around sports names and listening to really loud music. Honestly I did love it. BUT sometimes it just felt like there were so many males in that house that testosterone fairly flowed down the walls.  I needed some balance!  Victoria was it, I suppose.  I saved every issue for the two or three years that I kept the subscription. I read and re-read them.  And then we moved to Colorado and nobody wanted them so I tossed them out and didn't renew it.  I enjoyed it so much at the time, but I haven't missed it.

Before Tim and I got married, just for fun, I bought a few Bridal magazines.  Every photograph was drop dead gorgeous!  But of course I didn't do anything suggested in any of the magazines.  Our wedding was very small, at home and on a seriously tight budget and absolutely perfect for us.  But I surely did enjoy having an excuse to read those magazines.

Occasionally when we travel, I will pick up a fashion magazine at one of the little shops at the airport.  They are huge and heavy and glossy with lots of ads and clothes I could never afford which is fine because I would look ridiculous in them. But I surely do the treat of reading one on a flight now and again.  I always leave it in the back of the seatback in front of me for the next traveler.  Or the flight attendants. Whoever wants it.

Tim got me a subscription to Food & Wine one year.  Those magazines were chockablock with kitchen gadgets, fascinating recipes and  information about various wines (about which I know almost nothing) and all sorts of restuarants that I never heard of.  Sometimes and issue focused on specific foods or spices I had no familiarity with.  It was fascinating! Tim and I often tuck into one another's stockings a magazine subscription. Always something new and different.  I might give Tim one on Sailboats one year, another year could be RV's or Popular Mechanics.  He might give me one about photography or writing or decorating. It's different every time.

For awhile we did that for the kids stockings too.  A new and different magazine subscription for each kid every year.  It was so much fun to choose each time and a magazine fits beautifully into a Christmas stocking.  Then the stocking filling responsibility got turned over to the boys and their wives.  It was time for them to have that fun :)

So now it's just Tim and I.  Occasionally I'll still pick up a Readers Digest at the grocery store check out.  It's a perfect read for taking a bath.  And we each have our Christmas Stocking Magazine Subscription for this year.  I'm so tickled with Reminisce that it would be absolutely fine if Santa renewed it for me again this year. But I wouldn't mind something new either. 

One of the best parts about magazines is that seem to be an infinite number and variety of them.  I suppose, eventually, I want to check them all out!