Mad Magazine Monday - Subscription

One of the reasons I'm inordinately attached to my old Mad Magazines is because it was one of my first purchases using my own money. The more I thought about, the more I realized that a magazine subscription is one more thing showing my Uncool Hollywood age problem.

Modern tykes just don't think about or get the magnitude of a subscription. Today's kiddies have desire to see something, they go onto the internet. They want stats on a athlete, internet. Picture of rock star, internet. Preview of next month's Wolverine, internet. The internet killed baseball cards, stamp collecting, and newspapers.

When I was a youngster, you wanted information, you had to buy it at a news stand. Hobby magazines, sports magazines, business magazines, everything came from a magazine. When you are a kid, comic books were the only thing beyond cartoons. And of course, my beloved Mad Magazines.

It just so happened that my love of Mad Magazines coincided with my getting one of my first jobs as a paperboy (yikes, talk about aging yourself). Bottom line, I had dough in my pocket. Disposable, kid-income. My first purchase, a subscription to Mad Magazine. I no longer had to run up to the Woolworths (yikes, I'm aging myself again) or the Read's Drugstore (aging myself) in my dad's new Model-A Ford (just kidding) to see if a new Mad Magazine was ripe for purchase. I simply plucked down my $9.00 for 15 issues, mailed the cash (I don't remember doing it, but it had to have been cash), begged my mom for a stamp and an envelope and mailed it away to 485 MADison Avenue, New York, NY 10022.

Magically, ten weeks later, my first Mad Magazine showed up. They were protected by this plain brown paper (much like a grocery bag - aging myself) and were stickered shut. The coolest thing is seeing your name on the mailing label: Jeff Rhodes, 8926 Parlo Road, Balto MD 21236.

Wow. I'm a man.