Old Harlequins

On another trip to the Half Price Books store, I had to use the loo. They've cleverly used the covers from old Harlequin Romance novels from the 50's and 60's as a border atop the wainscoting, so they're at eye level as you wash your hands and such. There were bunches and bunches, but a few titles struck me as perhaps more... significant than others. Could our pre-Internet forebears have been more clued in to the variant stripes of sexuality than is commonly suspected?

Exhibit A: Gay Cavalier




Exhibit B: Master of Saramanca









Exhibit C: Citadel of Swallows








and finally, Exhibit D: A Night for Possums.

Comments

Meadow said…
Do you take your camera everywhere? :)
10:29 AM
V said…
Well, I take my camera phone anywhere, Renee. And if I can just slap some photos up, then I don't have to think of anything real to say. :)
2:05 PM
Meadow said…
lol Oh, I see how it works now. :)
2:39 PM
bloggin the Question said…
You have to read all these books now to finish the research project. I'm afraid I don't get B or C. What is Saramanca? and I'm a little frightened to ask for an explication of "citadel of swallows."
2:47 PM
V said…
I would, Helga, except they're only the covers pasted to the bathroom walls. The rest of the books might've been twined around the paper dispenser and used for other bathroom purposes back in the 60's for all I know. I get the impression they were just that foul.
3:33 PM
V said…
Saramanca could be a place, or it could be a transgendered person's name, I suppose. Citadel of Swallows, well that's just a big tower with a bunch of birds, isn't it???
3:35 PM
Gary said…
I remember a movie called "When our hearts were young and gay."
7:37 AM
V said…
That's somewhere in the mists of my mind, too, Gary.
7:57 PM
Azathoth100 said…
Heh. I like it. Actually I think my Grandmother used to read Harlequin and that we still have a few of these books at our cottage.
12:19 AM
Violet said…
what is it they say? every generation thinks that they invent sex?
11:34 PM
V said…
Maybe you should check 'em out, Aza! ;)

I know Gen X certainly thought we invented sex, Violet, but unlike Gen Y or Z, we did count blowjobs as sex. Own up for chrissakes.
11:08 AM
Latigo Flint said…
Okay, I really don't like the coy look on the "night for possums" girl. You aren't actually thinking what I'm thinking, are you Ari?
6:46 AM
V said…
Who can say what coy girls do with possums in the night, Latty? I just think possums are kind of suspicious in general.
9:07 AM
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