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Sirena Bergman
Oct 13, 2019

iStock/Twitter
An author has shared what is perhaps the most hilarious #ComingOutDay story of all time, and people are absolutely loving it.
Grand Ginder, whose novels include This is How It Starts and The People We Hate at the Wedding, told a wildly of-its-time anecdote which anyone who was on the internet as a teenager in the late 90s can surely relate to.
It begins:
A #NationalComingOutDay thread! When I was 13, I began collecting pictures of hot men that I found on AOL. I kept t… https://t.co/qCSz2tTsoQ— Grant Ginder (@Grant Ginder) 1570814820
I don't know where I learned the word, but at night when everyone was asleep and I was at the computer I used it he… https://t.co/IE1NuxVpjB— Grant Ginder (@Grant Ginder) 1570814821
(The pictures were of a very specific aesthetic that if you were gay and coming of age in the 90s you would immedia… https://t.co/wZric3OErA— Grant Ginder (@Grant Ginder) 1570814821
ANYWAY. I kept up my beefcake collecting for a good six months until, one day, my dad was driving me to a friend's… https://t.co/9ArJt980hg— Grant Ginder (@Grant Ginder) 1570814822
You can guess where this is going...
I was not happy. I was going through a very intense "Joseph..." phase and was conceiving of an adaption of it to be… https://t.co/XgW40eFFsp— Grant Ginder (@Grant Ginder) 1570814822
We pulled up to a stoplight (I can still remember which one) and, turning to me, he asked "Who's been downloading a… https://t.co/JfLC4K2Gwh— Grant Ginder (@Grant Ginder) 1570814823
I froze. I panicked. I thought of water splashing across a set of airbrushed abs. Looking him straight in the eye… https://t.co/RMq9XEexLJ— Grant Ginder (@Grant Ginder) 1570814823
READER, DR. FREUD, WHOEVER: I BLAMED MY MOTHER. FOR DOWNLOADING PICTURES OF D-LIST FABIOS, WORKING ON CARS IN THONGS.— Grant Ginder (@Grant Ginder) 1570814823
"Mom?" he said. "Huh. You think I should talk to her?" Again: panic. Again: airbrushed abs. "No--she'd probably… https://t.co/oz4KPpMxln— Grant Ginder (@Grant Ginder) 1570814823
Flash forward to now: I don't know if he ever talked to my mom, though I suspect if he did it was so they could hav… https://t.co/xGPKV8tDrn— Grant Ginder (@Grant Ginder) 1570814824
But Mom! Mea culpa! I panicked, and I'm sorry about that! A braver kid would've said "fuck it, those beefcakes are… https://t.co/X8nvHwKJHN— Grant Ginder (@Grant Ginder) 1570814824
It was a happy ending though.
So: thank you, Mom, for taking the heat, and thank you Dad, for suppressing your smirk for long enough that I was c… https://t.co/nevJTGcxpE— Grant Ginder (@Grant Ginder) 1570814825
And then it just got even better:
Update: My mother just called. "There was one of a man on a motorcycle," she said. "You had excellent taste."— Grant Ginder (@Grant Ginder) 1570827975
People were touched by the story, but one follower had an important question:
@GrantGinder Sorry, but you put them in a file labeled DOWNLOADS? Like...where people go to look for stuff they downloaded?— Elizabeth G. Dunn (@Elizabeth G. Dunn) 1570815125
@egunnison THIS WAS THE 90s ELIZABETH NO ONE KNEW ANYTHING.— Grant Ginder (@Grant Ginder) 1570815162
Others shared their awkward hiding-porn-from-parents memories.
@GrantGinder I did the same but saved them on DISKETTES and hid the diskettes under a drawer in my desk— Nicholas Hurley (@Nicholas Hurley) 1570836254
@PaulWartenberg @GrantGinder My brother hid his lorn under the mattress of our parents bed. In dads side. The boy was a genius.— heather lee (@heather lee) 1570844887
@GrantGinder mea culpa: When I was 13 I thought the best place to hide the ladies' lingerie catalogs was under the… https://t.co/QoHA34shS2— Witty Librarian (@Witty Librarian) 1570837300
@Silvara75 @GrantGinder We had to work for our porn in the 90's #DialUp #NoOnDemand— Aquarius Energy (@Aquarius Energy) 1570856110
@rerunagain @Silvara75 @GrantGinder Try the 80s. We’d have to steal playboys or penthouse from dads in the neighbor… https://t.co/YTJwjlXmvi— Jeremy (@Jeremy) 1570876286
@GrantGinder Ohhhh boy I did something similar (with pics of women) and don't have the cute story just the reminder… https://t.co/1FqyVZ6e0A— Lilly Delvaux (@Lilly Delvaux) 1570836165
@GrantGinder In my teens (early 1990s), I downloaded all my "porn" (really it was just hot women in swimsuits) into… https://t.co/78e7zU5RzL— Isaac Grover (@Isaac Grover) 1570846322
And in case you're still unsure of exactly what a 90s beefcake would look like...
@butterflyrope11 YES— Grant Ginder (@Grant Ginder) 1570837824
You're welcome.
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