This story about a teenager's dad finding his NSFW downloads in the 90s is everything

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

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

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

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

@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

@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

— (@)

@butterflyrope11 YES

— Grant Ginder (@Grant Ginder) 1570837824