Me and PeeDab

About 10 minutes into my run I happened to notice a beautiful naked woman lying right at my feet. I do see interesting things on my runs, especially in this nearby park with its deer and squirrels and herons and beavers and people having picnics and throwing frisbees. But this was the first time I had seen a naked woman along my route.

I picked her up to get a better look. She was in a magazine called “The Girls of Penthouse.” But why had she been discarded? And in this park of all places? One does not often discard a naked woman.

Finding her recalled a boyhood experience on a Scout hike with Milton Bardin, who was known to us all as PeeDab. I am guessing at how “PeeDab” should be written since I never saw it in that form. PeeDab and I were friends because our dads were friends and teaching at the same college. We never agreed about who saw the magazine first, but I know it was me. The name of the magazine was “Eyefull.” It was lying right beside the road we were hiking on. It had no actual naked women, but it did have the closest thing either of us had seen at the time.

You don’t know quite what to do with a naked woman you pick up off the ground. Especially if you have 6 miles of running still ahead of you. Nice as a naked woman is, you probably don’t want to carry one all that distance. But I did roll mine up and carried her as I resumed my run, unsure about what to do next.

PeeDab and I had not been unsure about the Eyefull magazine. I would grab it from him and start looking, and then he would grab it back and do the same. Although we disagreed about who had found it or whose turn it was, we agreed on its value. It was priceless and would be kept forever.

Eyeful was a men’s magazine published by Robert Harrison, starting in March 1943. The magazine had a bi-monthly, 65 issue run, ending April 1955. It was popular with soldiers during the latter years of World War II. Its popularity dropped sharply after the initial publication of Playboy magazine in 1953. Playboy featured nude center-folds, which Harrison refused to do, and so Playboy soon put him out of business.

PeeDab and I knew nothing about Robert Harrison, but we could have advised him on the issue of nude center-folds.

It is hard to run and study naked women at the same time. In a short while the woman had been moved about a mile from her original spot. It crossed my mind to discard her in the woods beside the trail.

The Eyefull magazine was kept hidden in the traditional spot beneath the mattress, shoved far enough so Mother wouldn’t find it making up the bed. Mother would not understand about the Eyefull magazine.

There were few people in the park that day, but I did keep thinking about meeting up with someone. I rolled the magazine tightly enough to pass for Newsweek. But still it seemed funny to be carrying a magazine while running.

When the Eyefull magazine was there under my mattress it meant it wasn’t under PeeDab’s mattress. So I knew to expect that he would want it back. And we would argue about whose turn it was and who had kept it the longest.

I decided not to put the magazine in the woods. There was a nice, shady spot along the trail beside the lake, and I laid it down there in plain view. Perhaps a young boy will come along and give it a good home.