Pretty Lynne Writes

I’m a spicy creator and I’m used to talking about and thinking about sex. 

But it wasn’t always that way.

As the child of Boomer parents, I grew up knowing what sex was, but having very few conversations with my parents about it. 

My dad was an early adopter, so had to own a Laserdisk system. I was allowed to watch a Playboy production on one of these disks. I think it was actually mostly documentary segments with some soft core porn segments, but I remember telling my friends about it and everyone being scandalized. 

I also learned about sex from a friend’s dad’s collection of pornography magazines, hidden poorly in the basement. 

Sex was definitely something I knew my parents did. I even knew when – as my dad told me, when their bedroom door was closed, it didn’t matter if the house was burning down. You did not knock on the door. 

Fast forward to present day, when my parents are preparing to sell their home to move into an assisted living facility. My father is a wheelchair user and they have both been through many serious and difficult illnesses in recent years. 

I was there recently to help them sort through items to decide what to keep, sell and give away. My mom and I were cleaning out a desk, and I found a little wooden object that sort of looked like it was used to cork a wine bottle. I was palming it, looking at it, and I asked my mom what she thought it was for. 

“Oh,” she said. “That, I believe, is for women’s and men’s pleasure.”

Reader, I put that item down immediately. 

I laughed awkwardly and she told me to ask my father to confirm this. I said I would rather not, and then he came wheeling along to see. 

“Yep,” he said. “That’s a sex toy alright.”

From the shape of the thing, and his confirmation, I can only conclude that I had stumbled onto my parents’ ancient wooden butt plug. I walked away and heard them talking in quiet voices about it. 

My parents had nary a hint of embarrassment about this discovery, and I think they found the look on my face very funny. Even someone who plays a sex goddess on the internet can blush about sex now and again. 

But (pun intended), I’m happy for them – that they enjoyed each other in the ways that they chose and took pleasure in. 

May we all be so lucky.