W.O.F. 56 HOME MADE MAGAZINE

I think I have written about this before, so indulge me as I take a trip back about 4 decades. That, in itself, is ridiculous. But anyway...

While other ninth graders were playing football, fashioning crude tools out of rocks and sticks, or whatever we did back before video games and computers, my bud next door and I used to put out a monthly magazine called "Interests Illustrated". Our circulation figures soared into the mid-twenties at our peak. We charged about two bucks a year, and I think the whole thing only stayed afloat, financially, because I had some grandparents who kept renewing their annual subscription every three or four months or so.

We typed the thing out (early issues had a lot of hand printing, too, as witness the "Street Polo" explanation in the header up top) on these obnoxious Gestetner mimeograph sheets, then had to ink this monster machine up and apply the sheet to it, and hand crank the thing, pumping out our 20-some good issues and a bunch of illegible waste product.

The subject matter was all over the map, reflecting our interests (hence the title?) at the time, which ran to music, cars, some sports..and then we added things we thought our beloved readership would want to see.

Perusing the contents of a couple issues (we had a great run of about a year and a half, as I recall), one would find some regular features, such as:

* Our own monthly editorials and a "sound off" op ed section that, in retrospect, seems quite unbalanced.
* "Groovy World", our page on music and pop culture, where we reviewed the tunes of the day, and presented out monthly "who is in and who is out" guide. In July 1968, for example, the Union Gap, Young Rascals, Association, Buckinghams, Four Tops, Miracles (Smoky Robinson), Temptations, and Simon and Garfunkel were IN. At the time, the Beach Boys, Doors, Marvin Gaye (sorry Don Corley), and Shondells (of Tommy James fame) were out. A bunch more were "rather in" (Beatles), "fairly out" (Bee Gees), neutral (Fifth Dimansion), climbing (Mamas and Papas), rather in (Paul Revere and the Raiders Featuring mark Lindsay), or almost out (Turtles). These markers of status changed monthly, mind you. A new hit could take one from OUT to IN quite rapidly.
* "The Plot to Destroy America", our serialized comic strip
* "Mutual Fund", our eye on the stock market. This month we were tracking American Motors, American Airlines, and Sperry Rand. Do any of them exist any more?
* "Woods and Water", our outdoorsy feature, this month going over the details of camping: pitching a tent, digging, sleeping, and eating.
* "Scope of Horror", our absurd monthly horoscope.

Then there were feature articles. For some reason, the February 1968 issue was our "Big Aviation Issue". I tihnk it was so dubbed because we had gotten a pile of those 3-D postcards with a Delta Airlines DC-9 Fanjet on it so we stapled one to each cover. The wrote about aviation.

We'd take on any topic.
The March 1968 issue included a "Sewing Spectacular", with the following amazing advice: "First thing to do when sewing is thread the needle...To thread a needle, get some thread...The next thing to do is to get a needle. Now let's get into the nitty gritty. .." and sew on.

We reviewed comics, road tested cars (not sure how ninth and tenth graders pulled that off...), wrote about handwriting analysis, included a very brief short story, and on and on.

Well, weird enough to qualify for a W.O.F.