dirtylibrarian

Shannon Wheeler (

tmcm) posted a dirty cartoon today, which I think is pretty funny (you can see it on the left...but do go to his site, too, please) My initial response was "I like dirty cartoons. Make more".

But because I am home for the holidays, a memory was triggered of the first dirty cartoon I came across and how deeply troubling I found it to be. This must have been when I was between 6 and 7, 8 at most...I clearly remember this taking place in my parent's bedroom of the house we lived in then, which is a mere 3 blocks from where I sit now. It was a Peanuts parody, and though I can't remember the punch line, the picture is burned into my head forever. It was Lucy kneeling before Linus, with his mouth to her crotch, as he grasped his blanket with apparent displeasure. The punch line was his complaint. At the time, it really creeped me out...and I can to this day feel that deep and troubling unease I felt as a kid upon finding this. It wasn't the sex that bothered me so much...my family was very open about sexuality. It was the fact that these were kids doing something that was clearly in my mind some sort of cryptic grown up activity. And these were kids I was very familiar with, from a cartoon I read every day. And siblings! I couldn't figure out why someone would have made this, or why my folks would have had it around. So I replaced it in whatever book it probably fell out of, but failed to make a point to forget it. I didn't know you could forget things on purpose back then (though admittedly I have limited success with this as an adult...sometimes you have to remember why you don't want to revisit some things...like rotten dot com. Quadruple ug). Perhaps it is better it is not a repressed memory. I don't know.

Later (probably not much later), I discovered my dad's hidden stash of Playboys and became fascinated with the cartoons and jokes. Even now, when the library purchases a collection of them, I make a point of checking them out. I love the way in humor things can be explored that make us uneasy. And sex can be so very funny at times. People who can't laugh during sex, I worry about them. But that said, there is a time and place for everything. And there are plenty of things kids really don't need to see. Such as time my babysitter insisted on watching The Tin Drum before my bedtime. Ah, the mental scars.