Years ago, I saw an utterly obscure magazine in a most unlikely place. I was in a convenience store (like a 7-11 but a local Chicago-area variant called the White Hen) on Harlem Avenue, the western boundary of the Chicago suburb of Oak Park. I glanced at the magazine rack, but just about all of the magazines were of the most mass-appeal, general interest sort imaginable.

Then I saw a copy of a model railroad magazine devoted to S-scale trains. Now, by White Hen standards, even the most popular model railroading magazine, Model Railroader, which covers the entire hobby, would be too esoteric. But this magazine was beyond the outermost bounds of esoteric. Without getting into the eye-glazing details, S scale was a nearly extinct toy train size (a little larger than HO scale, a little smaller than Lionel) living off the little remaining momentum of the once fairly popular line of trains made by American Flyer, a company defunct since the '60s. Even within the model railroading hobby, there were only a scant few hobbyists and collectors still working in that scale. There might be enough of them scattered around the country to keep a magazine devoted to S scale going by subscription, but surely there weren't enough in one place for newsstand distribution?

When I glanced through the magazine and saw the publisher's address, I realized what was going on. The magazine was published practically across the street, or at least in the next suburb over from Oak Park, and probably out of the publisher's basement. I could just imagine him loading some extra copies in the trunk of his car and going around to all the magazine outlets in the neighborhood, perhaps not even charging store managers for his magazine, but just hoping that if copies were out there, someone with a potential interest might chance to pick one up and subscribe. For that magazine, though, it still seemed pretty hopeless.

--Dwight

Posted by: Dwight Decker on May 26, 2005 1:03 AM

Retrogaming? What's next, Uncle Wiggley?

Count me in!

Posted by: Lynn on May 26, 2005 1:48 AM

"Peter, are we talking about the same place?"

Don't think so ... you said that the one you mentioned was on 35th Street, the one I mentioned is on 14th. Might be part of the same chain, however.

Posted by: Peter on May 26, 2005 10:18 AM

With the web, who needs a neighbourhood (if those are your magazine choices)?

Posted by: Lynn Schibeci on May 26, 2005 10:21 AM

Okay---I'm a moron---what does YM your prom mean? And am I going to be really embarassed by the answer? And sorry I ever posted this?

Posted by: annette on May 26, 2005 11:52 AM

YM Your Prom seems to be a fashion mag for teen girls getting ready for prom season. An entire magazine for that, and not just a special issue. Amazing. YM -- didn't that used to be Young Miss magazine? So maybe YM Your Prom is put out by the former Young Miss publishers?

Oy, the facts our brains occupy themselves with ...

Posted by: Michael Blowhard on May 26, 2005 12:06 PM

Maybe a prom magazine was somebody's brainstorm after seeing wedding magazines? Those can be hundreds of pages thick, bursting with ads, aimed at the bride on an occasion in her life when she's a ripe target for those particular advertisers and with fewer inhibitions about spending than otherwise. Then that Somebody thought, "Hm, are there any other remotely similar occasions like that in a woman's life that we can do a magazine on and sell lots of ads? A-ha! THE PROM!"

And come to think of it, it must be prom season about now (late May). Just the other night, I saw a stretch-body Lincoln limo about a mile long go by, and a couple of girls in formals were standing up inside, their upper bodies emerging from the open sunroof, and waving cheerfully at pedestrians. Looked like fun...

--Dwight

Posted by: Dwight Decker on May 26, 2005 2:57 PM

YM used to be "Young Miss," but then the publishers changed it to "Young and Modern." I guess they thought the former name was too condescending or otherwise non-p.c. In any event, the change didn't last for long and today YM stands for, well, nothing, sort of like the S in Harry S Truman.

Posted by: Peter on May 26, 2005 3:24 PM

YM stands for "Young Miss"???? Oh, my goodness! I assumed it was some ultrahip sex or rock-'n'-roll thing that I was the last person on the planet not to know about! See the aspie posting...(no, actually my score wasn't that high!).

Posted by: annette on May 26, 2005 3:32 PM






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