# How did stashes of porn end up in the woods in the 1970s and 1980s? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 27, 2009, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-stashes-of-porn-end-up-in-the-woods-in-the-1970s-and-1980s/511703 "2009-09-27T01:22:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mr\_Buttons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@Mr\_Buttons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Buttons)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-stashes-of-porn-end-up-in-the-woods-in-the-1970s-and-1980s/511703/21 "2009-09-28T03:15:19Z")
#1. If it’s out in public, it can’t be traced back to you, so you can’t get in trouble for having a porn stash, unless you write property of Timmy O’Tool on it or something. #2. Who else but kids are going to find all the stashed porn out there? Don’t know about anyone else, but I haven’t been anywhere I’d expect to find a porn stash since I was 13-15’ish. So it’s like a self-feeding cycle, older kids grow up, can buy their own new porn, forget about that stash in the woods from a few years back, the new younger generation finds it, stores it somewhere else until they outgrow/forget about, and the cycle continues. A beautiful circle or porn. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Hippy\_Hollow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hippy_hollow/32/4841_2.png) [@Hippy\_Hollow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hippy_Hollow)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-stashes-of-porn-end-up-in-the-woods-in-the-1970s-and-1980s/511703/22 "2009-09-28T04:01:52Z")
> [@Washoe](#): > > Also, you tend to find tons of hard copy porn all over the place around migrant worker and homeless encampments. I don’t think that all the kids who “find porn in the woods” are necessarily finding _other kids’ porn_. Yeah, this. When I was a kid, I would go visit a mate in Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk. He lived near a wood, and we found a killer porn stash there… Fiesta, Men Only, Mayfair, good stuff. We’d go there on the regular and get new stuff. One day we were out there and this hobo starts yelling at us… so we leg it. Turns out we were raiding his stash! ---
**Author:** ![palindromemordnilap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/db5fbb/32.png) [@palindromemordnilap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/palindromemordnilap)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-stashes-of-porn-end-up-in-the-woods-in-the-1970s-and-1980s/511703/23 "2009-09-28T19:49:04Z")
I walked a lot of woods in the 70s and never found a stash. However, a couple of neighbors I baby-sat for always had the most recent issue of Playboy lying around, not too hard to find. I was a late bloomer and while I enjoyed the pix I did not use the mags for their intended purpose at that time. Around the same time, one of my friends’ father had a stash of really disgusting black-and-white porn in the attic - guys peeing outdoors, fat hairy women spread out - but I’m not sure I understood that it was considered to be in the same category at Playboy. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-stashes-of-porn-end-up-in-the-woods-in-the-1970s-and-1980s/511703/24 "2009-09-28T20:37:43Z")
> [@Harmonious\_Discord](#): > > People hid it there because the couldn’t keep it at home. What other answer would there be? It’s not like porn publishers hid them around secluded places for the porn deprived to find. What do you think the Easter Bunny does the rest of the year? ---
**Author:** ![Hippy\_Hollow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hippy_hollow/32/4841_2.png) [@Hippy\_Hollow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hippy_Hollow)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-stashes-of-porn-end-up-in-the-woods-in-the-1970s-and-1980s/511703/25 "2009-09-28T20:51:48Z")
> [@Harmonious\_Discord](#): > > People hid it there because the couldn’t keep it at home. What other answer would there be? It’s not like porn publishers hid them around secluded places for the porn deprived to find. [snerk] Well, this could be an aspect of a viral marketing campaign. Guccione, Hefner, and Flynt had a part of the their annual budgets to hire gangs of sylvian rovers to drop their wares throughout woods across North America and Europe. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-stashes-of-porn-end-up-in-the-woods-in-the-1970s-and-1980s/511703/26 "2009-09-28T21:37:26Z")
> [@Arkcon](#): > > A few times I found Playboy, Penthouse or porn cassette boxes on the streets, and I would marvel at the windfall. Years later people explained it to me – that men may buy it, uh … enjoy it in their car, then toss it, rather than bring it home and irk the ire of their wife. So just to add to the “stash” explanation above, it may instead have never made it to someone’s house. That’s it! Once when I was about 13 I was riding my bike home along a non-busy road and found an issue of _Penthouse_ just off the shoulder. I always wondered how it got there, but I think you’ve hit upon the explanation. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-stashes-of-porn-end-up-in-the-woods-in-the-1970s-and-1980s/511703/27 "2009-09-28T22:05:08Z")
I don’t remember how I got the porn I had as a teenager, but I did in fact stash it somewhere in the woods when I had to get rid of it. There was no good place to hide it at home, but I didn’t want to just _destroy_ it, so I left it somewhere I hoped it would be found. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-stashes-of-porn-end-up-in-the-woods-in-the-1970s-and-1980s/511703/28 "2009-09-28T22:41:40Z")
> [@SirRay](#): > > the 1960s seemed to have mostly expensive porn, somewhat hard to get - can’t image too many teens leaving that rare stuff out in the woods;…) It _was_ done. I came across a couple such stashes myself back in the 60’s. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-stashes-of-porn-end-up-in-the-woods-in-the-1970s-and-1980s/511703/29 "2009-09-28T22:49:40Z")
> [@iamthewalrus\_3](#): > > I don’t remember how I got the porn I had as a teenager, but I did in fact stash it somewhere in the woods when I had to get rid of it. There was no good place to hide it at home, but I didn’t want to just _destroy_ it, so I left it somewhere I hoped it would be found. Exactly it’s similar to a “file sharing” program of the 70s. You not only want it but you want to share it too. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2009, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-stashes-of-porn-end-up-in-the-woods-in-the-1970s-and-1980s/511703/30 "2009-09-29T14:31:02Z")
> [@Uncertain](#): > > Wouldn’t Dad figure out that all that porn was missing? And wouldn’t he be fairly sure that the culprit was his teenage son? (Not a lot of porn burglars around.) When I made use of my father’s porn, I was careful to put it back exactly where I had found it when I was done. Depending on how uptight your family is, Dad may not be able to confront teenage son about the missing porn, because then he’d have to admit he owned it. Which is what I’m assuming happened when I stole the single Playboy I found when I was a teen and a word was never said about it. Either that or my 12 year old brother took the fall. ---
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2009, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-stashes-of-porn-end-up-in-the-woods-in-the-1970s-and-1980s/511703/31 "2009-09-29T15:01:55Z")
> [@TurboNuke](#): > > …One of the great things about getting older is not being so horny that I do stupid things. Don’t know how old you are, but I haven’t gotten that old yet and I’m verging on 66. ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2009, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-stashes-of-porn-end-up-in-the-woods-in-the-1970s-and-1980s/511703/32 "2009-09-29T15:18:58Z")
When I was a postman and in the time when we emptied pillar boxes I always looked forward on a Wednesday to emptying a certain one. It was a certainty that there would be at least 6 porn mags that someone had dumped there. And they were always new ones ---
**Author:** ![Livardo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/43a26b/32.png) [@Livardo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Livardo)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2009, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-stashes-of-porn-end-up-in-the-woods-in-the-1970s-and-1980s/511703/33 "2009-10-12T18:08:13Z")
I found a bunch of skin mags in the dumpster. They were just sitting there inside a paper bag, about 10 of them! That was like finding diamonds for a teenaged kid. Back then porn was a seriously precious commodity. How many times did you take your VCR toa friend’s house to copy whatever little porn he had? Only to have your parents find it because like Chris Rock said… you left it in the VCR! ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2009, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-stashes-of-porn-end-up-in-the-woods-in-the-1970s-and-1980s/511703/34 "2009-10-12T22:19:03Z")
You know how squirrels bury nuts and acorns, and little trees grow because they forgot where they buried them? It’s the same thing. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2009, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-stashes-of-porn-end-up-in-the-woods-in-the-1970s-and-1980s/511703/35 "2009-10-12T22:28:53Z")
> [@AskNott](#): > > You know how squirrels bury nuts and acorns, and little trees grow because they forgot where they buried them? It’s the same thing. A bunch of porn bushes sprouting up in the middle of nowhere must be pretty cool (unless the squirrels accidentally buried German nuts because you would just have to cut those down and use them for firewood). ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2009, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-stashes-of-porn-end-up-in-the-woods-in-the-1970s-and-1980s/511703/36 "2009-10-12T22:30:52Z")
Elmwood, I can’t answer your question but I can say that it is a phenomenon that seems widespread. My [cite is a comic strip](http://www.blackshapes.com/comics/crack_01_smp01.htm) by an Irish artist. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2009, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-stashes-of-porn-end-up-in-the-woods-in-the-1970s-and-1980s/511703/37 "2009-10-12T23:18:01Z")
How did they get the internet out there? ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2009, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-stashes-of-porn-end-up-in-the-woods-in-the-1970s-and-1980s/511703/38 "2009-10-12T23:18:45Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > What do you think the Easter Bunny does the rest of the year? ![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/kcrg0B_yJAo/maxresdefault.jpg)https://www.youtube.com/embed/kcrg0B_yJAo?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2009, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-stashes-of-porn-end-up-in-the-woods-in-the-1970s-and-1980s/511703/39 "2009-10-13T15:43:43Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > A bunch of porn bushes sprouting up in the middle of nowhere must be pretty cool (unless the squirrels accidentally buried German nuts because you would just have to cut those down and use them for firewood). They’re elusive to spot, though. Most porn bushes are shaved or wee Brazilian ones. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2009, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-stashes-of-porn-end-up-in-the-woods-in-the-1970s-and-1980s/511703/40 "2009-10-13T19:00:25Z")
Yeah, I grew up in the 50s/60s and I want to emphasize (from bitter experience) there is no nook or cranny whatsoever in the house (be it ever so obscure) that is safe from a mom! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-stashes-of-porn-end-up-in-the-woods-in-the-1970s-and-1980s/511703.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-stashes-of-porn-end-up-in-the-woods-in-the-1970s-and-1980s/511703.md?page=3)