They used to be on shelves in groceries stores: True Story, True Romance, etc., etc. I don’t see them there any more. Are confession magazines (we called them Confessions) now a thing of the past, folded for lack of readership?
When I was a pre-teen and a young teenager, those magazines were taboo. My mother would never let me read one, so I didn’t really know what was inside; I only knew it wasn’t for my young eyes! I’d sneak a glance when I passed them in stores, then look around guiltily to see if anyone was watching. Wow! What titles! Goodness me, judging from the pictures and headlines, what a coil those people were in. How would they ever have a happy ending?
After I grew up and started trying to sell what I wrote, I looked for markets. My curiosity about these confessions magazines grew. Were they really so awful? Someone told me there were two “brands”, the nice and the not-so-nice. I decided I’d take a peek at one of the nice ones.
I wasn’t shocked nor did I blush and feel guilty. The stories I read were just stories. I confess I thought they were a little boring and, boy, did they ramble on and on. Most of them could have ended about halfway through. I had a pretty hard job believing they were true.
As well as stories, these magazines had helpful tips for homemakers and articles about babies and raising children. So, to get my feet wet, I sent in an article about books being the best gift for newborn babies. It was quickly snapped up.
Poems were scattered throughout the magazines and featured on the back. Just for fun, I sent in a couple of poems. They bought them! Whee! This was great. But, alas! Just when I was on a roll, suddenly, they weren’t there. That market seemed to have closed.
Confession magazines are sort of like soap operas. Maybe readers and viewers have changed and are (alas, again) dying off. A dying breed. Many soap operas have folded too. I remember my Granny Day listening to soap operas on the radio every day. This was before we had a television. Granny was wheelchair-bound and she really got involved in the make-believe lives of the characters of Lorenzo Jones, One Man’s Family, Portia Faces Life, and others.
Anyway, those are my confessions to you as I sit at my computer with my third cup of Folgers. Now, my conscience is unburdened.
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