Father Looks to Son to Tend to Porn Stash

The loss of a close loved one is often a trying time for family and friends; those closest to the deceased are reluctantly caught up in making all the traditional arrangements: writing up an obituary; planning the wake and the funeral; reserving a room and laying out the dough for the repass. Hopefully, when all's said and done with the will, you won't find yourself in the red. Let's not forget the grieving process, the getting acquainted with the idea that you'll never see the deceased on this earth again.

With all this going on, no one wants any more responsibilities than he or she needs to tend to, but this may not be the case for Peter Blanchon, a married father of two whose father is closely approaching Death's door. The request Blanchon received whe he, his wife, and two children visited the elder Blanchon, Louis, at his home in Sanibel Island, Florida this past December was "shocking."

Blanchon stated, "My dad poured us each a Maker's Mark on the rocks after my wife and kids left the house to do some grocery shopping for him. He took me into his bedroom, told me he had something to show me, and I was shocked when he opened up my mother's old closet."

* Peter Blanchon's visit to his father's Florida residence may have added one more responsibility to his plate upon his father's death.

What Peter soon saw inside the walk-in closet, a room that ceased belonging to Peter's mother soon after her passing in 1997, was an enormous amount of pornography on paper: every issue of Juggs, including the debut August 1981 issue; many copies of On Our Backs, the first women-run erotica magazine; and a host of foreign publications like Knave and Razzle (England), Lui (France), and Lemon People (Japan).

* One of the magazines in Louis Blanchon's porn collection, the debut of Juggs from August '81, including one of Mr. Blanchon's favorites: an article on breast masturbation.

According to his son, Blanchon, a retired principal at a prestigious New York City private school, "was desperate that I take care of the scores of boxes." Blanchon recalled, "My dad told me that he cherised these magzines--more so for the articles than the pictures--and that he could never share this passion with my mother, a straight-laced Baptist." He added, "For many years my dad even rented a garage for his collection from an elderly woman, visiting it every now and then to pour over the magazines' words. Ironically, these magazines, which my mother never knew about, had a lot to do with the success of their sex life. I mean my dad is the Kama Sutra. I never knew this before."

* Blanchon with his grandson Michael this past December, perhaps telling him about the birds, the bees, and prostate stimulation.

All Louis Blanchon wants, upon his death, is for someone to bring his collection to the residence of James Primdire, the manager of the Publix supermarket where Blanchon gets his groceries and prescription medications. Apparently, when Blanchon once asked Primdire why his store sold no pornographic magazines, an instant relationship was forged as the two men started talking about their shared passion for the written word within these mags; this materialized into bi-weekly meetings at Cleo Lee's, a local coffee house.

Primdire, however, wants no part of raiding Blanchon's closet. "Lou has taught me a lot about sex and other things, like how to remove red wine stains from my carpet and clothes and how to cook with charcoal. He's been so good to me. I just couldn't bring myself to enter that closet. It'd be too hard, considering the realtionship we've forged over what's in there."

* James Primdire (center), the Publix manager who became good friends with one of his store's patrons.

Before leaving Florida, Peter Blanchon accepted Mr. Primdire's address and cell phone number from his father, knowing how much this would mean to him, and somewhere on Coral Lane in West Palm Beach, James Primdire is cleaning out a room.