people 45yo+, what was abdl like before the internet?

[lil_stinkie]

i'm really curious how this interest would have been undertaken without the connections of the information superhighway

did abdl exist before the internet? i figure abdl is bred from a desire, whether it be, to return to an innocent time, the interest of wearing diapers for pleasure. as such, i'd imagine these activities would be undertaken even without communities such as daily diapers.

were these activities undertaken privately? or did you manage to find like minded connections in the real world

did you ever imagine that there would be whole communites of people with similar interests?

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

It was done by printed newsletter. such as the DPF/NL and "Bladder Chatter", Also Printed publications like Infantae Press's two publications, one of which was TALES FROM THE CRIB, Linda Brownleigh's WET SET and several publicantions from DPF, like "The Mommy Manual, and printed catalogs like CAROLYN'S KINDS and th JK Perfect Persona Products and Agape/A. C. Medical cats. Most of the Newletters had a roster of some kind by which persons could get in contact.

The ABDL accoutrements were much more interesting. The "cobbler bib'" was more like a babydoll and there were more PVC and rubber items such as skirts to be worn under dresses and things like that. JK sold rubber sheets that came in ivory, pink,blue and yellow. A higher %age of panties were made out of grainy material than now and cloth diapers were dominant since most of those  ovetr 18 were born in the 40's to the 60's when I joined DPF in early '83 when the median and modal age was in the 30's, I was 37 andyone 18 would have been born in' '65, a  bit before throw-aways became a thing around '70 Adult sized rubber panties were hard to find and very few of them were full cut and mostly grainy material. the one most used was the Salk Pro-Pant AIO, but that is what was most  available in the '60's and '70's and you could not get anything good unless you lucked into an ABDL publication  which gave access to ABDL product companies. The onlly thing I heard of that was around before DPF was Amber E/Mommy Florence from c1976. and that I found out about in about 1985. There was a huge overlap of ABDL and rubber groups for obvious reasons and one often led you to the other

There was much confusion between Little Girl and Sissy. My first Lg email service was at Mrs. Silk's, primarily a sissy site (and one of the best before it wetn under) in Y2k. What helped untangle tat a lot were GirlTalk To and TGGuide (the original transgender site) to both of which I brought the tiara fancy in Y2k in the Golden Age of "bulletin Boards (the early name for forums)

[lil_stinkie]

4 minutes ago, Little BabyDoll Christine said:

It was done by printed newsletter. such as the DPF/NL and "Bladder Chatter", Also Printed publications like Infantae Press's two publications, one of which was TALES FROM THE CRIB, Linda Brownleigh's WET SET and several publicantions from DPF, like "The Mommy Manual, and printed catalogs like CAROLYN'S KINDS and th JK Perfect Persona Products and Agape/A. C. Medical cats. Most of the Newletters had a roster of some kind by which persons could get in contact.

The ABDL accoutrements were much more interesting. The "cobbler bib'" was more like a babydoll and there were more PVC and rubber items such as skirts to be worn under dresses and things like that. JK sold rubber sheets that came in ivory, pink,blue and yellow. A higher %age of panties were made out of grainy material than now and cloth diapers were dominant since most of those  ovetr 18 were born in the 40's to the 60's when I joined DPF in early '83 when the median and modal age was in the 30's, I was 37 andyone 18 would have been born in' '65, a  bit before throw-aways became a thing around '70 Adult sized rubber panties were hard to find and very few of them were full cut and mostly grainy material. the one most used was the Salk Pro-Pant AIO, but that is what was most  available in the '60's and '70's and you could not get anything good unless you lucked into an ABDL publication  which gave access to ABDL product companies. The onlly thing I heard of that was around before DPF was Amber E/Mommy Florence from c1976. and that I found out about in about 1985. There was a huge overlap of ABDL and rubber groups for obvious reasons and one often led you to the other

that's really interesting, even back in the day snail-mail had it's use in niche communities. there is one thing i am really wondering about now, how would you find out about such publications? were they freely advertised, or would you have to be informed by word of mouth from a friend.

[Lil Leo]

In the dark and lonely ? ? ?. 

?‍♂️

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

Just now, lil_stinkie said:

that's really interesting, even back in the day snail-mail had it's use in niche communities. there is one thing i am really wondering about now, how would you find out about such publications? were they freely advertised, or would you have to be informed by word of mouth from a friend.

It wasn't that "snail-mail had its uses". it was that there was no term "snail-mail" because the Postal Service was the only game in town as computer bulletin boards were exotic and out of reach of, or unknown to, 95% of the population of the First World

[poobrat]

i think i still have some of my old dpf rosters and stuff

 

[Apache Raccoon]

So glad I got involved with this in a post-internet world

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

5 hours ago, Apache Raccoon said:

So glad I got involved with this in a post-internet world

Not realy, there waere many more choices of things and activities  which is a shame since the Internet made creative endeavers more possible and able to reach and include more persons. In the earl days of the net, the things that I made, like notepaper, "calling cards" and things you can use to do things would be gobbled up and used. Now, it seems persons would rather just read stories and live vicariously  than be active (well, you could do both). things were more toward the AB/Little side, which had a wider, richer narrative. As  I have said several times, For AB/Little, the diaper is PART of the story, albeith a big part. It seems that for DL's the diaper is the whole story, which kind of narrows down the universe. Look at my gallery section as compared to others

[Little Cub Pants]

9 hours ago, Apache Raccoon said:

So glad I got involved with this in a post-internet world

Me too little Ashy!?♥️??

[BabyJune]

I relied on yunger bro's porno magazines (which I wasnt into except for a few diaper fetish articles) and catalogs with pictures of kids in cute outfits and diapers as well as a good imagination.

[Little Sherri]

It was a lonely place. I thought I was on a desert island with a population of one, essentially. I knew as was "funny" about diapers from a very early age, probably 4 or 5 years old, and by the time I was 11 or so, I was making my own diapers out of towels and such and wearing them in secret. I walked away from "this" for more than 20 years after my step-dad found my diaper stash and yelled at me in front of my family when I was 13. When I reconnected with "this", internet at home was in its infancy - CompuServe and AOL were battling it out for supremacy. But I never thought to go looking for it on the internet, because I thought I was, if not the only one, then, at least an extremely rare case. 

It took me another decade or so to stumble upon this community, I think when I went Googling for adult cloth diapers. It was like believing I was alone on an island for decades, and then walking over a hill one day and discovering a city. I had no idea there was a community, or an industry, dedicated to "this" strange pastime. I'm definitely glad that I am where I am now, compared to where I was! 

[PuraVidaDip]

Medical supply catalogs! ? ? That special grocery store aisle!

[AbabeBill]

In the pre internet days, AB/DL did exist. At least for my own experience, it existed because I was living it. I was (I thought) along in the diaper loving world. Early on, in my childhood, I only has small tidbits, or possible suggestions others were into it. I was much to afraid to ask anyone, who I thought, even might be though. I suspected a cousin of mine, and a school chum. But I never came out really, just to risky. I got pretty close with my cousin once, but the opportunity quickly was lost. 
Later on, in the 80’s, I found a fetish magazine, and the “ah ha” moment came! There in its pages, we’re AB/DL themes, stories, and art. It affirmed to me, I was not alone in my feelings. 

[willnotwill]

Well, for the longest time, I also thought I was alone.    Then I tripped across the CompuServe HumanSexuality forums in about 1986 or so.   Then I learned about the (preInternet) DPF guys as well.   Even before the internet proper was a thing, there was alt.sex.fetish.diapers on the USENET and I spent a lot of time there posting stories and the like.

'

[rusty pins]

It existed back in the 1940's for sure.  There was a radio episode of "The Life Of Riley" where his kids were buying their father (Chester Riley) a new suit for fathers day.  They had to take his old suit to the tailor's for proper measurements.  Anyway, after a lot of back and forth, Riley discovers the suit pants in a box, then the pants are gone and the jacket is there.  He thinks he's going nuts so he take the box to a psychiatrist.  Unbeknownst to him, his son had taken the box with the suit.  Another box that was in the closet was the same kind of box but had old diapers and rubber pants from when his kids were a baby.  Thinking the box he took had either suit pants or a suit coat, Riley had the psychiatrist open it to look inside.  When the doctor saw the diapers and rubber pants, not knowing it was supposed to be a suit, he asked Riley what the deal was.  Riley then started telling the doctor how they were nice and how he liked to wear them (all the time thinking it was a suit).  The doctor told him he had a psychosis (not sure what he called it) where adults like to dress in diapers and act like babies.  You can listen to it here:  

 

[ppdude]

Am I in a time machine going back? Shades of reckoning!!! Yes, I was a member of the Wet Set and found plastics on X rated sites. Also DPF on early internets. Before that, there was VIP and the hand-drawn trusty Comco. And one has to remember early Babykins too! I hated the Salk products, and the early Depends with the "button elastics" really stunk. What a vast difference today compared to back then!!! How did we ever survive?

 

 

 

 

[lil_stinkie]

A lot of interesting recollections here, it's really painting a picture of what abdl was like pre fetish websites. Really glad that fellow abdls were able to explore their interest before the communities of today. The magazines and catalogues sound interesting, I can almost imagine myself waiting with great anticipation for a new release.

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

In the 1960's Kleinert's made a panty of smooth white material. By 1980 they had switched to grainy material, too. My first AB panties was Carolyns. By 1986 I was a Comco girl andstayed like that, along with AC Medical,  until 2013 when they folded and I found the Gary at LL Medico. You can see what I use in the Review section of RUBBER PANTIES'R'US, of whichI have over a dozen and there is a section for others to do reviews

[Babygeebee]

Like many I figured I was the only one in the world who liked diapers. The big revelation came when I read a series  of items in Letters Magazine. I remember was shaking with joy at the thought of not being alone. There are others out there! Then letters with ABDL content were few and far between, but it was enough. I made cloth diapers and purchased plastic pants from a local medical supplier and carried-on on my own. At the time a never reached out to connect with others. Anyway, I was any early adopter of the internet and remember the usenet groups and the early websites. 

My, have times changed. 

[ValentinesStuff]

On 1/3/2023 at 6:53 PM, lil_stinkie said:

i'm really curious how this interest would have been undertaken without the connections of the information superhighway

did abdl exist before the internet? i figure abdl is bred from a desire, whether it be, to return to an innocent time, the interest of wearing diapers for pleasure. as such, i'd imagine these activities would be undertaken even without communities such as daily diapers.

were these activities undertaken privately? or did you manage to find like minded connections in the real world

did you ever imagine that there would be whole communites of people with similar interests?

It most certainly existed before the internet. Finding out that others were also interested was tough unless you had access to adult magazines or heard it on the news. I'm not sure when the first talk show episode on Adult Babies was, but it predated public Internet usage. 

 

DPF, and likely other groups predate the internet. Carolyn's Kids had a small catalog out before the internet, and there was some other mail-order businesses around. Again these showed up in adult magazines and bookstores. There were occasional AB Magazines. These would be full of pics of women in diapers, often you could see the outline of the panties they had on underneath the diaper.

 

Until I found an issue of Letters Magazine with Adult Baby "letters" I didn't really imagine there were enough others to make a community.

[Stroller]

Let's see...

In the UK there was occasionally something in Forum magazine (published by Penthouse).  That led me to finding out about Mummy Hazel (Hazel Jones), who sold AB clothes mail order, and had occasional parties.  And joining DPF (mail order newsletter in those days).  Going to Mummy Hazel's parties led to going to three Sex Maniacs Balls - big fetish parties raising money for charity, which included a playpen for the ABs.

Then there were magazines available if you knew the right shops.  Rubber Life in particular, which always had women in nappies as well as rubber.

Nearly all the ABs who put their heads above the parapet were male though - many of them cross-dressing as female ABs of course.  There were almost no female ABs at these events.  That's one of the biggest differences.  These days, there are more female littles than male at some events I go to.

And of course, now there's so much stuff you can buy.  Back then nobody knew how big the ABDL market was, or how to reach it to sell us stuff.  Now there's everything.  Happy days.

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

In terms of the STYE, the difference is more like 55 since throw-away diapers became a thing in c1969. Also the pattern of smaller families was becoming entrenched,establishing something that began in the 40's when we went from the ordinary family being 5 or more children, with fewer than 4 being outliers, to 5 or less. By 1967 3 or more was rare, with the "average" being the famous "2.5 [just what 1/2 a child looks like, I have NO idea]"

[leafgoalie]

Finding products was interesting as you had to be resourceful.  Fortunately I fit into Toddler supersize plastic pants for quite a while.  As others have mentioned, it was a big revelation when some of the "Letters" and other publications had the odd article about ABDL. Knowing others were out there was a relief.  Once the internet happened, the doors were wide open.  Now we can choose from a variety of companies for products that we only dreamed of years ago.  It is amazing to have gatherings like CAPCON.  We have come a long way! 

[ppdude]

3 hours ago, leafgoalie said:

Finding products was interesting as you had to be resourceful.  Fortunately I fit into Toddler supersize plastic pants for quite a while.  As others have mentioned, it was a big revelation when some of the "Letters" and other publications had the odd article about ABDL. Knowing others were out there was a relief.  Once the internet happened, the doors were wide open.  Now we can choose from a variety of companies for products that we only dreamed of years ago.  It is amazing to have gatherings like CAPCON.  We have come a long way! 

Yeah... I was able to fit into Pattycakes, Gerbers and maybe one other that I can't remember. Oh, the good old days!!! Though now I'm swimming in plastic -- even with economic and supplier contraction there are still a few different plastic pants suppliers around. Still don't like China at all.

 

 

[ValentinesStuff]

I forgot, finding diapers beyond Depend, Attends, and even worse store brands was an undertaking. Visiting small medical/hospital supply stores, old independent small town pharmacies looking for anything better or at least different. Talking to the shop keepers. I once found a small town pharmacy that had apparently had an incontinent customer many years earlier. They had in back a few adult cloth diapers, still priced from whenever the got them. They were happy to get rid of them. Although I was a bit surprised when the clerk suggested I would need my mom to show me how to fold them. I kind of miss those days.