I grew up in the dark ages [exact dates not specified lol] before sex had been invented, so of course parents didn't discuss masturbation with kids lest the kids get ideas or something. I got the picture, and made sure I didn't get caught so there'd be nothing to discuss.

I was a Boy Scout for only a few months but kept their handbooks around as references for years afterwards. The phrasing I remember is something like [I accidentally typed "something lie" the first time! ] "If you have practiced masturbation, don't let it make you blue and ill. Do your best to break the habit..."

Masturbation? What the heck was that? I looked it up in our even older family dictionary and was told it meant "self pollution". Not very helpful but more than anything else, it started me out doing my own investigating instead of relying on authoritative sources.

The other handbook, which I didn't even get till a few years later, explained in general terms what the word meant but cautioned that "No real boy would do it." It took me a while to get over that but now I'm down on the Boy Scouts and puritans of every stripe and leaning more to, "Let's hear it for us imitation boys!"

Lynn, it sounds like you did great! And Typo, my impression is that your parents obviously did something right.