When is a Pineapple not just a Pineapple
Who remembers this urban myth? If you have bananas in your shopping trolley at Woolworths, Neutral Bay you are single and looking to hook up! Yep! Thousands of singles flocked to Sydney’s north shore on Monday nights (the designated hook up night apparently) in search of love in the supermarket aisles. Now we’re not sure who started the rumour and we don’t have any stats on how many lonely singles wandered aimlessly freezing their nuts off in the frozen section but if nothing else the rest of us had a giggle and wondered if there was any truth to the rumour.
And the swinging scene is the same in some ways. Every now and then a journalist picks up on a comment and another urban myth is born. Like the whole “keys in a bowl” scenario which is slowly being debunked as never having happened because no one can find anyone to own up to going to a key party.
So are pineapples a secret swinger signal?
Did you know that the pineapple is seen as a symbol of hospitality and good will and way back when it was discovered by Christopher Columbus in the Caribbean it was viewed as the fruit of kings and a luxury item as most would rot on the long sea journey so demand vs supply was high. In the American colonies people would take a pineapple to a guest’s house to show hospitality and serving pineapple signified the host spared no expense to please guests. You get where we’re going here, right?
So as a sign of welcome and hospitality someone thought it was a good idea to design door knockers with, you guessed it, a pineapple design. We can only imagine how it morphed from there. One swingers house party where the door knocker was a pineapple, 10 wives saying to their husbands “oh I love the door knocker, we should get one” and the legend was born …
According to the Urban Dictionary a pineapple is placed on a porch or mail box by swingers to signify that a swinger party is going on. A pineapple is turned upside down (perhaps in a shopping cart, Neutral Bay Coles again lol) when a person is in search of a swinger party.
Whilst couples in the swinging lifestyle might joke about it, the pineapple is probably not a reliable indicator that a couple are swingers. Having said that we did find a podcast called The Enlightened Pineapple which might be worth checking out.
Did you know that pampas grass is also a sign of swingers?
In 2007 the UK press announced that sales of pampas grass had plummeted because the secret was out that those parties your neighbour (with the lovely patch of pampas grass) was hosting wasn’t a book club after all.
Horny garden gnomes are also a sign!
A real estate blog in San Diego wrote that they had a client looking to purchase in the area but the family was told it was a huge swinging community. Apparently the clue here was the garden gnomes on the front lawn. Hmm, my auntie has a lot of explaining to do.
And what about pink flamingos in your front garden?
If we’re honest we’d secretly like this one to be true because our very hot neighbour has a flamingo inflatable and an equally hot Italian boyfriend. She’s one of those free spirited Europeans who think clothes are superfluous when the sun’s shining. We haven’t quite worked out if they’re up for a threesome or a foursome yet but we’re hoping the flamingo inflatable is a massive clue.
But I digress.
Lifestyle blog Bigger Love wrote that people want to think there are signs they can look for as they still mistakenly believe that swingers will sleep with whoever comes along. They mention hot tubs, white landscaping rocks or pink or purple garden ornaments, anklets, toe rings, ying yang tattoos and fire pits in addition to what we’ve already written about. Damn, looks like the flamingo theory doesn’t hold water.
Swinger Jewellery
So if you meet a couple and she’s wearing a tshirt with a pineapple are they swingers or did she just like the tshirt design?
There are some innovative jewellery items which some swingers wear which are a bit easier to identify.
According to Cooper Beckett, host of the Life on the Swingset podcast, in his interview with Dan Savage many swingers wear a black ring. He is quoted as saying, "Wear your black ring on your right hand if you are out and open to meet other swingers."
Colour coded arm bands are often given out at swingers parties to identify who is keen to play, just there to observe, bisexual etc. But Swinger Code have taken that one step further with a wristband you can wear to identify yourself to other swingers when you’re out in the vanilla world. What you need to look out for, are the international male and female signs arranged horizontally with their circles intersecting, with three plus or minus signs on both sides.
Partners ID also have a range of elegant and discreet jewellery which will immediately identify you to others in the swinging lifestyle.
We had to laugh because we think this Reddit comment summed it up nicely, “There is no universal lawn ornament, home decoration, house color, ring, or article of clothing used to identify swingers. These are myths. However, it doesn't hurt to wear the ring, put up pineapple decorations, throw up garden gnomes into 69, and paint your house sherbet colors if you think it would help. The ring works - your results may vary.”
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