Date: Mon, 25 Aug 1997 21:18:17 -0400

From: "Barry A. Popik" Bapopik[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]AOL.COM

Subject: "Gay Head" in Scholastic Magazine



I'm in the last stages of selling my parent's house, and all of my

college textbooks and other old books are being tossed or donated. I came

across a book in my sister's room that was, well, queer:



DEAR GAY HEAD (Questions from the Mail Box answered by GAY HEAD), Scholastic

Book Services, NY, 1958. Cover illustration--a mailbox with letters

addressed "GAY HEAD, N. Y. C."



"Gay Head" gave teen dating advice in the Scholastic Magazines (which

were then very popular). The intro reads:



"Letters--We Get Letters!"

Yes, we get bags and bags of letters, asking questions about all the

things that bother young people today. And we read them all and ponder them

all and answer as many as possible in "Boy dates Girl" and similar

departments in the various _Scholastic Magazines_.

Some of the questions included in this book concern the same problem

areas--like dating, prom manners, and family disagreements--as those covered

in the "Boy dates Girl" _Question and Answer Book_. Yet they're not the same

questions.

(...)

Happy endings!

Gay Head



"Gay Head" is not in the Random House Historical Dictionary of Slang, not

even under "gay."

"Gay Head" giving "Boy dates Girl" advice--probably just a humorous

coincidence. But how far do the "Gay Head" Scholastic Magazine columns go

back?

By the way, there is a "Gay Head" town in Martha's Vineyard. Wonder if

President Clinton saw it?