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?