Something Foolish, Something Gay

by Glen Sire, Jane Sire

Meet
Laurie Merritt--16 a blonde doll
and
Sammy Hastings--17 a crew-cut type

THEY live near Hollywood

Go Stead

Cruise around in a cherry-colored jalopy

Have marvelous times together--from high school proms and elegant dates along Hollywood's Sunset Strip, to chili and pizza, summer jobs, picnics, and cramming for exams

Inseparable, Incomparable--Absolutely Unforgettable

Genres: Young Adult, Fiction

213 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1958

Reviews

[Cathy Sire]

I love this book but then it was written by my mother and father-in-law! It's fun to read the other reviews of this book!

[AngieA Allen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first romance. I was thirteen and buying books with my allowance from Scholastic Book Club at school. I read this one til it was dogeared. The new copy I bought on line a couple years ago is in lots better shape! This is the book that gave me the idea that a girl should marry her high school sweetheart and live happily ever after. It's the book that hooked me on happily ever after romance novels. It's the book that led me to books as comfort food. It's the book that led me to read "Little Women" again; this time with a hanky. And, it's really cute and Sammy Hastings is to die for. :)

[Marla Toews · Rating 5 out of 5]

I hesitate to review this book because I can't do it justice. It was fundamental to my teen years... my siblings loved it as much as I did, and we still use phrases from this book. Phrases include: an absolutely necessary expense, I am writing a letter to Phillip, a sun-filled, fun-filled day in Catalina, girls who play with kittens when boys are around to make the boys wish they were kittens, the meaning of life, the meaning of life.... oh, I thought you were looking for that brown sweater you always leave lying around... Zounds, what a day...sometimes I am wary to recommend this book to friends in case it isn't special to them. Talk about a book being an old friend? This is one of mine.

[Betsy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a perfect entry in the "malt-shop" genre. I loved it.

[Jessi · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was my moms book she read in hi school, It was ok considering the difference in times, a little in the corny side

[Ann aka Iftcan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remember this book fondly from my teenaged years. Altho, I will admit, it was old even then. Made me kind of wish I'd been born 15 or 16 years earlier than I really WAS. It is probably hopelessly dated now, but as a glimpse of teenaged life (or teenaged life as perceived then) in the late 50's it is very good. A younger, more innocent time, where we didn't have to worry about drugs, sex and rock and roll was still also innocent (no matter WHAT the parental units thought.)

[Kathleen Oles · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book over and over as a teenager in the late sixties/early seventies. It got me through many a heartbreak. Any time I was sad, I would read this book and begin to smile and sometimes laugh out loud. Delightful, sweet, funny. It makes one wish that the teen years could be as innocent as they were in this book, which was written in 1955. It's one of my treasures.

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was kicking around my house as a kid and I must have read it five or six times. Loved it.

[Jana Godfrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favourite teen romances when I was a teen and now.

[Cyndy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this as a freshman in high school. Very cute book.

[Lynette Nickel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It gave me some good laughs. I felt a little sorry for the male protagonist, but he got in a few blows of his own from time to time.

[Shawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This isn't a novel, so much as it is 10 short stories revolving around the relationship of high school sweethearts Laurie and Sammy in the late 1950s when it was written. Now full disclosure here, I did not grow up in this era, I grew up in the 1980s and 1990s, I read this book out of curiosity.

I found the character of Laurie inconsistent, she was whatever the authors needed her to be for the moral of that particular tale. Sometimes an independent, young pre-feminist, other times lazy, or boy-crazy. Whatever she was, however, she was doing something wrong and the lessons, by modern values, range from silly to frightening. Her punishment from bragging about how easy taking care of children is is that she gets stuck with two hellions and a baby that she can't handle...but Sammy knows exactly how to deal with them even though their mother can't even control them (There is always the underlying message that the man knows what he's doing), but her punishment for being independent is almost getting raped (and, yeah, it's "her fault"). I have to keep telling myself that this book was written under a different mind set, people thought differently back then, but nothing can get me past how rough Sammy is with Laurie, until the final chapter it merely borders on abuse, but in the final chapter we're dealing with physical abuse, sleep deprivation and mental abuse, and the lesson that Laurie learns is that Sammy is right, he's always right and she loves him no matter what. Times were definitely different back then, but the "good old days," I'll never accept that argument again (truthfully, I never did to begin with, but now I have a deeper insight into the way people were conditioned to think back then).

I review it so high, because, in the end, as uncomfortable as it made me some times, it really was an enjoyable read. I would never let a teen or tween read it now, but as an adult, going back to it with a curiosity of times gone by, it's very eye-opening.

[Steph · Rating 4 out of 5]

A young adult classic.

[Pam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book as a young teen. It is so clever. My sister and I still use comedic references from this book.

[Susan Brooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this for nostalgia purposes. Read it when I was 13, and several other times in life since. My copy is worn and torn. So reminiscent of the early 1970’s.