It seems the magazine born after the death of Stevens McClave one of those who worked as an advocate for rural gays. “R.F.D. is a reader-participatory venture. You write, sing, dance and are R.F.D. We need your contributions of material, energy and love to survive.” There’s also a note on women participation noting that none have done so yet but that they hope for more lesbian involvement (3).

The first article is a memorial piece for Steven McClave (1945-1974). I get the feeling that these pages are going to be filled with quite a few memorial articles as we move move into the 80s. I’m not going to read everything in these issues but I will read this one as it’s the first one. I’ll only post notes if I feel like it will help us know more about the Radical Faeries. From previous reading this magazine is not yet part of that movement.

The article starts with a delightful description of McClave and the author holding hands in a city street and then moves immediately into the image of his suicide by car exhaust in the next paragraph. The article moves on to a recollection of his memorial service at Wolf Creek and those who spoke. (4) “Mitzi recalled times when he sang old rock and show tunes, half in humor and wholly in identification; and the Christmas party where Stevens braved the straight-hippie crowd with glitter on his eyelids and cheeks.” It seems that glitter and faeries go back a long way I also notice that the article uses first names throughout, making it seem more intimate (5).

On page 6, we have a few letters to the magazine pre-publication. Both from Peter, the first celebrates it’s existence and how he finally has a place to speak even given his hermit ways and second shares a poem about procreativity and being silent. We get a review of a band called The Deadly Nightshade in Western Massachusetts on the next page. Next is an autobiographical story about coming of age and then a coloring page for people to fill in. This amuses me (9).

There’s a description of the Hop Brook Commune where interestingly the concept of -isms is brought up in a discussion about who should become a part of the commune. “To sum this up, we are as much or as little ‘guilty’ of ageism, uglyism, fatism, ‘ismism’ as you who read this. But we are aware of it and are getting in touch with it individually in our own sweet way–simultaneously feeling good about all the rest of us here but keeping aware of the problems of conditioning (10).” Another sentence doesn’t make sense to me, after saying they are multi-uni-racial, “WE RECOGNIZE NOT LESS THAN ONE SEX AMONG HUMAN BEINGS (11).” Perhaps a reader here can help me make sense of this.

Next on page 14 is “A Rejection” by Allan Troxler, where we learn about being rejected from publication from Mother Earth News, a rural arts magazine. After reading a bit I decided to move on. I did however find a humorous satire of American Gothic (17). I’m seeing more and more just recipes and advice going through the magazine.