I was in high school in the '60s (class of '67) and really did come of age thanks to the influence of Helen Gurley Brown (and Robert H. Rimmer, author of "The Harrad Experiment") and "The Pill", of course (although I didn't get a Rx until just before my wedding at age 20).

In high school I read Cosmopolitan religiously.

Still, I left home the only way that was really acceptable; I got married. Attitudes were changing, but, alas, not so much within my own family or circle. So I married too young, probably to get away from my parents and gain some semblance of independence. Ten years later I was the first divorce in the family since my mother's sister (who, when her husband brought his girlfriend home from Spain and announced she was moving in, my aunt said, "No. I'm moving out," but the consensus in the family was that she really should have tried a little harder).

But those of you who did not live through the rigidity and hypocracy and social blindness of the '50s have no idea of the tumult of changing mores and attitudes towards sex and social freedom and independence for women. Helen Gurley Brown was one who led the way.

Linn