I was 17 that year, Orchid, a junior in high school. I spent the summer in Europe. Knew little about Woodstock, for example, until I returned. Read about man landing on the moon via articles and photos published in the Paris Match newspaper.

The living away from home was very formative, in ways I hadn't anticipated. I learned to make decisions for myself and actually had to handle being quite sick for a week that summer.

But when I returned home, my parents expected me to fall back into the routine of asking them if I could do something, leaving them to be the final deciders of my actions. I had matured past that, of course. Something they ought to have been proud of, since my parents had raised me with the goal of my becoming a capable, self-supporting adult.

But once that happened before they were expecting it, we had a bumpy senior year.

So these women were older than me, as well. But their reminiscences are quite fascinating IMHO.