In the spring of 1956 an 18 year old high school girl named Linda wrote a series of letters to her best friend Becky. I happened upon these in a hidden compartment of an antique credenza I was restoring. The compartment also contained pictures of the girls. I read the letters with a great deal of incredulity. The suggestive content was not compatible with my beliefs about the sexual behavior of young ladies in the 50’s so I had them examined by a specialist. He assured me that the letters could only have been written during that time period by a female hand, most likely a young female.
After much contemplation I decided to publish the letters. I believe they will shed new light on our perception of the generation who came of age during the 50’s – for most of us our parents and grandparents. They have been edited to correct minor spelling and grammatical errors but other than that are exactly as written. Upon the advice of my lawyers I will not publish the pictures to protect the identity the two girls, but I will provide a verbal description to help the reader visualize their appearance.
Linda, the writer of the letters, has a pleasant looking face with lots of freckles and big innocent eyes. Her wavy hair hangs to her shoulders. A picture of her in a swim suit reveals a shapely figure with larger than average breasts. They certainly fill out a sweater quite nicely. It would be a stretch to call her beautiful but she is pretty in her own way. Although the pictures were black and white, the letters reveal that she has red hair and green eyes.
Becky, the recipient, is blonde and attractive in a Marilyn Monroe kind of way. Her soft eyes are adventurous and her smile is sexy. While not quite as well endowed as Linda, her figure is nonetheless almost perfect. I can attest to this because many of the pictures of Becky leave little to the imagination – in fact nothing at all. Her perky breasts are shaped like rounded pears with dark areolas and tips that point slightly upward. The lighter shade of her pubic hair confirms that she is a natural blonde.
It was difficult finding an editor willing to publish these letters. Legitimate magazines called them smut and accused me of fabricating them. I finally found an online magazine that was willing to take a chance. The editor was concerned about the suggestive nature of the letters but nonetheless felt they were important from a historical perspective and captured what young people of that era were thinking and experiencing. Their lawyers could find no evidence that any of the characters mentioned were under the age of 18.
There are a total of fifteen letters, some quite long. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I did, and would be grateful for any feedback.
Martin Stansberry
Dear Becky,
I miss you so much. Nothing here is the same since you moved to Cincinnati. For example, I turned 18 last week and I know you would have thrown me a big surprise birthday party. Instead I ended up going on a blind date with a boy named Skip. I know, you are thinking, wow. You finally went on a date after Mark dumped you, but who is Skip? Well he’s not one of the boys from school. Molly asked Brian to set me up with a guy he knows from work. I was a little nervous because Skip is 20 like Brian and being older might expect me to do things with him. Well maybe not all the way like Molly and Brian do, but more than kissing.