O, HAPPY DAYS!

What a surprise to see myself when I was 12 years old on the cover of your magazine. I lived on Woodcliff. Yes, things seemed simple in those “Happy Days”--and life for me was very glamorous in many ways, for my father was a movie producer.

I remember Bob’s Big Boy, cruising Van Nuys Boulevard, and going to Hollywood, safely, by bus. But that life was very crazy-making--for behind the scene were closet alcoholic mothers, workaholic fathers and lonely children. Everyone pretended life was perfect and just covered up feelings and denied reality. If these days look crazy compared to the 1950s, it is only because we are more honest and real about what goes on.

I’m happy to be living in 1990.

LAURA SOBELL

Santa Barbara