In 1964 I had friends who got married at age 16

I remember meeting these friends in a drug store and asking them: "I haven't seen you guys in High School. Where have you both been?"

I was 16 remember and then the guy I knew motioned to his new wife and baby that I also knew. I thought I was going to scream or faint because I knew I would not be ready for marriage and a child at all.

I was very polite and congratulated them like my minister parents had taught me and went home traumatized for the entire weekend by people my age getting married and having a baby at age 16. They seemed like this was normal for them and it's true in 1964 it was. Getting married at 16 or 18 was normal then. Parents might want you to go to college first but often they would approve simply because someone was pregnant and there was no abortion legal yet in the U.S. Rich girls were sent to Japan then for a safe abortion but middle class kids like myself and these two just had to get married. This was the honorable thing to do then for everyone in my class of people. (Middle Class).

But, "Shotgun weddings" were common then everywhere in the U.S. including Los Angeles where I grew up in Glendale.