BWeaves, when I was in college in the late 70's-early 80's, pearls were....HUGE...it was the preppy scene and everyone raided their mother's or grandmother's pearls. Fair Isle sweaters and pearls...but no one had anything other than white akoya in 5.5-6.5 mm sizes. I recall one girlfriend got a 8.5 mm strand and she was so upset...she thought they were way too large, and not the right look! Her father was stationed in Japan and they were Mikimotos, but she didn't care; now of course it's a much different story, and we laugh about all the silly things we did!