@JenCluse:
I read your commendable post and would like to applaud you for coming forward with this. This experience seems to have had a marked impact on your life and I'd assume that you finding the right words must have been a long exercise. Still people, men I'd venture to say, and pilots not least, seem to mistake that admitting to a wrong equates weakness. On the contrary, I find it rather exemplary behavior. I am myself closer to the age you were yourself when those events took place which is maybe why your post made me wonder what I'd have done in your stead. It's fair to assume that you first expected to get a cold shower from your CFI when you landed and were somewhat happy to ``get away with it''. Maybe therein lies the problem. Things we hear all the time such as "don't get into clouds, don't do this, don't do that, ..." are all stigmatizing enough so when fresh pilots make mistakes, the prevailing culture of fear and punishment is obviously not promoting openness – much to everyone's expense.
Also, back in the 50s the world was a different place I'd assume. I can only speak for how much it's changed in the last 15 years and still, in this day and age, aerodromes, flight schools, pilot lounges still are all rife with vanity.
Would an entry in the aircraft logbook have meant a different outcome for the other two occupants? Perhaps. And carrying training spins in a different aircraft? Probably too. An instructor sitting at the front changing CoG and taking over controls when the recovery technique didn't seem to work? Most likely. How about this: a staffed flight school with an instructor to debrief you when you got back from your flight then? There might be a chance that you'd have more easily voiced your experience than pen it.
I don't know who you are but you strike me as a curious and intelligent individual and my guess is that it is rather these very qualities that got you out of those spins three times around. Don't let the weight of those 60 years be too harsh on your 18-year-old self, you're not responsible for their fate and you've done a great job raising awareness today.