As a woman in my mid 50's I get sick to the back teeth of people talking about the past as the good old days. It was the good old days if you were a white middle class able bodied heterosexual man. For anyone else, it was not the good old days. So just a few things I personally remember.
- Disabled people - A friend at 16 got a job in the local "mental" hospital working with kids and teenagers. Most of these kids and teenagers lived there. She said it was awful as the kids were basically ignored, fed, watered, cleaned and given no attention at all.
- A woman who was a lesbian being committed to a mental hospital for being a lesbian. I was about 14 and I know that was the only reason she was committed as I remember my parents working to get her out.
- In the 80s a woman I worked with trying to get a loan to set up a small business. She had a hell of a time getting it because generally banks wanted the loan countersigned by a male relative. She wasn't prepared to do that, so she got turned down by nearly every bank.
- When I was at primary school one of my classmates lived with her mum who was divorced. I sensed as a child that my mum went out of her way to be kind to this woman,but that other adults didn't like her. I asked my mum about this as an adult and she said the woman had a hard time because being divorced had a massive stigma and so most neighbours would have nothing to do with her. We lived in a very poor area, so this was not a pretentious area.
- my close friend at school had an abortion at 12. I don't remember anything about this except shocked rumours, us kids did not really know what to make of it. Her dad was a bully and looking back I would bet money that he was raping her. She continued to live with her dad.
There is much much more, casual sexism, racism, domestic violence. I know our country is not perfect.But things have got much better for so may people and I for one want no return to the "good old days".