If this had happened 40-50 years ago...

[Swissrollypoly]

Do you think things would be different? Do you think we’d just have to get on with things as we wouldn’t have the means to work from home or communicate via Zoom or Microsoft teams etc.
Social media didn’t exist, so there wouldn’t be as much panic and scaremongering.
I just wonder how different it would all be, had it happened in another time period.

@mintkoala

It's not so much whether women were in the workplace, as whether mothers of junior school age children were working full time, and I would say that in the 70s they mostly weren't, whatever class they were. Offices were full of secretaries and clerks who were young women, older childless women, and middleaged women working part time.

The 80's was when there was a huge shift with women moving into better paid, career-type jobs, and working when their children were young.

This is wrong or, more correctly, just your experience. My mother was a teacher and she took a break of about three years until we were both in nursery/primary school then went back to work. The vast majority of my friends' mothers worked. The only ones who didn't had younger children.

She was back in work in the mid 1970s.

My grammar school ski trip was in 1970 to the Dolomites. Most of my year went, irrespective of their economic background, Somehow the money was found.

Ditto.

Classic State school however.

And not the year.

@the80sweregreat

In the 1960s a bar of soap was all you had though!! My parents were quite poor though but mum always had soap around.

Not true.

I give you:

Matey bubble Bath.

And can we please dispel the myth that women didn't work!

Definitely this.

@TwentyViginti we went across Europe as far as Yugoslavia in 1972 but didn't go to Asia until the 1980s

Its strange now thinking about how long ago it was, but for people saying that in that era people didn't travel - people really did travel.

We had great big catalogues of holiday destinations from the travel agents.

Not true.

I give you:

Matey bubble Bath.

Ill raise you a soap on a rope!

My granny was born in the early 1900s. She went to work at 14, having been to school before then. She carried on working after she got married and had kids, she worked from home though then.

Working class and most middle class women have worked outside the home for very many decades. Where does this myth that they didn't come from?

There was a different attitude to death, even in the eighties.

When I first worked in hospital ( early nineties, so only 30 years ago) I clearly remember a ward-round in a medicine for the elderly unit. The unit was full, with a long waiting list. The consultant bemoaned the fact that we hadn't had the flu epidemic we'd been promised to help free up beds!

That was before the widespread vaccination, flu was clearly seen as a kind way for elderly people with degenerative conditions to end their lives.

I was shocked enough by the comment to remember it 30 years later. But I do think that for people with severe dementia etc, respiratory viruses can offer a kinder death. That doesn't mean I'd let the infection rip, before someone tears me apart though!

I read something about how the government was concerned about the mental health impact of the blitz on the population. And the long term impacts of the war, relentless anxiety from uncertainty and death. Not sure what they were going to do about it though...

Anyway. 40 years ago it would have been significantly longer before a vaccine was created purely because of the technological advances we've benefited from (electronic data sharing has massively helped, according to article I can't find even relatively recently there were concerns data could be corrupted).

I give you:

Matey bubble Bath.

Avon, anyone?

And her mum had a car!!!!!!! The glamour !

I remember my mother driving into a village in Portugal in the 1960s and the whole village came out to meet us. Cars were rare enough, but a woman driving a car was unheard of!

@IrmaFayLear

This might be a bit of a class thing - and indeed money-related.

I had “regimented meals” all through the 70s (and indeed 80s) as did dh and a lot of my friends. It was roast beef on Sunday, cold meat on Monday, sausages on Tuesday, chops Wednesday, casserole (stew) Thursday and then, horror of horrors, bloaters on Friday. Saturday was a high tea (bread and butter etc).

We never went on a foreign holiday. I never went on a school trip abroad. I did have a friend though who ate spaghetti bolognese , went to Majorca and lived in a plate-glass house with wicker chairs. And her mum had a car!!!!!!! The glamour !

My DH in the eighties was considered wealthy by his friend because he had pop delivered ( Corona van- remember that?!) and had sausages AND a burger for tea!

@ivykaty44

Not true.

I give you:

Matey bubble Bath.

Ill raise you a soap on a rope!

I see your soap on a rope, and will trump it with

Badedas.

“Things happen after a badedas bath”

Yes children, that was the slogan............

American advertising wow(?)

@cathyandclare

There was a different attitude to death, even in the eighties.

When I first worked in hospital ( early nineties, so only 30 years ago) I clearly remember a ward-round in a medicine for the elderly unit. The unit was full, with a long waiting list. The consultant bemoaned the fact that we hadn't had the flu epidemic we'd been promised to help free up beds!

That was before the widespread vaccination, flu was clearly seen as a kind way for elderly people with degenerative conditions to end their lives.

I was shocked enough by the comment to remember it 30 years later. But I do think that for people with severe dementia etc, respiratory viruses can offer a kinder death. That doesn't mean I'd let the infection rip, before someone tears me apart though!

I worked in a hospital in the 80s and I totally disagree that there was a different attitude to death.

Its strange now thinking about how long ago it was, but for people saying that in that era people didn't travel - people really did travel

Some people did, but it certainly wasn't as common as it is now... or was until recently.

@DeftandGlory - I went on two exchange trips in the 80s and there had been a change in the rules about the numbers of supervising staff and our safety was definitely a big deal so I think you may be thinking of an earlier time.

Etulosba

Lovely story

Similar would happen if I were to drive to a particular village or two abroad (family). In 2020/21*

Obviously going nowhere for the time being

@wowfudge

My granny was born in the early 1900s. She went to work at 14, having been to school before then. She carried on working after she got married and had kids, she worked from home though then.

Working class and most middle class women have worked outside the home for very many decades. Where does this myth that they didn't come from?

It isn't a myth. Many women stopped working on marriage. There was no childcare. My mother worked but she had to wait until we were all at school. Most of my friend's mothers didn't work or did very low paid jobs.

@PurpleHoodie

40 years ago was 1980.

You take that back. That isn't possible.

We wouldn't have had access to the amazing information provided by the intelligent altruistic epidemiologists, scientists and doctors who have got us through it either though (someone else has probably already said that, I haven't read whole thread).

Um. There were pubs on just about every corner (slightl exaggeration) plus cafes, coffee bars, Wimpeys and yes, restaurants.

There were pubs but they didn't usually serve food and not as many restaurants. People didn't eat out anywhere near as much as they do now.

And can we please dispel the myth that women didn't work!

I didn't say that they didn't work but there were alot more SAHM compared with now and many of the jobs that women did were low paid.

@Belladonna12 - I should have specified there was a different attitude to death towards the end of life ( as was the case in the ward I described).