Back in my day we didn't have all the new fangled electronics and interwebs and mobiled phones. We had to make do with what were given! And that wasn't much I can tell you!
School Life
I had to walk ten miles to school in all weathers in my bare feet. No being dropped off at the school gate by car like you mollycoddled lot nowadays! The teacher would cane us at least once a day which did us the world of good. Look how I turned out! We hadn't the luxury of writing paper but wrote on slates with chalk and learned the three Rs...reading, riting and rithmatic! Children were quite rightly "seen and not heard," not like today's little brats!
Women's lib?
My mother had to scrub floors and take in washing so that my brother could get books for night school. No advanced education or career prospects back then for girls. We were kept in our place looking after the home and our aged parents, or marrying whoever would have us or whoever our parents forced us to marry and had lots of kids to keep us occupied!
Poverty
Our family was so poor we had to use the pawnshop to borrow money to tide us over from one week to the next. I remember hiding under the table from the schoolboard man because I had stayed away from school to help do the washing, and when the rent man came round because there was no money to pay him, also from the priest who expected money for the church. It was really exciting!
Smells
The toilet was an outside midden which was emptied once a week and refilled with ashes. The smell was deplorable but we were used to it. No posh toilet paper then - just cut up newspapers if we were lucky. I remember being sent out on the street with a bucket and shovel to collect manure left by the horses of the travelling butcher or baker. It was good for growing vegetables if you were lucky enough to have a garden or allotment, otherwise you could sell it!
Tyranny and Retaliation
Family heads were tyrants who wouldn't permit you to do anything on Sundays - not even reading or knitting except attend church. Wives and children had to respect the head of the house and do what they were told. My mother would wait until my dad got drunk and empty his coat pockets of any change he had left, also avenge herself by hitting him with the rolling pin. The following day he thought he'd been accosted and robbed but he never suspected the truth!
Shame and Ostracism
Babies out of wedlock were all hush hush. With no contraceptives available we couldn't have a good time like you lot nowadays. If you had the money, back street abortions were commonplace by a woman with a knitting needle but quite a few women died as a result. Babies sometimes had to be smothered at birth and buried in the back garden or under the floorboards. I remember on quite a few occasions being sent away to get the brats adopted. I think the neighbours suspected the interfering old busybodies!
Marriage
Marriage was for life. Women had to resort to arsenic poisoning to get rid of their husbands - I made quite a tidy penny I can tell you - as it was customary even though extremely poor always to find money for life endowments!
What a wedding present!
A wedding present was usually a collection of money to get all your teeth removed and replaced with a set of dentures to save you future expense and inconvenience.
Street walkers
When women went out alone at night they had to carry a hat pin in case they were attacked. The pain apparently was quite horrific on unsuspecting men just wanting to know the time!
Funerals - a big occasion
As a child I was taught to show respect for the dead by kissing the corpse goodbye as I was held over the coffin. Funerals were a big occasion for all the street, the only time you were guaranteed a good feed. Everyone expected it and news travelled fast. The widow of course had nothing left after paying the bill, but who cared? Even ornaments were taken as keepsakes. I still have quite a collection from different houses!
What - no TV?
Since television was unheard of we had to make our own entertainment. It was wonderful being able to slag everybody off behind their backs and go tittle-tattling from house to house with the latest gossip. I really miss that. Everybody's so stuck up nowadays!
Unemployment
Jobs were scarce and there were no social security payments like you lazy lot get handed out nowadays. We had to support each another, sometimes going round the neighbours asking for a slice of bread and jam, and barter whatever we had, making do and mending. We were all much happier back then!
War time
The second world war was an exciting time. All those long nights in air-raid shelters. You never knew who you'd be sharing with. No wonder some of the lasses couldn't name the fathers. Then there were those American GIs with their silk stockings and new fangled cigarettes. We really missed them when the war was over and they went back to their wives.
Yes they were the good old days. People don't know how to have fun anymore!