As a lover of history, particularly the history of Great Britain, I frequently look out at the way we live today as a society and make comparisons with what it might have been like living then. While there are many folks who still yearn for a return to the past, when I consider what life for the common man was like in the 18th and 19th century, I have not the slightest illusion that we are happier and much better off today. As a nation, we now live much longer, are in better health and enjoy a standard of living never envisaged. Indeed, compared to two centuries ago, what the vast majority have now would have been classified as 'rich', yet is now often seen as representing 'poverty' and being on the breadline by some. Compared to some third world countries, Great Britain knows little true poverty. True, there have been increasing use of food banks by many over the past decade, but whatever the reason for their existence, it still doesn't change the status of 'free food' into one of 'starvation'.
I can still vividly remember learning at school about men who were transported to the colonies for stealing a loaf of bread with which to feed their starving families, newly born children often dying from consumption and scarlet fever before they were five years old, and eight-year-olds working down mines and climbing up factory chimneys to clean. Women were second-class citizens and were considered the property of their husbands. For centuries, women were deprived of the vote, the decision of how many children they had, meaningful roles in society, or the right to be educated in higher learning institutions because of their sex. Their roles within society were whatever men decided, be it wife, mistress, breeding machine or simply a domestic slave. It wasn't unusual to see a married woman giving birth to a dozen child or however many she could possibly have before she lost her good looks and her husband tired of her; or before she died in childbirth! Impending brides had very little to look forward to from the vows of marriage apart from the commitment 'to obey'. She wed him, bed him and bred for him! These were the days when men never allowed women to forget that it was essentially a man's world whom they were born to serve. Men made the rules while routinely forbidding females to do 'this' or 'that', and those women who dared disobey were constantly reminded by court and custom that as women, they were the property of their husband.
I often wonder about the conventions and customs of the past and how so many of the old ways seem so alien in today's 'progressive' world. Even when I was born in 1942, although women had now got the vote, there was still so much yet that they didn't have in order to place them on an equal footing with their husbands and other men in society. Times may have been on the brink of revolution during the post-war years of the 1960s, but during the 40s and early 50s, inequality between the sexes was still too prominent a feature in both the country and on the home front.
That was a time when maintaining the family's good name and being regarded as 'respectable' and 'Godfearing' represented a status that even the poorest of families could aspire to. Unfortunately, it was also a time, when to have a child outside wedlock would cast a mark of shame upon a maiden's brow that could never be erased and 'bastard' became the lowest status and most vulgar curse in the land. These were also the days when women remained trapped in unhappy marriages and when to leave their marriage partner against his will meant penury, the loss of all contact with one's children and a life of destitution as a social outcast. Right up until the 1950s, divorce was as uncommon as women becoming the head of industry and large corporations today. Male hypocrisy ruled supreme and a married man could beat and ill-treat his wife without fear of police intervention, or even force sexual intercourse on her; there being no such offence on the statute books of 'rape between husband and wife' then. As a young Probation Officer in the early 70s, I still recall the clear distinction policemen drew between the vicious physical assault on the street between strangers or in the home behind closed doors between a man and his wife. I even remember how the newspapers and media reported such incidents, 'Wife dies in a domestic dispute'. The fact that the poor woman was beaten to death and had such sadistic behaviour described by responsible sections of society as being no more than 'a domestic dispute' says it all.
It was only in the late 60s and the introduction of 'the pill' into women's lives when freedom from male want and masculine desire started to become possible. Advancement in sexual equality has continued gradually, along with equality of race, religion and the workplace; and yet, there is still far to go. It would seem that however good the intentions of a nation, it can take a complete century for the wheel of justice to spin around a mere once!
There are of course many things about previous generations going back centuries that I regret the passing of. I regret the practice of looking after one's elderly parents in one's own home instead of paying strangers to do the job instead of in Old Folk's Homes. I regret families, be they rich or poor, common or high born, not sitting down around the family table to eat their main meal of the day. I also believe that there were a neighbourliness and sense of community spirit before 1960 that is sadly lost forever. It wasn't just a mere matter of cleaning down one's path and whitening one's doorstep in order to maintain community standards and display respect for one's own property. And it was much more than ever eating from the plate before a visitor to your home had the opportunity to eat their second sandwich, even if it was the last sandwich on the plate and you hadn't eaten your first! These were the days when community concern extended to keeping an eye out for each other and each other's children. When I was a child, we would be allowed out to play during school holiday periods from dawn until dusk. Few really bad things ever happened as everyone kept an eye out for everyone else, and what we might call 'nosey parkers' today might then have been simply known as 'good neighbours'.
Of all past customs though, the one I sadly regret the passing of more than any other is the ability of people of 'keeping one's word'. I grew up at a time when to break it meant an instant loss of Office for any politician and the withdrawal of all community respect from the man or woman in the street. Not only was a person's word their bond, but to break it was nothing short of a personal disgrace. I always remember my parents telling me, ' Billy, I would prefer you to break the law, break a leg or even break your neck before breaking your word. A poor person has nothing in this world that is worth keeping except their good name, and they will forever hold on to that if they keep faith with their word.'
All in all, while my love of history will always enable me to place a favourable slant on times now long past, I prefer to read and 'look out on the past' these days than to have ever been obliged to live it." William Forde: August 25th, 2018.