The good old days is often talked about as a golden time to have lived. Perhaps for some families golden and perfection might have been the case, but for some of us there is no such thing as the good old days.
There is nothing good about forced marriages, forced adoptions, women being beaten, domestic violence not seen as a crime, women not being able to vote, zero birth-control, men doing what they want to do to women and sometimes hardly any opportunities for women at all.
Many women would leave school, get married and become a slave to her husband. My grandmother and most of the women of her generation would have ten to twelve children.
Life was often unbearable for these women so what is so good about the good old days.
Children were often abused and there was never anyone to tell.
Poem About the Good Old Days
I can remember St. Helena when I was quite small.
The hard-working strong women I can recall.
These women would cope and hope.
They tried to be positive, they so disliked being negative.
So many babies they would hold.
There wasn’t any birth-control.
They would love their children.
They would care.
Life was hard sometimes it seemed unfair.
But still they hoped and coped.
Their children would be their everything.
I can recall when I was small.
Babies wrapped up tightly in white hand knitted shawl.
The children would be all grown up,
and some would work abroad.
Send money back home so that their parents could afford.
To live in comfort.
The big union Castle ships would bring the sons and daughters back,
To the lonely St. Helena Shore.
And the children would see their parents once more.
The whole island would come to greet them.
Welcome back my ever loving children,
Safe in your mother’s arms again,
Years of separation and pain.
The pride they cry,
the strong women in St. Helena.