Sad tailing off? It’s a privilege to be financially able to do that and content with what you’ve got. My mum worked in a sock factory, so leaving work wasn’t any great sacrifice. Most people don’t have a ‘career’.

True. Baking bread, trying out different crafts, helping at the church jumble sale, going to the library? We’re not told, but it was okay to keep to yourself and not earn a living or be productive for the outside world.

Most married women I knew in the ‘70s didn’t work, or only very parttime. My mum’s generation often had to stop work when they married, definitely when they had children. Shopping with no car, no automatic washing machine, cooking from scratch was a fulltime job.

After all, that’s all they want to say to you.

Yeah. No. We live too near the German border (near Nijmegen, where fireworks were supposedly banned). No ban here this year, but the casual fireworks before New Year’s Eve was minimal. Progress.

That’s awful! I’m guessing you don’t feel like the case is closed at all. 🙁