The "Good Old Days?" Well, not so much, really.

[Archae]

20. During the 1970's nostalgia fad, I wrote an essay about the "good old days."

For school. (I got an A)

When cars were only a plaything for the really rich, especially in cities, people used horses for nearly everything.
And it was awful.
Horses poop and pee. A lot.
And it would stink, to high heaven.
City horses, often overworked, simply would drop dead.
And their bodies often would lie where they died for days, or weeks, rotting.
And can you imagine a traffic jam, with horse-drawn carriages? Oh yeah, they happened.

Sewers were inadequate, at best.
Water supplies were contaminated, often with diseases like cholera.

Central heating? A fantasy.
Most people had fireplaces or iron stoves.
And hot water was really hit or miss.

Medicine?
Stuff we now know is dope, (like heroin and cocaine,) were openly marketed for babies and kids.

Food was often rotten and contaminated.