The good old days of freedom. Well... unless you were white and your woman was another race. Anti-miscegenation outlawed marriage among other things. That's not ancient history. Loving v Virginia was 1967. Or how about so-called Blue laws that forbid you from opening your business and other activities on Sunday. Heck, we just finished erasing Blue laws here in 2004. Basic freedoms that many take for granted today were not so in recent past, much to the chagrin of religious zealots using government to oppress others for their own good. A lot depends on which side of the fence you're standing.
There's not enough bandwidth to list all the wonderful freedoms of the past... but since this is a gun forum here's a glimpse of gun carry freedoms in my home state of Tennessee not so long ago.
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Prior to 1989, Tennessee was a limited “open carry” state. Tennessee’s open carry law was limited to “army or navy” pistols but only if such pistols were carried openly in the hand. The statute did not allow citizens to holster the weapons or to carry these types of pistols concealed. A person would have to become a special deputy or receive a special police commission in order carry a handgun that did not fit the “army or navy” designation. These commissions were also necessary if the individual wanted to carry the weapon concealed or holstered.
In 1989, Tennessee overhauled its handgun carry laws to provide that sheriffs “may issue” a handgun carry permit to authorize “any person” to carry a handgun. This change in the law allowed a sheriff to issue handgun carry permits without having to make the person a special deputy or officer. Although the 1989 law authorized a sheriff to issue handgun carry permits there were problems. First, it did not require the sheriff to issue civilian permits. Second, the permits were only good in the county in which they were issued.
More here:
https://tennesseefirearms.com/resour...ilian-permits/