The type of discussion and heat of the discussion right here would be enough to push anyone OTD. The absolute black and white and no shades of grey arguments of all those who are so sure they are right and no two ways about it. Well I have news for you, YOU weren’t there back then and YOU don’t know what was going on. The norm back then was mixed seating and it was a big effort on the part of the Gedolei Hador at that time to change things to where they are today. And if you think that all communities have shifted over like NY, NJ and Eretz Yisroel you are wrong. From the people that I have met from Chicago it is still the norm there. Which is just an example of the NORM of the time as was the style of the day. Women in general were NOT as immodest as they are today, so it wasn’t all that much of an issue as it is in today’s society.
Women did NOT necessarily cover their hair in the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s. Sheitels were just coming into their own in the late 60’s. I remember when my own mother put on her first sheitel and started covering her hair. It was when my cousin got engaged and asked his mother to cover her hair because of the family he was marrying into. His mother told my mother (her sister) of the request so she complied as well. She told her sister-in-law (my father’s brother’s wife) and she complied as well as her own sister. This was the domino effect of the time.
I have photos of my FIL and MIL from the early years. My FIL was a Rav who was a mechaber of a sefer (not too shabby) and he didn’t even have a beard. My MIL wore a hat over her very visible hair. When I got married he had a full beard and you couldn’t see a loose hair on her head. Photos of my sisters-in-law when they got engaged showed the knee very obviously, these were Bais Yakov girls who also wore braids.
Please don’t spout what you don’t know. You weren’t there, you didn’t live through it, so don’t jump to judge. There were many gedolim at that time who, believe me you don’t even come up to their “knees” and never will. For you to denounce the women of that time and come out with judgments that they didn’t follow psak halacha is being motzi shem rah on an entire generation of frum eidel women. Basically our mothers and grandmothers and I for one don’t appreciate it. If NOT for them you wouldn’t even be here nor would ANY of you be the frum people that you are. If it wasn’t for them re-establishing frum kehilos and yiddishkeit here in the United States and abroad, If it wasn’t for their pure and selfless emunah and bitachon in Hashem which wasn’t easy at that time, none of us would have what we do. So please, stop being so very smug and all knowing because you really don’t know all that much.