A long time ago, seems like a lifetime ago, I walked out onto the dock of a major trucking company. I’d graduated from Shippensburg State College with a degree in English and had been working as a circulation department supervisor at a newspaper. The trucking company job had a salary which was three times as much as I had been making at the newspaper.

I had a good idea of why I’d been hired for the trucking company dock supervisor job; I became certain of why I’d been hired when I saw the other trainees — three more women. The trucking company was under the gun to hire women for management positions. Until then, the only jobs held by women at the company were office jobs; we were the first women to be hired by the company as dock supervisors, the first step to management.

Beginning with my first moments on the job, I began to learn a whole new version of English, much different from what I’d learned in college. In fact, the majority of instructions and comments on the dock, from both supervisors and teamsters, included four-letter words. I also heard uncountable sexual comments, about me and the other women who’d been hired, and jokes that ranged from mildly X-rated to downright disgusting.

But I had no complaints. That was the world I accepted when I took the job. I had figured it was going to be a rough place to work, but I wanted to make a bunch of money. So, should I go back now and sue the trucking company, claiming a hostile work environment?

But that was about 30 years ago, a time when — I’d hedge a bet — hostile work environments were the norm. That doesn’t make it right, but it was the norm and those were simply different times. We didn’t know any better about a lot of stuff — lard was used like butter and about half of all adults smoked.

Remember those times? We grew up watching television shows such as “I Love Lucy,” “Leave It to Beaver,” “The Honeymooners,” … didn’t Ralph Cramden often swing his fist and threaten to send Alice to the moon? And didn’t we laugh at that? And wasn’t Lucy afraid of Ricky’s ire? And didn’t she get herself into predicaments by making, well, dumb decisions? And didn’t the Beaver’s mom do little more than wear an apron and take things out of the oven?

Oh, we’ve come so far in the portrayal of women on television. Just look at those 25 women vying to win the Bachelor … and the “preview” commercials which show most of them helplessly crying. Hilarious, right?

Recently many women have come forward decades later to report that they were coerced into sleeping with a Hollywood producer. You know what they have in common? Yes, right, they are fabulously rich, successful actresses, who knowingly used their bodies to get the edge on their competition for roles. The Hollywood “casting couch” was the norm of that long-ago era — again, it wasn’t right. Here’s another thing that wasn’t right — women keeping their mouths shut for decades because it was more important to them to become successful actresses, more important than exposing someone who was using women so badly.

Decades ago, hostile work environments and exploitation of women was as common as dirt. That wasn’t right — it’s never right. I’d like to think that most women who faced hardships like those used the experiences to make them stronger; that they refused to dwell on them, faced them head-on and became examples of what strong women can accomplish. I know a bunch of women who stubbornly and bravely forged their way in the workplace. Do you want to be like them?

Me, too.