Im 24 and I got the tail end of this with Gen X smokers, motherfucker I can still smell their shitty marlboros. At least go with scavenged WW2 ration cigarettes like a civilized person.
The 80s was another level of smoking. Smoking on planes, smoking in the nursing station while working, the doctor smoking while he rounded on a patient, smoking in movies, every restaurant, I didn’t see anywhere people didn’t smoke save for mostly in my school, but the teachers did have a smoking lounge.
You know where you couldn’t smoke? The MetroDome (old Twins and Vikings stadium). “No smoking! No smoking in the MetroDome.” was announced before every game.
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No it was just around the time that no smoking was becoming a thing. It was actually really annoying when the allowed smoking. Once they stopped allowing smoking in the Dome, the stadium announcer would declare “No smoking. No smoking in the MetroDome.” and it got a huge applause every time.
Although I was at a game when the roof ripped and the lights started bouncing kind of like the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. But they cranked up the air pressure which compensated for the rip.
Oh ive heard the stories, but well the smell and look of a 99 cents store filled with smokers and every adult at the park smoking a cigarette is burned into my brain. I know what I missed since the old tech I mess with will sometimes have the smell absorbed into it so badly I need to make a vinegar solution and leave it in the sun to ge the smell out. Im just saying that I have an inkling of how bad it was at its peak, and can say im fucken glad kids these days arent exposed to it nearly as much.
I got some really cute clothing for my kids from a friend I was helping move who smokes heavily, and I’ve washed it 3 times and it still smells of cigarettes…
She also gave us some totes which I scrubbed with vinegar and dawn in the bathtub which turned the water brown but it still smells a bit of cigarettes. Some pancake mix from their pantry literally tastes like cigarettes. Good riddance to smoking!
Until she left home, my wife didn’t realise that normal non-smoking households don’t have to mop their walls.
We had to do this with our first house. Former tenants were 2 pack a day each with kids in The house. The water cascaded down completely brown.
My wife’s parents used to smoke heavily. She tells me how they had to clean the windows monthly just to be able to see out of them
Omigod.
Gross, even in my chain-smoking days I never smoked indoors.
I’m old enough to remember a home visit from my GP for childhood asthma and he was prepping his pipe with tobacco while talking to me
I think you are even older than me!
I wonder how much that affected the life expectancy of those kids
Quite a lot. Most mothers smoked while pregnant and gave their kids asthma as a result, and ADHD too. That’s why you see more of that.
My mom quit smoking before pregnancy, and dad never smoked. Still neurodivergent. I’ve not personally heard of a causal link there before.
Thanks, but, uh:
CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that the association between maternal smoking during pregnancy and offspring ADHD is not due to causal intrauterine effects, but reflects unmeasured confounding.
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My parents didn’t smoke but that’s literally how I knew the babysitter was gone and my parents were home from a night out.
If you want to experience this sensation today, travel to Russia or Japan. Yes, Japan. People don’t talk enough about how prevalent smoking still is over there. As a non-smoker, the number of restaurants or cafes I could go to without getting sick was diminished by about 90%.
I live in Russia, it’s better than 10 years ago. But this thread did give me memories.
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I didn’t say I’m a smoker from Russia.
I watch Midnight Diner and they all smoke on there.
Was in Tokyo and Osaka last year.
Tokyo was gorgeous. No smokers in sight at most locations. Some vapers, but whatever.
Osaka was the complete opposite. I had to find outdoor restaurants. The gaming bar I hung out had a smoking corner near the bathroom. Lots of cigarette butts all over the city.
So I literally just touched down on a flight from Tokyo (haven’t gotten off the plane yet) and actually not really. They’re more like America in the 00s. A ton of smokers and everywhere has to say you can’t smoke there, but you can’t smoke anywhere anymore. It’s definitely weird that they have to say no smoking on the Shinkansen, but it doesn’t smell like smoke
Probably you didn’t get the full picture because you only went to Maid cafes and the Akihabara child porn stores.
What is wrong with you?
Bullseye!!
Tokyo is the exception not the rule. Go anywhere else and you’ll start seeing a lot more smokers.
Oh was the city I spent most of my trip in that was a multi hour Shinkansen ride from Tokyo also an exception and not the rule? Because I spent three days in a factory there and dealing with Japanese engineers and factory workers and it’s the way I describe. Maybe Osaka or Kyoto are different but they’re closer to where I was than Tokyo is. For all I know Hokkaido is a perpetual cloud of cigarette smoke. But I hit up two factories in two cities that aren’t Tokyo and my experience holds. Tokyo is just where my airport was.
Guys, found us another white knight weeaboo who will raise to any occasion to use his two week guided tour through Japan as a shield against even the slightest mention of something that isn’t perfect in his utopia, Japan.
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Sure you got me. I’m an absolute weeb and white knight who took a vacation and was excited to get into an argument about it. Definitely not someone who was there on business and actually pretty excited to see much less smoking than I’d expected and was honestly just happy to get her first out of country experience even if she had to spend the majority of the time working and didn’t get to really see anything because the factories are in bumfuck nowhere.
I will admit, I was guided by an engineer I work with who happens to be from there. You see I never bothered to learn Japanese because I don’t really have a reason to learn except for business. That’s a guided tour right? Business meetings, factory tours, going out to dinner where my coworkers and business contacts suggested, and occasionally wandering around near the hotels?
Maybe you’re right. Maybe I’m just avidly defending a country that I’m appalled by a lot of their actions including in present day because some people really love their media. Or I just thought you were wrong, was met with hostility and jackassery, and presented my arguments for why I think this country may be experiencing a cultural shift.
You on the other hand, should go take up chain smoking
Yes. That’s like saying everyone in America acts like New Yorkers.
Ok but if I drove to and spent time in by Albany and Milwaukee after flying into NYC and found that there seemed to be major social changes that had happened that notably had happened in other places first I think I’d be reasonable in telling people that America seems like it might’ve undergone some cultural shifts or at least it appears to be in the process of it.
So yeah believe me or don’t. Maybe I hit relatively low smoking areas. I know executives in Japan at least in my company are still stereotyped as absolute chimneys. But when I was in three cities in Japan over the past week I didn’t see or smell much tobacco use at least not a huge amount more than in America. The country certainly couldn’t be compared to America over 20 years ago, I remember by eyes burning from the smoke at restaurants back then and my lungs are terrible these days.
So to stick with factual statements: in the three cities I was in I witnessed not many people actually smoking, enough “no smoking” signs and announcements to find it notable, a couple of cigarette vending machines, two smoking floors in one hotel to 5 non smoking (no other hotel specified in the elevator, but none of my rooms smelled of smoke), no indoor smoking sections in any restaurant or public transit I took, and none of the people I spent days collaborating with took smoke breaks. And I don’t recall seeing anyone smoking while waiting for a train. I hypothesize that Japan has recently moved towards the anti smoking reforms that were effective in other countries, but I may have just been in the wrong places to see it or missed it. I’m just some lady on the internet, for all you know I’m lying.
Check out my comment! Tokyo is really different. When you visit Shibuya or Shinjuku, you’ll start to see more smokers. Kabukichō district is also where you’ll find smokers (and other underworld-y stuff)
Ok I’m not going to say where I was, but you missed the part where Tokyo was a pass through because it’s where Americans fly in and out. I landed and promptly took a series of trains to a small city west of Nagoya. I also spent a day in a factory in a place that could very well be or not be considered Tokyo because I’m not used to megapolises, incidentally though the hotel there is where I saw more smoking than near Nagoya.
Also:
- Any vacation spot with a lot of Russians, like Cuba. Nobody wants to tell a drunk Russian to put out their cigarette indoors, and smoking is allowed in open spaces (even covered spaces like open lobbies)
- Rome. Igneous rock is very porous, and everything ancient is made of it. Decades after smoking is banned there, the stonework will still be leaking the fumes out of its pores. The smoke was inescapable when I toured 15 years ago despite it being banned in indoor public places, and it will be inescapable 15 years from now.
Nobody wants to tell a drunk Russian to put out their cigarette indoors
As someone living in Russia, the danger is overestimated. The problem is mainly with them not understanding you. Possibly accidentally starting a fire when fulfilling your request.
That’s probably true. Every drunk non-smoking russian I’ve met was just happy to make a new friend.
Dude, you don’t get it. Nobody wants to hear from Russia anymore.
Wow.
Dude, Russia still has killed less people than USA in the last 20 years.
Among groups of people nobody wants to hear from anymore yours is higher.
Do you think it’s some kind of competition? Do you think that as long as you can find someone else who else did a bad thing yours is suddenly OK?
For the purpose of this branch of conversation - yeah.
I’d really like to find something like Voinarovsky test, only in English. It’s a humorous way to test one’s ability to reason. Only the first time counts naturally, sane person’s result would be 26/30 minimum, it’s not hard. I think most of commenters here would struggle to reach 15/30.
I’ve never set foot in the US. So shut up and go get ass-fucked every day in your hellhole soon to be glass joke of a country, Kümmel.
Oh, a German. I see why you are so anxious. Condolences.
We’re talking about the US here, right?
I am talking about where I grew up in Canada.
Yeah, Japan still is like a giant ashtray last time I checked.
Tbh my wife and I smelled rotten eggs more often, at least in cities
I think because their busses use biodiesel?
I second that it’s probably sewage unless it was actual trash waiting to be picked up.
Weird, the only times I’ve smelled biodiesel it’s mostly smelled like french fries
Not sure if it makes a difference, but biodiesel can be made of quite a few different materials. Could depend on what the fuel was actually made from.
I support biodiesel made from the bodies of oil company executives.
rotten eggs smell usually comes from the sewage system
The laws changed prior to the olympics coming, so it’s not like it was pre-corona and pre-olympics. Even some places that didn’t legally have to change used corona as an excuse because of the recommendations of the government (not law). Still a lot of places with smoking.
It isn’t anymore. I checked yesterday. They still have cigarette vending machines and smoking floors in hotels, but most floors were nonsmoking, beer vending machines were more plentiful than cigarette ones, and no smoking announcements and signs were everywhere
Glad to know things are changing. In the late aughts my experience was a lot of closet sized bars where people hotboxed everyone in there (or whatever the tobacco equivalent is).
I remember bars so blue with smoke you couldn’t see across the room.
I know one of those bars. When my city banned indoor smoking back in the mid-aughts, that bar still reeked of cigarettes for years. It was just coming out of the walls
I worked for an Internet startup in the mid '90s that was so desperate for venture capital funding we were sucking up to RJR Nabisco (who were rolling in so much cigarette money that they actually started a venture capital division just to do something with the cash). One day some of their executives showed up and they spent the entire day chain-smoking in our conference room (our building was a non-smoking building). The smoke was so thick everywhere you couldn’t even see to the end of the hallway. I made a point of coughing loudly and my bosses sent me home before the end of the day. In the end we got nothing from them.
It’s a warm memory because most of those bastards have probably died a miserable death by now.
Taking an international flight where half the plane is smoking. Those were good times, especially in Greece where they loved smoking even more than the Americans.
I read a lot of Southeast Asian countries still smoke everywhere. And I can’t imagine being cramped in a small area with a nasty ass smoker without flipping out.
Actually, air was cleaner back when smoking was allowed on flights. They had to completely recycle all the air in the cabin where nowadays it’s all a closed system. Every fart and cough, every armpit outgassing and nasty crotch reek is with you from takeoff to touchdown now.
Most of you won’t believe me so I suggest you look it up yourself before downvoting (which you won’t).
i remember ashtrays on the arm of every airplane seat!
I was born in the early 90s and remember making fun of the idea that a non-smoking section separated from active smokers in the IHOP by a thin barrier that didn’t even reach the ceiling could do anything.
Boy, leaded gasoline really fucked up whole generations, didn’t it? Oh… We are still dealing with the fallout from that, aren’t we?
I was born in the early 90s and remember making fun of the idea that a non-smoking section separated from active smokers in the IHOP by a thin barrier that didn’t even reach the ceiling could do anything.
Barrier? Most restaurants barely divided the two with an aisle.
Tim Hortons had the smoking box, I’d give a lot to find a photo of it. Basically it was one of the last holdouts.
Minneapolis airport had a smoking room in one of the concourses. It had glass walls and was as gross as you could imagine. I held my breath everytime I walked past
Holy crap that’s a memory unlocked, transferring in Minneapolis and holding my breath as you walk past the smoking area
I’m still convinced that lead poisoning was the catalyst for the fall of the Roman empire. And they weren’t even breathing tainted air constantly.
We still use lead pipes for water infrastructure in many areas of the country for fucks sake.
Fun fact: ancient and medieval societies had so much fucking lead around because lead is commonly found in silver ore (galena), usually around 100X more plentiful than the silver and it melts at a lower temperature. So the quest for silver produced huge amounts of lead as a byproduct and people found uses for it like roofs, water pipes and, uh, sweeteners? Jesus Christ, Rome.
A smoking area in a restaurant was about as useful as setting up a pissing area in a pool…
You got that backwards. Smoking section was the default state. The non-smoking section was the special.
Dumping water in a piss pool then?
Oh good I’m still youngish I AM old enough that I remember being really excited when the headlines on our newspaper said smoking was banned indoors! Not even a “smoking” section in a restaurant anymore unless it was patio/outdoors maybe
I remember huge arguments about whether or not smoking was allowed during team meetings. Not in your office, that was presumed just fine.
The day they banned smoking in bars/restaurants was glorious. No more trying to decide if it was OK to wear something that required dry cleaning.
Just go to Europe to relive that part of the 90s
Smoking indoors is banned basically everywhere thankfully, but yeah, there are still way too many smokers here.
In France it’s like a third of people, in Greece it’s like every other man smokes.
I went to the UK and France in 2004. Got to go back to France last year; I was going to say it’s like the U.S. in the 1990s but it seems like they’ve banned indoor smoking in most buildings so it is better than that. There are still a lot more people smoking in outdoor sections than I’ve experienced in the U.S. for about 20 years, though. I’ve gotten so used to smoking being rare in the U.S. that it felt weird to see (relatively) so much in France.
The 90s were nothing compared to the 80s for smoking.
A lot of Japan as well, though the laws changed to ban it in some places prior to the olympics so (Tokyo, at least) isn’t nearly as smokey as it was before corona and the olypmics.
When I was maybe 3 (maybe 4 - it’s a little fuzzy), I remember safety pinning a towel around the collar of my shirt so I could be like Superman (we had recently seen it in the theater). The towel also had frayed ends, and ended up in the ashtray along side my mom’s cigarette. I remember my mom panicking trying to get those safety pins off when the towel caught fire. We never were allowed to safety pin towels to our clothes again after that. 😂
Also I love how my kids know the cigarette lighter in the car as a place to plug in a car charger and nothing else.
Cigarette lighter? You mean the finger print eraser and “lesson enforcer”? It was always empty when I grew up, seems like every child needed to learn that it was still hot even after the glow had vanished :)
The bic type lighter where everywhere, including in the coin shelf in cars
I still have a bic lighter, and I quit smoke 10 years ago. Never know when it’ll come in handy.
I also remember when there were cigarette vending machines in restaurants. $1.25/pack and no age verification. 😉
I still have a bic lighter, and I quit smoke 10 years ago. Never know when it’ll come in handy.
We got one from a gas station for lighting birthday candles. I just got a firepit and went to use it to start a fire and realized I’ve never used one before and had to try a lot of times to actually get it to light.
They’re pretty shit for lighting anything that’s not cigarettes or similar. They burn the fuck out of your finger if held any orientation but vertical which makes lighting a campfire annoying. Gotta light the kindling in your hand then place it under the wood once lit.
I thought the cigarette lighter in the car was a rubber stamp and I’d get the icon marked on my hand.
Yes, I burned myself.
I’m old enough to remember when smoking was banned in bars/clubs in the UK. It went from a musky smell to body odour, and it took practically all venues by surprise.
Now, I’m so glad that indoors smoking was banned. Looking back, it was fucking gross, and while sadly lots of people now vape indoors it was a huge improvement to basically be able to actually breathe in those places.
Seriously this! I grew up poor so going to restaurants was a 2-3 times a year thing. And as a kid, going to one meant non-smoking area, where the nasty ass smoke would still waffle over. And my eyes would get irritated, id get really sick and cough nonstop for days.
It didn’t even notice the coincidence until it happened to me at a friend’s house in college who was also a heavy smoker.
In the US, I lived in a state that went non-smoking and later a city in another state that did. B.O. mixed with mold and a hint of piss is what it ended up smelling like.
I came to Ireland when they just banned smoking and it was still legal in Germany. The first time I walked into a pub and ran against a solid wall of sweat and beer farts I missed smoking.
Fun fact: instead of cupholders, 1970s cars would proudly advertise the number of ashtrays they had equipped the car with, usually 1 within reach of every seat. This number was equally important as horsepower or price on marketing materials.
I remember this!
I have a Trabant, a car from East Germany that was made pretty much as cheap as possible. Still has ash trays front and back.
I have a 2015 car. Imagine my surprise to find that it has front and rear ashtrays. I hadn’t seen an ashtray in a car since probably the early nineties. I remember for a while after the ashtrays stopped being standard that you could order a “smoker’s package” to get them, but I thought that option had long since gone away.
The flip side is that now that cars have zero ashtrays, most smokers just throw the butts out the window.
The same people doing that now would have been doing it then also. It’s so easy to put an ashtray in your car, or just an old soda can, and people used to care a lot less about “littering”.
Someday when beverages are a thing of the past, people will be aghast that cars ever advertised their drink holders.
Yes, someday we will all ingest nothing but crumbly dry blocks of nutrient fuel, and scoff at those who used to slurp up liquids like a meat mosquito.
Someday when beverages are a thing of the past, people will be aghast that cars ever advertised their drink holders.
But then where will I put my water bottle?
