Current Events > Remember being able to smoke a cigarette just about anywhere indoors?

(+) Yeah! (+)

My dad used to light up a Marb right there in the middle of Wal-Mart! We'd be walking around, looking for school clothes and he'd just be ashing in his hand and walking around. Sizing us up. Afterwards we'd leave and stop by McDonalds on the way home. Go inside, order our meal and sit down. Just pulling out the first french fry and all the sudden, Dad lights up again! This time he doesn't have to ash in his hands, because McDonalds makes their very own ashtrays! Complete with a print of Ronald Mcdonald in the middle of the ashtray!

Now-a-days about the only place you can find a indoor smoking environment is a Casino, but as late as 1995 we were able to smoke anywhere from schools to libraries, hospitals, shit, you'd have an easier time listing the places you couldn't smoke! Can you believe that was only 25 years ago? Do you have any experiences and thoughts on smoking indoors in the past and how it was just about everywhere? I mean, today people probably have long forgotten about this little life detail, save for maybe a few old movies or comic books, but look no further than your local adult shop to see the last of a dying breed, one of the last few places you can still smoke a cig inside a public place. Crazy, huh?

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Yes, what a miserable and inconsiderate point of humanity. Thankfully, we realized forcing others to breathe in cancerous 2nd hand smoke was wrong and the nation changed.

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"Smoking or non-smoking?"

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I remember it vividly, where I live they banned smoking on trains in 2009 which was great. They had designated smoker's areas but when the doors to the connecting sections would open and close you'd still get all the smoke.

I never experienced it, but my parents would tell me how smoking was allowed on airplanes, and how after every flight you'd stink of smoke.

Honestly, fuck smoking.

I remember coming home from gigs and clubs stinking of cigarettes and never truly being able to get the smell out of my jackets.

Weird to think that was in this lifetime

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Wait hold up. Smoking was permitted in Walmart and grocery stores? Thats insane to think about. I was born in 93 so I only remember restaurants and bars having smoking and non smoking.

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Aluminum fast-food ashtrays were always fun to stack up and knock over.

clyde_frog posted...

Wait hold up. Smoking was permitted in Walmart and grocery stores? Thats insane to think about. I was born in 93 so I only remember restaurants and bars having smoking and non smoking.

If it's like the UK, it wasn't allowed, but it wasn't NOT allowed.

I remember in the seventies and eighties people going around supermarkets smoking because there weren't 'no smoking' signs.

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I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for the smell of cigarettes and diner food.

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Every table at restaurants would have ash trays on them.

hockeybub89 posted...

"Smoking or non-smoking?"

Didn't matter most of the time. If you were a couple of non smoking tables away from the smoking section, you'd still smell it.

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clyde_frog posted...

Wait hold up. Smoking was permitted in Walmart and grocery stores? Thats insane to think about. I was born in 93 so I only remember restaurants and bars having smoking and non smoking.

I think it was up to the establishment. I remember a hardware store that was always smoky.

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I actually don't remember that well, and I wasn't even that young at the time, yet it feels like centuries ago.

Up until a few years ago you could smoke in (certain) bars in NOLA and I visited during that time.

weekoldhotdog posted...

Just pulling out the first french fry and all the sudden, Dad lights up again!

before/while eating??

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1995? I swear it was publicly damned by then

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It's weird, but I kind of miss the stale smoke smell in places. Only casinos have that now.

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They still have indoor smoking in Japan and it's trippy. I was at a two story SEGA arcade, like half of the top floor was this horse breeding and racing simulator and I just remember this guy up there like half passed out, lit cigarette in his mouth pushin' the buttons to try to get his horse to win.

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I briefly took part in it in 2009/2010 when certain restaurants allowed it mainly Applebee's being the only one around here

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When I was a kid most restaurants had smoking sections

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Yeah back when I worked at wal mart in 07 they had a designated smoking room next to the break area. The walls were painted yellow and I used to joke about that but later after the law passed they turned it into a training room.

No but considering how much I was smoking.. nah, terrible idea

Even when I was smoking I hated the idea of smoking indoors at a friends house or inside a car.. like **** that, I hold my hand out the car. It's a great excuse for me to get out the car during a drive and admire something or stop on the way somewhere for a minute or two though.

Some southern states still allow smoking in restaurants
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I remember in restaurants people would be asked if they wanted to sit in smoking or non smoking and on planes people could smoke

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No. There was always a non-smoking section in every restaurant I went to and I think it might have already been banned in planes, they just still had the no-smoking lights. Only place that still had it I think were bars once I hit 21, but that got banned too. California

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I had forgotten that about planes. They used to have the fasten seat belt and the no smoking flashers

The most trippy thing though is no smoking in bars. Here in Ohio in the 90s you could smoke and yes your clothes absolutely smelled like smoke when you went out.

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I always find it fascinating that until fairly recently you could smoke anywhere, even indoors with no windows, and people just had to deal with the disgusting stench and second hand weather they wanted to or not.

I remember as a kid being asked "smoking or non" at restaurants. Now my county is 100% no smoking indoors at restaurants, which is great.

Smoking cigarettes inside is pretty trashy anyway.

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It was a beautiful day when it was no longer allowed.

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oh yeah, I remember going into restaurants when I was a kid with my folks, being asked "smoking or non smoking",
all that vanished at least 20 years ago...

Fun times.

Airport smoke rooms were fun.

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I saw a smoke room at Atlanta airport a few years back.

MabusIncarnate posted...

Yes, what a miserable and inconsiderate point of humanity. Thankfully, we realized forcing others to breathe in cancerous 2nd hand smoke was wrong and the nation changed.

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Glad it's gone, I hated it, even public smoking is annoying as shit.

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gatorsPENSbucs posted...

Fun times.

Airport smoke rooms were fun.

Some airports still have them. The Vegas airport has smoke rooms with slots.
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weekoldhotdog posted...

McDonalds makes their very own ashtrays! Complete with a print of Ronald Mcdonald in the middle of the ashtray!

They only ever had the M from the logo on the cheap little aluminum ones they had at our McDonald's.

Now-a-days about the only place you can find a indoor smoking environment is a Casino

The worst thing my home state (Pennsylvania) did was relax the indoor smoking ban for places that could "prove" it was a hardship on their business, which included some bars/restaurants and casinos. Once they did that the smoking and non smoking sections at the casinos became irrelevant because many of the smokers would carry the ashtray with them from smoking to non smoking sections puffing away like The Little Engine That Could as they went.

I only ever saw an employee try to tell a handful that they couldn't smoke in non smoking. Lately I think they just don't care to even try.

I don't remember people smoking in grocery stores personally. My parents never did and they smoked a lot. But I do remember it in restaurants

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I'm so glad that America as a majority hates smoking, but I wonder why Europe doesn't hate it. Hell like 80% of Eurasia are all smokers that love smoking and don't seem to be bothered by the smell at all. I just don't get it.

How did America successfully get its population to turn on smoking, so that we can replicate the methods with success in Europe/Asia.
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It usually smelled good tbqh

Southernfatman posted...

It's weird, but I kind of miss the stale smoke smell in places. Only casinos have that now and walking in one always takes me back.

It will be gone in casinos, soon enough, unfortunately. There's plenty in various states/cities that have already outlawed it. Las Vegas and Atlantic City seem to be the last major casinos destinations that allow it, except for a few here and there depending on the city or state.

I think bars and casinos should be exempt.

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Doctors use to prescribe cigarettes to people as an anxiety medicine of sorts.
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Houston posted...

I think bars and casinos should be exempt.

Every business should be exempt, give or take fireworks shops and gas stations.
Leave it up to the business itself whether or not smoking is allowed inside, and let the marketplace decide whether it's worthwhile.

Thank goodness its mostly done away with now.

Questionmarktarius posted...

Every business should be exempt, give or take fireworks shops and gas stations.
Leave it up to the business itself whether or not smoking is allowed inside, and let the marketplace decide whether it's worthwhile.

Fuck that noise, kids don't get a choice where they're taken to, you shouldn't get the choice to make them breath your awful expulsions.

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Guide posted...

kids don't get a choice where they're taken to

If their parents are smokers, second-hand smoke is already happening.

About the only place you can smoke now is your house and your car, where your kids are going to be for a significant portion of any given day.

Yea, 20 years ago maybe.

How the time has changed.

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Questionmarktarius posted...

If their parents are smokers, second-hand smoke is already happening.

About the only place you can smoke now is your house and your car, where your kids are going to be for a significant portion of any given day.

Not if the parents have any sense and go outside to smoke.

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3PiesAndAFork posted...

Not if the parents have any sense and go outside to smoke.

Chainsmokers generally don't, though.