This was my grandma man. She died at 98 smoking until the very end. She used to drive a 1972 Lincon Continental I would ride in the back seat with no chair or seat belt as she chain-smoked filterless Camels and spit dip into a Styrofoam coffee cup.
Edit: I called Camels "cowboy killers" but those were Marlboros and that's what my mom smoked. Grandma didn't dig filters because "that's how you get cancer."
Yeah, she was a tough old woman. She was the exception to the smoking rule for sure. She chain-smoked, dipped, and drank whiskey all day lol out lived two husbands and one child.
I had an uncle that smoked like it was a cure for cancer and would sit over a sprayer tank pouring chem in there with a smoke hanging out the side of his mouth and no gloves on. Washed his hands with gasoline to get the grease off.
Fucking nutty how many of our grandparents lived into their 90s on the cancer sticks and despite being born 40+ years later I don't stand a chance of getting to my 90s even without them. WTF happened?
It's survivorship bias combined with easily accessible media. Plenty of people died young back then but if it wasn't family or close friends you might not have heard of it until years and years later if at all. Some might assume friends just drifted away, it's life.
Same with appliances. People say old appliances were significantly better, and I understand in certain areas they might have been but if they were truly so great why aren't old appliances all over the play, plenty of old people still alive that wouldn't have bought new appliances just because.