If you are a young person you have no idea how bad everyone and everything smelled until at least the 1990s.

Yeah, it was weird. Most restaurants had a non-smoking section because allowing people to smoke everywhere was the norm. Leaded gasoline. Little kids playing with real fireworks. The 70s and 80s were a wild ride of irresponsibility.
It wasn't all bad, though. It was cool being a kid at times. Playing outside almost every day until dinner time with the other kids in the neighborhood.
- Don't forget no cell phones. It's hard to overstate the (I believe negative) impact constant connection and notification has had on every aspect of our lives
  
  Some boomer on Facebook recently posted a meme with a photo of a rotary phone and how those were better days, and I had to laugh because they decidedly weren't. When we had no answering machine or call waiting, and had to hang around for phone calls that might come, or have the car break down on the side of the road and hope that someone would stop and help you and that they weren't a serial killer, that was purely awful. We actually had a serial killer couple abducting and killing teenage girls in my city before cell phones existed, and they made tapes of them raping and torturing these girls before they killed them. A cell phone would probably have helped them a lot. Those girls went through hell, they even raped and ended up accidentally killing her teenage sister.
  https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/paul-bernardo-and-karla-homolka-case
- Non smoking section with like an 18 inch wall separating it from the smoking section. My mom almost got into a fistfight at a couple of restaurants for seating us directly next to the smoking section instead of in the opposite corner with less secondhand smoke.
  
  In most restaurants I saw there was no wall in between.
  
  And it was usually next to the kitchen and the restrooms. Worst tables all around.
- As a child of the 70s/80s, although I don't remember a great deal of the 70s, your parents had no idea where you were until you came home when the streetlights went on, unless you happened to call from a friend's house to ask if you could sleep over. I remember my friend getting run over by a car which broke her leg because there was no crossing guard on the busy street where the kids had to cross to go to school, and after that they hired one. I lived up the street from the school, and had a cat that went outside, on hot days the front doors were always open and sometimes she'd go nap in the library or show up in my classroom. Then the neighbour who hates animals and had lost his teaching job for exposing himself to students abducted her and dumped her way across town, but someone found her and put an ad in the list and found section of the paper so I got her back.
  
  That poor cat went through so much.
- They had smoking/non-smoking sections into the 90s and early 2000s in Texas. I remember very clearly that my parents would have to ask for seats away from the bar if the restaurant had one, because they almost always allowed smoking. Also hotel rooms being smoking/non-smoking, and you could tell when a hotel was cheap and just swapped the door sign.
- Little kids playing with real fireworks.
  In the early 2000s as teenagers we'd go play in the town with bags of fireworks on new year lmao
- From my experience, it’s always been the other way around. There usually were small smoking sections partitioned away from the rest of the restaurant. This was the norm. And it was usually a fraction of the tables compared to the non-smoking sections.
  Source: Worked as a server through most of the 80’s-90’s.

Jokes on you. You also didn't know how bad everyone smelled because you smelled just like them.
- It's totally true, we all smelled terrible.
  
  I still do!
- clubbing became pretty smelly after the smoking bans i think it forced most decent clubs to upgrade their AC

My neighbour smokes indoors. When she opens the door, I get the smell you are talking about.
- My aunt smoked two packs a day, in the house, and when I visited I had to wear clothes I was ready to throw away, had to strip and shower when I got home, and once in the space of an hour she smoked seven cigarettes and finally one of my eyes swelled shut, and she demanded to know why I didn't say anything. My husband pointed out the walls were yellow with tobacco, she lived in the house she grew up in and all the furniture was the same as when she was a child. When she died it all had to be junked, despite some of it probably being antique.
  
  When she died it all had to be junked
  The tar might have helped it burn better

In the 80s and 90s a cool ash tray was a good gift for literally anyone. Even teenagers since half of them were smoking reefer
- It's true! Making clay ashtrays for your parents in art class was a thing.
  
  My mum kept the triangular one I made her for over 20 years. Still quite proud of it.
- As a kid I liked the shitty little ashtrays they had in fast food restaurants. Like McDonald’s. I think they were aluminum and meant to be pretty much disposable. You could play with them like flying saucers. Or a shield for your GI Joe guys. Or if your GI Joe guys were going on vacation in the snow. They were maluable so you could shape them.
  
  Before that, every place had these massive brown glass ashtrays.

Once in a great while, I have a brain fart and tell the restaurant host "two for non".
- That's hilarious. Do they stare at you blankly?
  
  Yup!

Also once about eight years ago I was in Kentucky doing the bourbon trail. It's pretty rural aside from the distilleries, and finding somewhere to eat lunch on Sunday was hard as almost everything is closed, we ended up at some place they called a bourbon gastropub, but that meant that the dining room side was the only part fit to eat in, but all that was open was the horrible bar which was made of raw particle board, and there were members of the Klan sitting at it, who had the leather vests with the blood drop cross. There was literally nowhere else to eat so we ordered, but I felt terrified the whole time, and as we were wrapping up one of the Klan lit a cigarette at the bar and just sat there, and nobody said anything. It was quite stunning.
- Crazy that these places still exist, but I guess not that surprising.

I always thought I had bad indoor allergies until i moved out of my parents house. They have chain smoked inside with the windows closed for my whole life. Moving out was the best thing I ever did for my health.
I hate cigarettes now, especially since I quit smoking myself(didnt smoke inside though) I don't even know why I started in the first place. I'm dumb I guess?
- Straight up child abuse. Fuck...
  Every once in a while I still spot someone smoking with kids in the car. That shit makes me irate.

going to the grocery store and seeing an employee with a big dust-mop going up and down the aisles pushing along an ever-growing pile of cigarette butts because everyone would just drop 'em and step on 'em and keep on shopping...

Dont worry americans if you want to smell smoke 24/7 just come to france or eastern europe.
- Hit the ground in Germany, bombarded by smokers almost instantaneously.
  
  I went to Italy last year and the outdoor seating of restaurants probably had a solid millimetre thick layer of tobacco all over
  
  That surprises me, but noted !
- Germany is worse than France ime.
  
  Hmm ive been to a lot of european countries quite a few times and france seemed like the worst out of the high income/western ones. The worst is still hungary(where i grew up) where its absolutely horrible and we also have the highest rate of lung cancer. Smoking is literally a cancer to society. The best in terms of smoking is sweden where i live now, everyone uses snus which is better for both the users and bystanders because theres no smoke, its just a nicotine packet they put in their mouth.
  
  Switzerland is worse than Germany.

I grew up in a house with smokers, picked it up as a teenager and smoked a pack a day for 20 years after that. Now I can smell someone lighting up 2 blocks away.
It's kind of crazy. As time passed without smoking, I noticed many things smelled differently to me. For example, I was repulsed by the smell of cheddar cheese the first time I smelled it after quitting. I can't put it into words properly but it smelled so different from what I was expecting that the thought of taking a bite made my stomach turn.
- That’s interesting! My uninformed guess: since smoke is such a powerful smell, smoking constantly probably suppresses one‘s ability to smell other things - so after 20 years you’re probably accustomed to things smelling less strong and more smokey than they actually do. So I can see why smelling something very strong like cheese with your full sense of smell restored would be quite a shock!
- This was my experience too. Now I can't stand the smell of cigarrettes at all.
  
  I wish I couldn't stand the smell. It's been a few years now but I still get regular cravings.

I remember coming home from shows in high school/college and I would have to shower and throw my clothes in the washer. I was so happy when smoking was finally banned in clubs.

Grew up in Asia. The less fancy one. Used to go buy my Dad cigarettes from across the street and toss out the filters when I was like 8 lol.
*He's been smoke free for over 22 years. The amount of disinformation from Big tobacco, at least where I grew up, was insane. He is a very educated man and still... Cigarette was a status symbol, symbol of sophistication, when he was growing up.

Living in Norway, it always strikes me how disgusting smoking still is, even outside, when i go to central europe. You get completely unused to the amount of smoke and stink e.g. outside of stores
- I only ever smell it outside anymore, but I walk away fanning the air in front of my face. It's so nasty.
  
  Can always tell the people who smoke in their cars.
  Their cloths are saturated in it and they're noseblind to it. I'm in Healthcare and you get off an elevator and can tell when the Caregiver who smokes was on the elevator before you.
  NICE
  Always am heavily cognizant since I smoke weed to not be like the ciggy cunts. Would want someone to tell me.

You can also just take a trip to the Waffle House off I-95 in Florence, SC. It allowed smoking when I was there in 2014 and probably still does.
- Well they literally get killed for asking.
  https://www.ocregister.com/2015/11/30/waffle-house-server-killed-after-asking-customer-to-put-out-cigarette/
- There's a small city in the Kansas City, Missouri metro (Raytown) that lobbied to keep it legal in restaurants and bars. I just looked it up, and apparently it's fine to smoke weed as of 2023, too
  
  As if there weren't already enough reasons to avoid Missouri.

I have a old friend from school times and both of his parents smoked heavily making his freshly washed clothes smell like ashes. Every time he opened his sports bag in the changing rooms I could feel the smell meters away. Fortunately he never developed a smoking habit.
- Yes, that was super normal. I actually broke up with a guy because I couldn't stand to go to his house, because his father spent all night smoking in a chair in front of the TV, and his mother spent the night drinking a whole box of Chardonnay over ice, smoking endlessly, and calling every single person she knew on the planet all night long until she was hiccuping drunk and the father had to put her to bed. It never would have gone anywhere so it didn't matter but it was just disgusting. Then in the late 90s my mother took up smoking again after quitting for several years and insisted on doing it in the house, and it made me sick time and again.
  
  My mother still does the recreational phone call thing and I seriously don't fucking get it. Are the people she is calling endlessly just too polite to tell her to chill out? For decades on end?
  
  Imagine being cock blocked by your Dad's smoking habit. Tough break. Thanks Dad.

Well, now the streets just smell like weed instead.
- Yeah weed easily smells at least as bad
  
  It's been noticably bad after legalization. I don't care if you enjoy weed, but you gotta admit there is a reason people compare its smell to skunks.
  
  Nah, I almost enjoy that. Rolling tobacco is about tolerable. Actual cigarettes make me sick

Despite never having touched a cigarette in my life, my mom smokes pretty heavily... Knowing i probably stink to everyone else really sucks ;-;

Since my colleagues have missed the invention of Deodorant and washing themselves I'd beg to differ.

i’m old enough to remember smoking sections on airplanes. Not to be dramatic but, I felt like I was going to die!
- Wow that looks awful
- Even as a smoker I hated indoor smoking.

I still remember when it was okay to smoke inside hospitals. Fun times...
When I quit, it took just a few weeks to recover my sense of smell, and I wish it didn't because my house reeked of acrid smoke for months. Even my clean clothes smelt like unwashed smoked ass, it was sickening.
- I still remember when it was okay to smoke inside hospitals. Fun times…
  All of this has happened before. All of this will happen again.

Born in early 90's. We were still responding "non" to the first question that was asked entering a restaurant.
- Try working in a restaurant. I worked as a server for awhile, right at the tail end of when they still had smoking and nonsmoking sections. It was awful.

I was born in the early 80s. Yes I remember a time when so many people smoked and indoor smoking was extremely common.
Even children's places were ok for adults to smoke in. You know on how many arcade bars today they have cup holders bolted onto the machines for people to put their drinks (alcoholic or otherwise)? Back in the 80s and 90s, they had the same thing in many of those arcades... but they were bolted on ashtrays.
- I recently sat in a flight with a Boeing so old it still had ashtrays.
  I can't even Imagine this...
  Edit: Of course none of them functional or used in any way... Same with the "non smoking" signs next to the "seatbelts" light up thingies on every seat group.
  
  You're probably talking about a plane so old it had ashtrays in the arm rests. Just as an interesting note, though, the FAA still requires ashtrays on new aircraft. Not in every seat, but they're required to have one in each lavatory. They are also all required to have the no smoking signage as a constant reminder that there is absolutely no smoking.
  
  I don't get non-smoking signs in many places. Smoking bans have been around for so long that the signs almost feel redundant.
- I remember that too!

My mother in law smokes, so a visit to her house always results in throwing whatever clothes we’ve taken directly into the washing machine when we get home.
Worse though, is that it takes a few days for the smell to leave my CPAP machine. I put a new filter in, but it still somehow lingers.

American casinos fucking reek
- Went to one in Poland a few years ago, and was amazed - firstly - that you could smoke inside there. Second was how well it was handled: the entire ceiling seemed to be extractor fans - could barely see or smell smoke at all.

Wish I could still buy one of those.

Even as a kid I always liked the smell
And the cold tobacco doesn't bother me either
However there's one tobacco smell I don't like, when someone smoked a cigaret (in cold weather) very fast before boarding the train/bus. It's a very strong, musky smell

Noone could smell anything from smoking so much, the smoke stank paradox

A lot of countries still do. Japan has changed a lot in the 15isj years since I first came and even more in the decade I've been living here

At one of my first jobs in an office, everyone had an ashtray at their desk and there was always someone smoking at any given time throughout the day. Same with the breakroom. Sometime around then was when they started making people go to the breakroom to smoke, then a few years later it moved to having to go outside, which just meant walking through the cloud of smoke surrounding the door to get inside. Well, at least one thing has changed for the better since then. 😄
- Altria, formerly Philip Morris, still allows smoking in their buildings as of a few years ago. It's trippy to book a non-smoking room in the 2020s.

I quite a pack a day habit 12 years ago and one of the first things I noticed when my sense of taste and smell returned was how aweful smokers smelled when they'd walk into a building after a cigarette. I had thought the smell was off me within maybe 10 minutes but I found out quick that the smell never really goes away. Feels like a previous life thinking I smoked because I can't see myself ever smoking even a single cig for the rest of my life because it's so revolting to me now. Oddly enough, however, sometimes I'll see someone light up a fresh cig in a movie or something and I'll get this strong 2-3 second craving for a smoke. It's so strange how even over 12 years since my last one, I still get these strange urges for a cig by seeing someone of TV light one up.
- My aunt hasn't smoked in 40 years and she says she still gets the odd random moment like that, and she was really just a social smoker, it wasn't a heavy habit for her. It's funny.
- In my Language there is a word for this, roughly translated into "Lung-Hunger".
  It's not just the Nicotine.
  
  Yeah I've got some herbal blend that I'll roll up every now and again when my brother the smoker comes over, and I kind of get a pang like I'd also like one.

The smells haven't gone away, you're just acclimated now
- Now they all smell like weed. I actually wish people who smoked weed were more attentive to how they stink, because it's also very gross.

i Kind of like cigarette smell, its so wintery.

- When I went vegan I moved to a place where I have to pass a Burger King on the way home. That greasy tallow smell is so nasty every time I pass it.
- Best summer smell. The smell of quality cow flesh slowly cooking over an open flame is one of the best.
- They are not on fire. They are just boiling in their own fat. MMMMMMMmmmmmm, fat.
- Oh, piss off, dude. We get it. You don't eat meat and you want to argue about it with strangers on a post that has nothing at all to do with the topic. Virtue signaling as a replacement for a personality.
- Qm i in the wrong thread? I thought this was about smoking, not veganism.