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  • I remember boarding a short regional flight in northern Ontario in the mid 80s. We were placed in a non-smoking section, while the row behind us was smoking. I remember seeing those little ashtray drawers on every seat and every single one no matter smoking or non smoking had cigarette butts and ash in them.

    And wherever you walked, malls, stores, grocery stores, banks, schools, hospitals, banquets, dinners, gatherings ... everywhere, anywhere ... someone or a few people were smoking.

    People were considered weird or rude or just plain stupid if they asked someone not to smoke in public.

    • When I was a kid I was in the school band, and for one or two of our performances at Christmas we actually had to go out of our way to ask the people we were playing for not to smoke during the performances.

      AND WE WERE SECONDARY SCHOOL KIDS!!! (11 - 16) I mean for the love of god we were children, and musicians at that, and still adults thought it was fine to smoke in front of us., in enclosed rooms.

      • I remember being in high school in the early 90s and a friend of mine and I snuck into one of the local bars one Friday night.

        It was far scarier than wandering into Mordor. There was so much noise you couldn't hear anyone ... which always confused me because people were having conversations with one another. Dark and dim because the walls were black, the floor was black with dirt and beer, the ceiling was black and the furniture was black. The only light you could see was the bar and the band playing loud shitty music.

        And smoke, so much smoke that you could swear the place was on fire. So much smoke you got high on the smoke in the air. Smoke so thick you couldn't see ten feet in front of you. And in the smoke you saw ghouls, goblins, orks, giants, witches and warlocks speaking in weird tongues you couldn't understand. The only way to survive in there was to be drunk out of your mind.

  • I remember traveling a lot as a kid, and hearing mother say "No smoking, please" and being upset when they'd place you right next to the smoking section. It usually meant we'd leave instead as my mother is allergic and me and twin don't do well with it. (She could handle a meal, more so if she wasn't the one smoking which...she wouldn't be)

    One time we had to ask the neighbors to drive us home. They did, very kind of them! They smoked the entire time. With the windows rolled down. Very kind of them.

    Sibling vomited when exiting the car.

  • I miss the smoke we had when we went to indoor weddings. As a kid, the smoke would be this high cloud just out of reach, obscuring the other end of the room where the adults were talking. The tables with the thickest smoke were where the men sat in intellectual poses, discussing heavily politics. It gave an air of grandeur to it, and when the disco lights would turn, they'd light up the smoke clouds to give off a pink/red thunder vibe.

    Yeah sure, we have smoke machines now, but it typically hugs your knees and doesn't rise much, giving off a different look. It also doesn't seem much fun for kids, who I guess just see it as eye-level fog.

    • That does sound sweet, and nice, but as someone who attended and still attends indoor weddings with a heart condition and occasional breathing issues...........

      You see where I am going about not missing it at all, right?

      I like how people reminisce about the time they could smoke in pubs, and in restaurants, and clubs, and so on, but as someone who has had major health conditions their entire life and avoided pubs and clubs for that reason and sometimes had to leave restaurants because of it...........

      Like I said -- 1997 was a very, very good year.

      • Oh definitely -- and let's not pretend that the food didn't taste bland as hell when with a smoker. No no, we're much better off now

  • My dad used to smoke when we went over to his house on weekends and I hated how gross ashtrays looked :(

    And how my hair and clothes would just smell of smoke even though I didn't smoke at all - especially when we went to my grams house in the summer.

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