The Disappearance of the Ashtray

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Jan 24, 2023, 5:37 AM UTC

Stratoscope wrote: post #43

j_m_b wrote: post #7

It's tough to portray just how ubiquitous smoking was to a modern audience. You would go to a restaurant and the first thing your hostess would ask is "smoking or non"? I remember standing in a checkout line in the 80s as a child and being fascinated with the billowing clouds of smoke an old lady blew. I remember coming home from bars reeking of smoke, even though I didn't. Even teachers had their own lounges that re…

Smoking or non? Looks like you're about 25 years younger than me. When I was a kid, there was no such thing as a nonsmoking section. Of course you could smoke, anywhere! Us kids didn't get real tobacco cigarettes, but we always had candy cigarettes so we could "smoke" along with the grown-ups. https://www.google.com/search?q=candy+cigarette&tbm=isch One difference from today was that our candy cigarettes had brand na…

Post by mikestew » Tue, Jan 24, 2023, 5:38 AM UTC

TedDoesntTalk wrote: post #157

gumby wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you remember professors smoking in class or office hours? The student smoking area in high school?

By the mid-80s, kids generally couldn’t smoke in school in the US. Each school district or town or state had their own rules, though. I was told by kids a few years older than me that my high school allowed seniors to smoke in the early 80s. The 70s I think there were even fewer restrictions on the kids, but there were designated areas. You didn’t smoke in class. But it changed mid-80s for students. There’s a famous…

Post by j33zusjuice » Tue, Jan 24, 2023, 5:41 AM UTC

MisterBastahrd wrote: post #184

brightlancer wrote: post #46

> Everyone had hard-smoking relatives who looked like absolute hell by their late 30s, were coughing up a lung in their 40s, and by their 50s were being hoisted by pallbearers. Smoking is a disgusting habit and I love working from home because I never have to step in an elevator with folks fresh from a smoke break, but it isn't nearly that fatal. I grew up when smoking was literally everywhere and the "hard-smoking"…

Yeah... I didn't. My grandfather smoked until his 70s before quitting and my great grandfather was still smoking a couple of Keep Moving cigars a day until he died in his mid 80s. All of my aunts and uncles on my mom's side are in their 60s and 70s and still smoke. Hell, nothing brings me back to my childhood like the whiff of a freshly lit cigarette. I still remember being a very young boy back in the 70s and smelli…

Post by seadan83 » Tue, Jan 24, 2023, 5:46 AM UTC

bediger4000 wrote: post #15

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #5

The plummeting rates of smoking in the US is one of the rare areas where this country really shines when it comes to social welfare. Even many European states that have what I'd consider much more progressive social welfare systems have smoking rates that are appalling, often 3x or more the US rates.

That's probably due to insurance companies charging huge amounts more health insurance for smokers.

Post by j33zusjuice » Tue, Jan 24, 2023, 5:48 AM UTC

gnicholas wrote: post #28

ilyt wrote: post #12

Cars too had them and the utility power socket was initially for car cigarette lighter (which was just a piece of metal that got very hot when turned on)

Yeah it's funny we still talk about plugging into a cigarette lighter, even though they haven't come with actual cigarette lighters in them for quite some time (at least here in California).