Yep. The 80’s were absolutely horrible if you were bothered by smoke. There’s a reason why a lot of us 80’s kids “had asthma”, which magically disappeared when everything went non-smoking in the 90’s.
Smoking was just so pervasive here in Europe in the 80’s, it’s impossible for people to understand if you didn’t experience it first hand.
Like, even teachers smoked. Not in lessons, but if they were out in the playground supervising, or in the staff room, they’d light up.
My headteacher had a pipe. I think it was about the only thing that kept him going, right up until the cancer got him.
Also in lessons. I had a teacher that would open the outside door of the classroom (leading to a garden) to stand there smoking. Not that it helped because we still got a good whiff of the smoke.
This was around 1995 probably.
Mine thought that opening a small window in the class would suffice, and was smoking the whole time.
Part of the reason kids have asthma from that era, myself included, is because our mothers smoked while pregnant.
disappeared when everything went non-smoking in the 90’s.
Funny, in Russia that transition happened around late 00s.
A-and in 2014 entrance to my (then) uni territory still looked like one big stinking cloud of smoke and a barely visible group of students smoking just outside, some coming, some leaving.
Taking an international flight where half the plane is smoking. Those were good times, especially in Greece where they loved smoking even more than the Americans.
I read a lot of Southeast Asian countries still smoke everywhere. And I can’t imagine being cramped in a small area with a nasty ass smoker without flipping out.
I remember that in pre-school in around 1990 we made clay ashtrays for father’s day. My father did not smoke but they told me to make one anyway…
…my high school phased out the student smoking area starting my freshman year in 1986: the older classes still had access, but not mine, and by 1990 it was fully decommissioned into a landscaped atrium…
…when i worked as an apartment groundskeeper in the early nineties, my first two hours of every day were spent cleaning cigarette butts throughout the complex…
Did the kids just smoke somewhere else?
I don’t think we had an official smoking section but there was always a big crowd in the parking lot (early 2000s)
When I was a kid I used to kick cigarette butts down the aisles at the local grocery store.
I’m a weirdo and I loved the smell, so naturally I became a smoker at the ripe old age of like, 10.
I know how much other people hate the smell so I’m always so paranoid about it.
I’m about to be a stay at home dad for a bit. I’m quitting to kill the expense. Wish me luck!
Good luck! The journey may be tough but I believe you will make it.
I quit like 20 times, and what finally worked was an ayahuasca ceremony.
Those things had me in their grip hard
Quit to not harm your child 🤷♂️
This is, indeed, an even better reason to quit.
My parents did that and stopped smoking when i was born.
I started smoking when i was 17 …
I never became a smoker but I too love that smell.
That smell kinda helps me relax too, depending on the type, I guess. I use (vanilla) incense because it has a similar effect for me. Though it doesn’t smell quite the same.
I don’t know if it’s nostalgic for me or what. Funny thing is, I hate, hate, hate, the smell of incense (or anything else burning for that matter). My daughter started burning them recently and I couldn’t stand it.
A lot of smells that most people enjoy make me sick or give me a headache. The smell of matches burning and cigarettes though, I’ve always loved that. Maybe it makes me feel like a little kid or something. Who knows?
That’s interesting.
What do you think of the smell of car exhaust fumes?
Gives me a headache and I can’t stand it haha.
Good luck! I quit cold turkey after 20 years of smoking, and I started just like you at around 10 or so. The year after I quit was a bit weird, it was hard the first month or so, and got substantially better every day. What helped me not to start again, is that feeling that it might be weird now, but if I start again, that would mean all those terrible first days were for nothing, and I hate suffering with no purpose.
After a year I randomly realised that not only I don’t want to smoke anymore, the thought alone is a bit revolting, and that’s when I knew that I’m finally done with the whole shit. Gained a bit of weight though, nicotine is a wonderful appetite suppressor, but never regretted it.Good luck! If it’s ok, I can DM you to see how it’s going? Quitting smoking/nicotine felt like the hardest thing I ever did, but I’m so glad that I did it. I’m still kind of surprised at myself for having succeeded after so so so many failed attempts.
But if you keep trying, one day it just works.
Good luck to you!
I’m old enough to remember when smoking was banned in bars/clubs in the UK. It went from a musky smell to body odour, and it took practically all venues by surprise.
Now, I’m so glad that indoors smoking was banned. Looking back, it was fucking gross, and while sadly lots of people now vape indoors it was a huge improvement to basically be able to actually breathe in those places.
I came to Ireland when they just banned smoking and it was still legal in Germany. The first time I walked into a pub and ran against a solid wall of sweat and beer farts I missed smoking.
Seriously this! I grew up poor so going to restaurants was a 2-3 times a year thing. And as a kid, going to one meant non-smoking area, where the nasty ass smoke would still waffle over. And my eyes would get irritated, id get really sick and cough nonstop for days.
It didn’t even notice the coincidence until it happened to me at a friend’s house in college who was also a heavy smoker.
I remember a beloved fish-and-chips restaurant in the area where I grew up that had, in addition to fun cartoons of a clam introducing various dishes, smoke stains all along the edge of the ceiling. It was that bad… funny to think that it was soon after smoking was banned that the place closed down–maybe it never actually tasted good but nobody could tell??
I had a family friend who smoked so much the walls oozed yellow. I could not bear to go over there even though I adored her.
I’m sorry. I don’t know why I’m like this.
Holy shit a Subgenius sighting in the wild!? in 2024?!!?!?
Praise Bob.
Man AI generated video is getting so cool. Obviously this video has some big issues with it, but it brings life to a 1960s postcard. Wow
I even love the issues, honestly. Is the bed coming to life? Wait, is that a hand under the bed? And I think my man’s leg is a radiator now, but I’m more concerned about how comfortable he is with that hand in his pants. Man, this stuff is a fever dream wonderland. I really do love it.
Honestly I see a future where weird AI videos get their own complete genre. That hand coming out from under the bed was pretty cool.
EXACTLY.
“Smoking or non?”
I wonder how much that affected the life expectancy of those kids
Quite a lot. Most mothers smoked while pregnant and gave their kids asthma as a result, and ADHD too. That’s why you see more of that.
My mom quit smoking before pregnancy, and dad never smoked. Still neurodivergent. I’ve not personally heard of a causal link there before.
ADHD too. That’s why you see more of that.
Citation needed!
I remember bars so blue with smoke you couldn’t see across the room.
I worked for an Internet startup in the mid '90s that was so desperate for venture capital funding we were sucking up to RJR Nabisco (who were rolling in so much cigarette money that they actually started a venture capital division just to do something with the cash). One day some of their executives showed up and they spent the entire day chain-smoking in our conference room (our building was a non-smoking building). The smoke was so thick everywhere you couldn’t even see to the end of the hallway. I made a point of coughing loudly and my bosses sent me home before the end of the day. In the end we got nothing from them.
It’s a warm memory because most of those bastards have probably died a miserable death by now.
I know one of those bars. When my city banned indoor smoking back in the mid-aughts, that bar still reeked of cigarettes for years. It was just coming out of the walls
Until she left home, my wife didn’t realise that normal non-smoking households don’t have to mop their walls.
Omigod.
Gross, even in my chain-smoking days I never smoked indoors.
My wife’s parents used to smoke heavily. She tells me how they had to clean the windows monthly just to be able to see out of them
We had to do this with our first house. Former tenants were 2 pack a day each with kids in The house. The water cascaded down completely brown.
Fuck smoking.
Aww man you’re gonna make me want to start again.
Drink smoking, fresh air smoking, adderall smoking, coffee smoking, drive smoking, fuck smoking.
My pack has no vagine or anoose.
For real though, about to quit. Wish me luck, boys!
Fuck luck. Do, or do not.
Best of luck! It’s a hard thing to do.
Good luck!
Having quit this year (after a long time of cutting down/vaping etc) I think my main advice to you will be this:
If you relapse it isn’t the end of the world, it’s just a bump in the road. Don’t be too hard on yourself, it’s not easy.
Also, keep a pack of smokes or a vape or snus or whatever you use on you for a week or so after you stop using them, so when you feel your pockets you don’t panic when you’re missing something, which will set off the response to “I need nicotine”
Good luck!
We’re talking about the US here, right?
I am talking about where I grew up in Canada.
Yeah, Japan still is like a giant ashtray last time I checked.
Tbh my wife and I smelled rotten eggs more often, at least in cities
I think because their busses use biodiesel?
Weird, the only times I’ve smelled biodiesel it’s mostly smelled like french fries
Not sure if it makes a difference, but biodiesel can be made of quite a few different materials. Could depend on what the fuel was actually made from.
I support biodiesel made from the bodies of oil company executives.
rotten eggs smell usually comes from the sewage system
It isn’t anymore. I checked yesterday. They still have cigarette vending machines and smoking floors in hotels, but most floors were nonsmoking, beer vending machines were more plentiful than cigarette ones, and no smoking announcements and signs were everywhere
The laws changed prior to the olympics coming, so it’s not like it was pre-corona and pre-olympics. Even some places that didn’t legally have to change used corona as an excuse because of the recommendations of the government (not law). Still a lot of places with smoking.
i remember ashtrays on the arm of every airplane seat!
I was born in the early 90s and remember making fun of the idea that a non-smoking section separated from active smokers in the IHOP by a thin barrier that didn’t even reach the ceiling could do anything.
Boy, leaded gasoline really fucked up whole generations, didn’t it? Oh… We are still dealing with the fallout from that, aren’t we?
I’m still convinced that lead poisoning was the catalyst for the fall of the Roman empire. And they weren’t even breathing tainted air constantly.
We still use lead pipes for water infrastructure in many areas of the country for fucks sake.
Fun fact: ancient and medieval societies had so much fucking lead around because lead is commonly found in silver ore (galena), usually around 100X more plentiful than the silver and it melts at a lower temperature. So the quest for silver produced huge amounts of lead as a byproduct and people found uses for it like roofs, water pipes and, uh, sweeteners? Jesus Christ, Rome.
A smoking area in a restaurant was about as useful as setting up a pissing area in a pool…
You got that backwards. Smoking section was the default state. The non-smoking section was the special.
Dumping water in a piss pool then?
I was born in the early 90s and remember making fun of the idea that a non-smoking section separated from active smokers in the IHOP by a thin barrier that didn’t even reach the ceiling could do anything.
Barrier? Most restaurants barely divided the two with an aisle.
Tim Hortons had the smoking box, I’d give a lot to find a photo of it. Basically it was one of the last holdouts.
Minneapolis airport had a smoking room in one of the concourses. It had glass walls and was as gross as you could imagine. I held my breath everytime I walked past
Holy crap that’s a memory unlocked, transferring in Minneapolis and holding my breath as you walk past the smoking area
My parents didn’t smoke but that’s literally how I knew the babysitter was gone and my parents were home from a night out.
When I was maybe 3 (maybe 4 - it’s a little fuzzy), I remember safety pinning a towel around the collar of my shirt so I could be like Superman (we had recently seen it in the theater). The towel also had frayed ends, and ended up in the ashtray along side my mom’s cigarette. I remember my mom panicking trying to get those safety pins off when the towel caught fire. We never were allowed to safety pin towels to our clothes again after that. 😂
Also I love how my kids know the cigarette lighter in the car as a place to plug in a car charger and nothing else.
I thought the cigarette lighter in the car was a rubber stamp and I’d get the icon marked on my hand.
Yes, I burned myself.
Cigarette lighter? You mean the finger print eraser and “lesson enforcer”? It was always empty when I grew up, seems like every child needed to learn that it was still hot even after the glow had vanished :)
The bic type lighter where everywhere, including in the coin shelf in cars
I still have a bic lighter, and I quit smoke 10 years ago. Never know when it’ll come in handy.
I also remember when there were cigarette vending machines in restaurants. $1.25/pack and no age verification. 😉
I still have a bic lighter, and I quit smoke 10 years ago. Never know when it’ll come in handy.
We got one from a gas station for lighting birthday candles. I just got a firepit and went to use it to start a fire and realized I’ve never used one before and had to try a lot of times to actually get it to light.
They’re pretty shit for lighting anything that’s not cigarettes or similar. They burn the fuck out of your finger if held any orientation but vertical which makes lighting a campfire annoying. Gotta light the kindling in your hand then place it under the wood once lit.
Just go to Europe to relive that part of the 90s
I went to the UK and France in 2004. Got to go back to France last year; I was going to say it’s like the U.S. in the 1990s but it seems like they’ve banned indoor smoking in most buildings so it is better than that. There are still a lot more people smoking in outdoor sections than I’ve experienced in the U.S. for about 20 years, though. I’ve gotten so used to smoking being rare in the U.S. that it felt weird to see (relatively) so much in France.
Smoking indoors is banned basically everywhere thankfully, but yeah, there are still way too many smokers here.
In France it’s like a third of people, in Greece it’s like every other man smokes.
The 90s were nothing compared to the 80s for smoking.
