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On one of many cigarette breaks that I took over the course of the long weekend, I got to talking with a stranger outside of a bar who needed a light.
In the midst of our drunken conversation, we got onto the subject of smoking cigarettes in the 70s and 80s. How cool must it have been to be able to rip a lung dart in the middle of a crowded dance floor? Or plop down onto a barstool at a local hole in the wall and light up with a glass of whiskey after a long day at the office?
At first, I thought to myself, “Yeah!” That’d be fucking awesome. But the longer I thought about it the more I began to remember my childhood in the late 90s. My parents, in their 40s at that time, still had the energy to meet their adult friends for dinner or cocktails on the weekends.
I’d obviously be left at home with a babysitter, but if I really think about it I can almost taste the smoke on my parents’ clothes after they’d come home from a restaurant. Think about that for a second. If you weren’t a smoker you just had to accept the fact that anytime you went anywhere, you could expect to be bombarded with cigarette smoke. You don’t like it? Go to the non-smoking section (which I’m sure was just as bad as the smoking section in terms of second-hand smoke).
In 1997 when Titanic hit movie theaters across the country, I was still far too young to see it and definitely unable to be left alone in a house for more than an hour or so.
After what I’m sure was a long week at work for both of them, my parents, more than likely fed up with two children under the age of 6, called a babysitter and told her they’d be home by midnight. They were headed to an early screening of Titanic and then out to dinner with friends afterward.
I remember them walking in the house after their dinner with the undeniable stench of cigarette smoke on their jackets. To my knowledge, my mom and dad have never been smokers.
The point of that terrible story is that in ‘97 you might as well have been a smoker. The minute you step into a crowded bar in 1997, or really any time before they passed all of those indoor smoking bans, you’ve essentially smoked a pack due to the second-hand smoke in the air. And that stench stays on the clothes forever. I don’t care how many times you get them dry cleaned or washed.
That was every single weekend for anyone that wanted to go get a bite to eat or grab a drink. That could not have been enjoyable. No one likes smelling like a bowling alley when they get home from the bar.
I have a lot of questions about 80s and 90s culture, but the one question that kept creeping up into the forefront of my mind when I was talking to that stranger who needed a light was this – did people who partied on the weekend have an entirely separate closet for clothing that was going to get exposed to copious amounts of smoke at bars and clubs?
One closet in a dark corner of the basement labeled “Going Out Clothes”, one upstairs in the master bedroom labeled “Non-Going Out Clothes.”
I like to smoke cigarettes. You know I like them, I know I like them, and the guy at the gas station down the street who sells them to me most certainly knows that I like them. But I don’t think I like them enough that I’d want them in bars.
If I had one gripe to Big Tobacco, it would be the odor that hangs around afterward. After I finish a cigarette, the first thing I’m looking for upon re-entry to the indoors is a bathroom so I can wash my hands and get a few squirts of Binaca into my mouth.
I hear people complaining all of the time about others smoking in their vicinity outdoors. Now just imagine if this was the 80s or the 90s.
Shopping malls, restaurants, bars, and any other place of business you can think of – almost all of them allowed smoking indoors.
Outside of a romp in the hay with a friendly girl, I can’t think of another tangible thing which brings me as much joy as a nice, refreshing cigarette. But you know what really gets my jollies off? Personal hygiene. I’m pretty fucking pleased that you can’t smoke cigarettes indoors in the states. We’d all smell like shit 24/7, and that’s just unacceptable to me. .
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jduda@grandex.co
At one point it was acceptable to smoke inside airplanes and the office. Think about that.
If you like saving money and putting your life in danger, Spirit airlines has such an old fleet of planes some of them still have ashtrays in the seats. It’s like flying in a museum
apparently it’s some law that you have to have a place to put out a lit cigarette!
http://money.cnn.com/2017/03/09/news/airplane-ashtrays/
*refugee airlines
Goddamn those were the good old days.
also, you were able to smoke inside some of the dorms in my college my freshman year (2003-2004) which is sort of baffling bc it wasn’t that long ago!
2003-2004 Actually being a long time ago. PGP
My office building still has the tar stained wallpaper. They stopped smoking inside in ’88.
We should make smoking at the gas pump a thing again. Throw in some risk variations throughout your life now and then plus if you fuck over a major oil Barron, is anyone really gonna give a shit?
it the nostalgia gets the best of you, you can come to Kentucky where it’s still legal to smoke in bars. You’ll leave smelling like an ashtray even if you don’t smoke, it’s not that rad.
There’s some smoking bars left in Philly too. Always a good time, but always need a shower after.
Needing a shower after being in Philly is really just the norm.
When my state enacted a smoking ban in bars I was in college and thought it wasn’t the right move at all. Fast forward five years and we take a road trip to Kentucky. I saw how wrong I was and how much of a difference there actually is.
This is coming from a guy that still enjoys the occasional Marlboro Red.
It was the fucking worst. I remember several failed booty calls in college because I smelled like an ashtray after being out at the bars.
I once took a 3:00 am shower to get rid of the smell in hopes of hooking up. Things didn’t pan out that night, but I blame the smoking policies of the time and not my closing skills.
A night out in ’97 when everyone was ripping heaters and semi charmed life was blaring throughout the bar
I think this was also at the peak of GAP hoodie popularity. Sounds pretty wild.
I was there. It sucked.
Had a good time reading today’s edition of “another article to remind me that duda is about a decade younger than me”
You were allowed to smoke in bars in Columbia up until second semester of my freshman year. All of my clothes smelled like an ashtray by sunday morning. They enacted the smoking ban over christmas break. First night back at the bars, it smelled like we were drinking in the bottom of a dumpster that had just been soaked in bleach.
Oh, non-smoking sections. Because everybody knows you just have to put up a little partition to prevent smoke from getting to you!
It’s amazing how things change. I remember how pissed people were when they banned indoor smoking in NYC. Now people look at you funny if you even mention you’re going outside for a smoke.