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We visited friends in Serbia in summer. It took me back to this smoking world I had long forgotten. Inside smoking and non smoking tables in crowded cafes side by side. And the craziest part was the indoor playgrounds for kids with cafes adjacent or part of it where you could also smoke (and buy hard liquor). But you know what, my kid could play for less than 1,5€ an hour on a rainy day, even when I lived in Munich there were like 2 indoor playgrounds in a 50 km radius and they cost a fortune. They had them everywhere for dirt cheap. So, I'll happily get off my high horse.

One of the few things America has done unambiguously right is the strong anti-snoking campaigns. I think my mom is the only smoker I know anymore

And it made about as much sense as having a pissing section in a public pool.

I remember in the early-mid 90's going to pizza hut with my family to cash in one of those sweet book club free pizza stamps and the smoking section always being packed with other families. The other kids would be playing and having a fun time while all the adults enjoyed their refreshing delicious cigarettes while everyone ate. There was no real, "smoking or non-smoking" section. It's was a smoke filled restaurant with the option to sit shoulder to shoulder with someone smoking a cig or being a few feet away from said smokers.

I remember when I was a teenager working in restaurants during high school I’d come home and shower afterwards. when I’d wash my hair it’d reek of cigarette smoke because I’d spent the last 5-9 hours standing in a giant plume of it.

I picked up smoking in college, I wonder if that was a factor. Thankfully I quit, eventually

Smoking rates were around 40% up through the 1970s. If you didn't smoke, you almost certainly got it second hand. Which implies that up through the smoking bans of the 1990s, everyone (except maybe some farmers and other outdoorsy types) were on a psychoactive drug 24/7 at least a little.

Reminds me of this ancient story I saw making the rounds on Reddit a few years ago: https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2003/12/07/DJs-mummified-body-found-in-club-wall/72001070836281/

I'm old enough to remember the same things on airplanes.

I remember when the smoking ban was introduced in the UK and the smell of smoke in pubs and clubs was replaced by the stench of body odour, I was actually wanting smoking to return as it was a more tolerable smell!!

Either I've got used to it now or people have learned to wash because I don't notice it anymore!

Friends and I love to dance to live music, and back in the day this was often in a local bar, where people were drinking and smoking. It was policy to remove our clothing outside to let it 'air out' rather than bring that smoke smell into the house. Of course we were all dancing HARD, in a smoke filled rooms. I wondered if I was in training to be a fire fighter, or what?

I remember going into cafés and things when I was a young man about 14 years old… You wouldn’t be able to see across a small room for the sheer fog bank of cigarette smoke.

We didn’t think anything of it

It's still this way in the place where I live 😖

I hate nicotine so fucking much

Look at pictures of people in their 30s back in the 70s, and compare them to people in their 30s today. It's a massive difference, I hypothesize that it's the leaded gasoline and secondhand smoke that makes it although I'm not aware of any science to back that up.

Experienced this when I went to Barcelona a few years back. Lovely city, but stepping out into the street felt like stepping into a cigar bar.

I wonder if our current world has a specific smell that people from the 80s would notice

You used to be able to light the rivers on fire too but Nixon helped ruin that.

There are certain places I actually miss cigarette smell in. Most importantly, bowling alleys. They just aren't the same anymore. It was part of the ambiance.