# How Bad Was It When You Could Smoke On Public Transit? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 23, 2011, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-bad-was-it-when-you-could-smoke-on-public-transit/586607 "2011-06-23T20:14:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Shamozzle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shamozzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shamozzle)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2011, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-bad-was-it-when-you-could-smoke-on-public-transit/586607/41 "2011-06-25T02:46:43Z")
Hell, I remember smoking in High School in the designated students’ smoking area. I shared a smoke with the Principal, once. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2011, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-bad-was-it-when-you-could-smoke-on-public-transit/586607/42 "2011-06-25T05:20:17Z")
I travel a lot internationally for work and a lot of places I go to like Eastern Europe and parts of Asia, where it is pretty much like it was in the US in the 70s, people smoke everywhere. If you spend any time in a close space in public, your clothes smell like you’ve been at a nightclub, just reeking of smoke. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2011, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-bad-was-it-when-you-could-smoke-on-public-transit/586607/43 "2011-06-25T15:59:47Z")
When I was growing up in the 50s and 60s: The Long Island Rail Road has smoking and non-smoking cars. Smokers just congregated in the smoking cars. Our local movie theater did have a smoking section in the balcony. Planes did have a smoking section in the rear, and there was no such thing as a non-smoking section of a bar or restaurant. I do think it was banned on the NYC subway – the air down there was bad enough as it was. ---
**Author:** ![MaddyStrut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/dbc845/32.png) [@MaddyStrut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaddyStrut)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2011, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-bad-was-it-when-you-could-smoke-on-public-transit/586607/44 "2011-06-25T16:15:20Z")
> [@Incubus](#): > > Slightly curious- did people back in the day have a diminished sense of smell from all the cigarette smoke exposure? I ask because I’m from California, where you’re basically forbidden to smoke if you enter the state line, and if we catch you we taunt you and spank you with cancer-riddled cadaver lungs 😃 I think I must have been desensitized to it. I remember smoking sections in planes (not any other public transport) and in bars/restaurants. I’d notice the smell when I’d first sit down but then I’d stop noticing it… right up to the point I took my next shower after being in a smokey area for a while. Man, that whiff of smoke after the water first hit my hair always took me by surprise. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2011, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-bad-was-it-when-you-could-smoke-on-public-transit/586607/45 "2011-06-25T16:41:02Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > …Our local movie theater did have a smoking section in the balcony… Now that you mention, that I recall our local theatre was the same, only in he balcony could you smoke. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2011, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-bad-was-it-when-you-could-smoke-on-public-transit/586607/46 "2011-06-25T17:21:37Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > And of course, I meant People Express. Sir Freddie Laker’s venture. Otherwise known as People Distress… ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2011, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-bad-was-it-when-you-could-smoke-on-public-transit/586607/47 "2011-06-25T19:01:52Z")
I don’t remember smoking on Chicago-area trains in my lifetime, and I’m 42. But in 1995 my flight home from Russia (the Helsinki to NYC leg) had a smoking section, and I was pretty miserable. (I’m an asthmatic, and cigarette smoke makes me absolutely miserable. I was in the nonsmoking section, but who are we kidding?) ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2011, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-bad-was-it-when-you-could-smoke-on-public-transit/586607/48 "2011-06-26T00:16:31Z")
I am rather sensitive to strong smells, and when I rode a bus back and forth from college for a couple of years (4 hour trip), I invariably developed severe headaches during the ride. So yeah pretty bad. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2011, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-bad-was-it-when-you-could-smoke-on-public-transit/586607/49 "2011-06-26T02:34:46Z")
In fourth grade, one of our art projects was clear-gluing mail stamps to the bottom of glass ashtrays. Nice looking, but as my parents were Jehovah’s Witnesses, useless around my house. Can you imagine someone assigning a fourth grade class to do that today? ---
**Author:** ![Mehitabel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@Mehitabel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mehitabel)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2011, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-bad-was-it-when-you-could-smoke-on-public-transit/586607/50 "2011-06-27T01:32:19Z")
Yeah, craft projects resulting in ashtrays were pretty common when I was a little kid, late 60s. I’ve asked Dad and he says that smoking was indeed prohibited on NYC subways, although plenty of people would light up on the el platforms above ground. Not public transit but the bathrooms in the Metropolitan Opera House in NYC, ca. 1965, still have [ashtrays](http://supermartingale.com/category/theatre/) built into the walls of the stalls in the bathrooms (scroll down). I guess you were supposed to put it down while you did your business, don’t want to burn anything. ---
**Author:** ![Anonymous\_Coward](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/94ad74/32.png) [@Anonymous\_Coward](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anonymous_Coward)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2011, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-bad-was-it-when-you-could-smoke-on-public-transit/586607/51 "2011-06-27T12:11:31Z")
Funny story about smoking in public. Since the 70’s my service club has been hosting a Halloween party for mentally challenged adults and we still have an active member from then who can remember that the parties used to be sponsored by a large tobacco company. Back then the club used to get bags and bags of loose cigarettes and the club filled up large bowls and put them on the tables, much like we do now with donated chips and pop. Apparently the hall was just blue with smoke. ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2011, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-bad-was-it-when-you-could-smoke-on-public-transit/586607/52 "2011-06-27T12:18:48Z")
Back in the 1970’s the Red Cross here used to provide free cigarettes for those who donated blood. ---
**Author:** ![Jaledin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Jaledin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaledin)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2011, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-bad-was-it-when-you-could-smoke-on-public-transit/586607/53 "2011-06-27T12:26:44Z")
Rules. Too many rules. Only a giant Nelly would complain sotto voce (I call it mutter, because it’s something an old, old, matronly woman would do) about someone’s inoffensive and legal behavior. Who cares? Just ride another train if Lubitsch and his cigar or Granny’s little dog bothers you. Whatever happened to the expression, “buck up”? ---
**Author:** ![jabiru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2011, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-bad-was-it-when-you-could-smoke-on-public-transit/586607/54 "2011-06-27T12:57:28Z")
> [@Cicero](#): > > Back in the 1970’s the Red Cross here used to provide free cigarettes for those who donated blood. I’ve been donating blood since 1971 (you had to be 18 years old then, I think it’s 16 now) and I was a smoker. No one ever gave me free cigarettes at the Red Cross. Free drinks, free food. Stickers. No free durry. ---
**Author:** ![nonacetone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nonacetone/32/2819_2.png) [@nonacetone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nonacetone)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2011, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-bad-was-it-when-you-could-smoke-on-public-transit/586607/55 "2011-06-27T13:53:49Z")
Good Og, I feel old. I’m only 49, but I can clearly remember when smoking was allowed in _hospitals_. ---
**Author:** ![jabiru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2011, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-bad-was-it-when-you-could-smoke-on-public-transit/586607/56 "2011-06-27T14:12:49Z")
> [@nonacetone](#): > > Good Og, I feel old. I’m only 49, but I can clearly remember when smoking was allowed in _hospitals_. I know. It’s impossible to credit but, when I was training as a nurse, patients used to have ashtrays on their bedside lockers. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2011, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-bad-was-it-when-you-could-smoke-on-public-transit/586607/57 "2011-06-27T23:37:27Z")
> [@Jaledin](#): > > Rules. Too many rules. Only a giant Nelly would complain sotto voce (I call it mutter, because it’s something an old, old, matronly woman would do) about someone’s inoffensive and legal behavior. Who cares? Just ride another train if Lubitsch and his cigar or Granny’s little dog bothers you. Whatever happened to the expression, “buck up”? :rolleyes: There are _so many_ things wrong with this, I’m not even going to bother. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2011, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-bad-was-it-when-you-could-smoke-on-public-transit/586607/58 "2011-06-28T15:50:17Z")
> [@jabiru](#): > > I know. It’s impossible to credit but, when I was training as a nurse, patients used to have ashtrays on their bedside lockers. :eek: Yep - I volunteered at a hospital in the 70s and smoking was allowed in rooms. I rode a bus from DC to NC in 1980 and came out of it REEKING. Blech. Coming from a home with a mother who smoked, I didn’t notice it so much while in transit, but after I got off, pee-yew! ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2011, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-bad-was-it-when-you-could-smoke-on-public-transit/586607/59 "2011-06-28T15:52:58Z")
Not a transit story, but back in the mid-80s I worked in an office that was connected to a factory floor. The bathroom nearest our office was also used by the factory workers. They would take breaks, go to the bathroom, and lean up against the No Smoking sign while lighting up. Blech. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2011, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-bad-was-it-when-you-could-smoke-on-public-transit/586607/60 "2011-06-28T16:11:15Z")
My kids were 8 and 10 back when restaurants around here commonly asked if you wanted smoking or non-smoking. We developed a routine. I would tell the hostess, “Well, I don’t smoke”. Then I would look at my kids and say, “How about y’all?” My daughter would pat her pockets and say, “Left 'em in the car”. My son, “Trying to cut back”. Good times.😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-bad-was-it-when-you-could-smoke-on-public-transit/586607.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-bad-was-it-when-you-could-smoke-on-public-transit/586607.md?page=4)