I recently attended a BBQ party hosted by some friends. The couple was celebrating the 1st birthday of their 3rd child. While I was with my ex-, we hung out a bit with the couple, so knew that they smoked cigarettes occasionally after dinner or drinks. That’s definitely not uncommon. But what we experienced at the BBQ party was like we were brought back to an earlier time.
First off, everyone smoked! The couple, their parents, siblings, cousins, their spouses, etc. The children of course, did not. But being exposed to so much smoking, I assume they will when they are of age. Marlboro Reds seem to be the cigarette of choice for the family. The event was outside, and it was quite hot out, but they all mostly had a cigarette dangling from their mouths seemingly non-stop. The grandmother was holding the baby with no concern of all the 2nd hand smoke being blown on the baby. And they would just drop the butts over the yard, so there were butts everywhere you stepped. At one point, the baby was crawling around and would randomly pick up a butt. I noticed it and alerted the grandfather, and he just laughed and gently slapped it from her hand. At one point I had to go in the house to use the restroom. Same thing. Everyone inside was also just smoking away and there were ashtrays everywhere.
Anyway, this is definitely an MPSIMS item, but it shocked me enough that I had to get it off my chest, and all the 2nd hand smoke I got out of it!
I had a college roommate who smoked. One time, his parents visited for his birthday, and the present they gave him was a carton of cigarettes and a large ashtray.
Yeah, your story sounds like you stepped into a time portal to 40 or so years ago. Did this take place in the states? I’ve heard smoking is still very big in Europe.
I grew up with parents who were both smokers (they’re both still alive and smoking! Well my dad finally quit but I think my mom still smokes). I remember when the afternoon sun slanted through the window you could clearly see a thick layer of blue smoke throughout the house, floating at about eye level.
US is about 2% lower than the UK, but 25% less than Russia (the highest). France, Spain, Germany and Turkey are all up there. Looking at some of the low rated countries, I wonder at the significance of religion.
I recently went on a trip with my mom and brother, both of whom still smoke. I asked them not to smoke in the car, as it gives me a splitting headache (though I’m a former smoker myself). I thought we would never reach our destination, since they wanted to stop every hour or so! At least I didn’t need to worry about pee breaks.
I tried to be understanding but by the end of the trip I was thoroughly over it. At one point, we had gotten up at four in the morning to get my brother to a medical clinic (Problem related to smoking? Yeah I think so). We walked out to the parking lot, I got in the car…a few minutes later I got out of the car to find them smoking one for the road. I was pretty fucking salty about it.
Oh and after that clinic visit, when the doctor had specifically instructed my brother not to smoke for 48 hours…he started smoking right away. As I said, I’m a former smoker myself, I have some empathy, but that fucker didn’t even try.
My Dad used to repair TVs and a very common complaint was There’s something wrong with my “color” control, the picture never looks natural. That’s because you need to wipe off the three inches of nicotine/ciggi smoke that’s covering the screen.
I know a fervent dedicated smoker. It’s so trashy, so low-class.
and It seems smoking is the favored activity of the mentally compromised. This smoker stinks to high heaven of cigarette smoke and overwhelming stench of laundry detergent. (two bad smells don’t cancel each other out!). Her house has cheap Glade plug-ins and Himalayan salt lamps and candles, on top of a blue haze of smoke. (when she was married, she had a birthday party for her 5 year old, her whole family was there, in her house in the winter, all of them smoking except the 5 year old. I nearly hurled.)
We still have a group of people at work that smoke. The company won’t permit it on company property, so they have to walk all the way to the street. Doesn’t deter too many, even in July Arizona.
But anyway, I can’t smell it on anyone’s clothes anymore, like I used to. Do they have less stinky cigs these days, or is it as simpler as smoking in the great outdoors? (It’s not my sense of smell, which is still fine)
I remember the old psych wards when smoking was still allowed indoors… The air was so thick you needed to fan before you could properly discern who was there. And always the stench of old roll-ups mixed with incontinence… Yum!
I still smoke, though only three cigs a day nowadays. And never indoors.
The college I taught at actually painted a thick white line at the 50’ mark, all around the building. With dozens of students shivering (Feb, 0º, no jacket of course).
A friend of mine is a heavy smoker. When he visits, we have to be outside, because he has to smoke one after the other. It wouldn’t surprise me if he smokes four packs a day. I have never seen him without a cigarette.
I live in Ohio, and a friend and I went to an outdoor wedding in Kentucky a number of years ago. It was way out in the boonies. Everyone smoked at the wedding. My friend and I were the only ones not smoking.
This makes me wonder how old the OP is. Even though I stopped smoking many years ago, I’m old enough to remember when what was described was an every day thing. I don’t necessarily like to be surrounded by smoke but it wouldn’t be odd or annoying enough for me to comment on it.[shrug] People smoke.
This is far and away my family’s least favorite thing about our move from the US to Europe a few years ago.
On the upside, smoking indoors is widely, almost universally, banned.
On the downside, this means lots of cigarettes on the sidewalks, next to entry doors, and on patios. Outdoor restaurant seating is basically un-usable. All those beautiful Paris terraces, and we sit sullenly inside.
I’m old enough to remember having to sit in the smoking section of airplanes, and leaving bars smelling like smoke. By the way, I’ve smoked many cigarettes in my life after drinking at bars, so I’m not judging. But I don’t remember ever encountering entire families of multiple generations that all smoke. I’m talking about dozens of family members. Since everyone at the party was drinking, perhaps they were all smoking more than normal, but I also don’t remember every square foot of a backyard being littered with cigarette butts.
Perhaps it is a sign of the times, as historically, it was more common to have mixed couples; and by mixed I mean one spouse who smokes while the other doesn’t. These days, I’d think that it would be rarer as I don’t think many non-smokers would tolerate a spouse that smokes. So smokers are limited to being with other smokers, and thus you get entire families of smokers? Just a guess.
I know what you mean, but also am amazed by how sensitized I am (and I assume others are) these days. My mom smoked until the mid-70s, and I misspent my youth in pool halls where everyone smoked. But get me within 20 feet of a smoker now and I’m irritated.
ObAnecdote: I remember in 1979 being in a restaurant in Palo Alto (Celia’s on University for any old-timers) and some woman went ballistic, screaming at a man for smoking. That seemed VERY weird at the time that she was so bent about it; he was just smoking! Nowadays, of course, we’d all get it.
Two years before that, also in Palo Alto, a man was smoking a cigar in a grocery store. I was a cocky 16-year-old, went over and told him, sotto voce, “Sir, do you realize that federal law prohibits smoking in a food store?” He looked guilty, thanked me, and put it out. That also wouldn’t happen today–he’d be well aware that he can smoke damned well anywhere he wants because this is Amurrika and he has rights, you know! (OK, actually he’d know better in the first place, but he at least would know it wasn’t federal law.)
I think cigarette smoke still reeks. I have a student that smokes and apparently thinks the cool way to hold a cigarette when it’s not actually in his mouth is between middle finger and forefinger while he hooks his thumb through a beltloop. Very cool look . The result is the smoke from the cig clings to his clothes and oh my god does it stink. There are other students that smoke, and I can usually smell it on them as well.
My dad used to smoke in the house, both pot and cigarettes. He’d always have an ashtray on the coffee table as he’d sit and smoke while watching TV. I’m mortified when I think what my clothes must’ve smelled like when I left the house. He still smokes but hasn’t smoked in the house in decades, thank god.
Just to be clear, I didn’t mean to be dismissive of you, Jug. I’m of that weird age where my life seems to be split pretty evenly between the “all smoke all the time” and “smoking is is evil and must be verboten!” eras, thus my wondering about your age.
Being European, that sounds like a huge blanket statement. This being the SDMB, someone already pulled out stats that tell that, not really. Russia is a special case, be it smoking or boozing, or life expectancy.
Here in Scandinavia, smoking has become a very class-divided activity, correlating with education. Out of several dozen, I have exactly two friends who smoke, or around 5 %.
To illustrate, 10 years ago, a friend of mine, a university lecturer and a life-long smoker, stopped, because she no longer had company at the Uni smoking area. Among the uneducated, and the trade school population, I hear smoking is still quite common. But among the people I associate with, it is very rare, always a surprise, and a bit jarring, to learn that they are a smoker.
In Los Angeles I cant think of any friend who smokes tobacco. Coincidentally, as I was leaving Ralphs my neighborhood grocery store a few minutes ago I noticed an elderly woman smoking in the parking lot. It stood out because I see so few smokers these days.
and a very common complaint was There’s something wrong with my “color” control, the picture never looks natural. That’s because you need to wipe off the three inches of nicotine/ciggi smoke that’s covering the screen.
. The result is the smoke from the cig clings to his clothes and oh my god does it stink. There are other students that smoke, and I can usually smell it on them as well.