"Cigarette?"

I just read a social media post that said “Imagine if everyone walking around using their smartphone was instead smoking a cigarette. That is what the 1970s were like”
 Someone replied “And the 30’s, 40’s, 50’s, 60’s, 70’s, 80’s. It wasn’t outlawed in the workplace until ‘95.”

Right now if I walk into a small outdoor space where just one person is smoking a cigarette I'm like WTF?  Then I remember how absolutely bonkers it was that there was a time not long ago in my own lifetime where nearly every person in every indoor and every outdoor space would just be chain smoking.  Bars, restaurants, doctor's office, hotel lobby, hotel room, airplanes, parks, your place of employment... didn't matter. If you could breath free air there were people lighting up.  And the crazy part is that no one fucking cared.  I mean maybe some did but you were the minority. 

As recent as 2003 when my band was on tour we went to a restaurant for breakfast in Bumfuck Kansas somewhere. They asked "smoking or non" the non smoking section was just the back portion of the room. We walked past people with ash trays full of smoldering butts next to their food. They'll tell you it makes the food taste better.  How? Is there any science to this?   A guy I was in a band with smoked and he used to be like "hold this I gotta go inside for a min" and afterward my whole hand would just reek like a Kuwaiti tire fire even after washing it 5 times.   I dated a girl who smoked and her whole insides emitted cigarette when we kissed.  I liked her but that was just too gross.  It was like her lungs were made out of ash tray.  

I remember a time when I was in like 9th or 10th grade when my parents both smoked like a train going up hill inside the house. My friend had spent the day and stayed the night at my house and then I went to his house. We were chilling in his room and his mom was yelling from the living room  "ARE YOU GUYS SMOKING IN THERE" no.  We just stunk like it was fucking 1979.  Thankfully my dad has quit since then and my mom has cut down and only smokes outside.  

All of this makes me wonder why everyone was just OK with this.  

How did an entire civilized advanced society live like this?

A new experience for me was in Chicago around the same time I was in Kansas.  We would stay out until 4am at the bars that still allowed smoking. This was during peak humidity season and when you got home your clothes were completely soaked through and smelled like you swam in cigarette water. It was so fucking gross.   I wonder if this is why fog machines were invented because music venues outlawed smoking and they needed to fill the room back up with smoke for the lighting effects.  Holy shit there was enough fucking carcinogen in the air to have a light show back in the day.    It was around this same time I remember they outlawed smoking in bars in New York City and it was hilarious to see women in scantly clad club dresses and dudes in douchey silk shirts standing in the middle of the street in the freezing cold so they could smoke, cursing "FUCKIN' MAYOR BLOOMBERG" between drags of their cigs. 

I can't see 5 feet in front of me but it's no big deal.  I'll have a Gin & Tonic for the road!

Again for those who were there...
How did an entire society live this way?!! 

Oh my god airplanes.  I didn't fly when smoking was allowed but I've been in planes that still have ash trays.  I can't even imagine.  You get one person with strong perfume or someone has some stinky food and it's all you can smell for the whole flight.  Did everyone just stink like cigarette smoke all the time?  What about like clothing stores?  Did you buy a new shirt and get it home and it just stunk?  People folding laundry while smoking? Why did you even wash it? 

And it wasn't even that long ago.  You see it in old movies.  I saw a flick from the 30's where a woman felt slighted if a man didn't offer her a cigarette.  Like what?  They were so engrained into every facet of life.   Cigarettes dangling out of mouths.  Between everyone's fingers like an extension of their hands.  As pointed out by the inspiration of this post, not much different than cellphones now.  I wonder if people in the future will look back at photos and movies of the last couple decades and think it looked strange and gross that everyone had a device in their hands.  I mean it kind of does now.  

Anyway, smoke em if you got em.  Or not. Actually. Please. Not.  

I know some people that still smoke but they are respectful.  Thanks.  I wish you didn't but thanks for keeping it to yourself.