Culture changes that younger folks take for granted nowadays - smoking!!

JubalJubal
in General

One of the other threads got me thinking about culture changes that younger folks take for granted nowadays. By "take for granted", I mean that people find it inconceivable that society could have functioned differently, or that rational people would have behaved differently.

Smoking

Nowadays I see clerks at store carding people in their 30's and 40's for cigarettes, which seems so weird to me. It seems like such a short time ago that I could walk into a corner store at age 12 and buy cigarettes for my dad. Also recall vividly the students smoking area in high school (in it's last years, you had to have a signed permission slip from your parent). Restaurants and airplanes had smoking sections, and I HATED being on a plane as a kid because the wall of smoke rolled into the "non smoking" section so quickly.

But my all-time favorite example - HOSPITALS!! Imagine being in ICU, and someone strolls into your room smoking a cigarette. Great visual for this is the hospital scene in the original "Jaws"

While I do believe that every adult has the right to choose on this subject, I am grateful that I get smoke-free airplanes, restaurants, and hospitals nowadays.

If I had a point when I started this topic, I've wandered off and forgotten what it was. Get off my lawn!!

Comments

  • pmvinespmvines

    When I was a kid the cigarettes weren't behind the counter you just went and grabbed them and brought them to the register at grocery stores , or they had some at the counter in gas stations. Also has the vending machines. My mother got so tired of me stealing them that she started buying them for me lol. Quit when I was 21 but by then had been smoking for 10 yrs

  • jonnyquestjonnyquest

    In the 80's when we had a smoking area for teachers and students at the high school..As a student all you needed was a permission slip signed by your parents..

  • TheFunCartelTheFunCartel

    Several pro athletes infamously smoked on the sidelines of games—Keith Hernandez in baseball and Fred Belitnikoff in football are a couple of examples.

  • disneysamuraidisneysamurai

    I’m old enough to remember walking into a restaurant and the hostess asking “smoking or non?”. People used to smoke all the time at theme parks like Disney and Universal too and they just recently within the last few years or so banned smoking from the parks completely, which I’m all for because I hate the smell of cigarettes and it’s a smell that people carry around with them. Bars and clubs in Florida I believe still allow it.

  • disneysamuraidisneysamurai

    @TheFunCartel Wasn’t chewing tobacco a big thing in baseball?

  • TheFunCartelTheFunCartel

    @disneysamurai Yes it was but there was a few that preferred their tobacco on fire.

  • [Deleted User]gem7 (deleted user)

    Getting gas today I witnessed a woman pumping gas and trying to light a cigarette. I went inside the store and saw two policeman and pointed out what she was doing. They ran out but she had lit her arm on fire. They threw a blanket over her, wrestled her to the ground and put the fire out. Then they gave her a ticket. Turns out she didn't have a license for that firearm.

  • JubalJubal

    Getting gas today I witnessed a woman pumping gas and trying to light a cigarette. I went inside the store and saw two policeman and pointed out what she was doing. They ran out but she had lit her arm on fire. They threw a blanket over her, wrestled her to the ground and put the fire out. Then they gave her a ticket. Turns out she didn't have a license for that firearm.

    =) =) =)

  • AL3XGage_06AL3XGage_06

    For true cultural changes media is way more diverse now.

    Trends and Viral media exists but people aren't tuning in for the next episode of the series at 8pm on Thursday anymore. The last of those cultural titans really was Game of Thrones which ended 6 years ago. By then ER, X-Files, LOST, and all the others had long come and died off. Now you've got shows launch on Amazon in 3 episode sets and people watch it sometime in the next couple days.

    For better or worse the watercooler community or what existed of it is dead.

  • cuds23cuds23

    I just watched that Dylan moVie on a plane. It was interesting seeing him smoking with woodie Guthrie in the hospital. I’m too young to experience smoking on an airplane. I also grew up in San Fran so not much smoking but moved to Virginia and you’d see smoking sections in restaurants

  • TheFunCartelTheFunCartel

    @cuds23 We took a field trip in the 1970s to Philip Morris’ Headquarters in Richmond, VA. That state was a last vestige of public smoking until about 10-15 years ago. Virginia was a weird state that preserved some cringeworthy stuff up until recently. Every kid back in the day took a field trip to one of the many preserved plantations in Virginia regardless of color. Unthinkable today with good reason. It was an uncomfortable feeling for the students even back then and a fight broke out on the bus between a white student and a black student when I went because the white kid told the black kid he was lucky he wasn’t his master. The black kid tattooed the white kid with a few punches. Made my day because the white kid was a tool.

  • wilderdudewilderdude

    So many ashtrays in American cars of the 80s lol.

    I remember my fifth grade teacher, he'd be putting out a cigarette as he walked into the classroom. Often smoked at lunch and during recess, no tobacco free campus back then lol.

    I remember telling my son and nephew about it, blew their minds.

  • wilderdudewilderdude
    edited May 2025

    @TheFunCartel field trip to Phillip Morris reminds me of this hilarious story of a black kid going on a field trip to a cotton plantation lol. The guys storytelling is incredible
    Edit: upon talking to another mod I was told you can repost the video but put a spoiler in the comment, Thank you for your understanding. -Stormy

  • TheFunCartelTheFunCartel

    @wilderdude That about summed up the plantation field trip when I went. Pretty messed up that a state and federal funded public school system used to schedule things like this without foresight or a second thought.

  • cuds23cuds23

    @gem7 i don’t believe that story at all

  • cuds23cuds23

    @TheFunCartel that is interesting and also troublesome. I was actually a 12th grade teacher at an inner city school in Norfolk. Teaching va and us civics/history. No field trips in my class but coming from the west coast the va history was very new to me.

  • TheFunCartelTheFunCartel

    @cuds23 I was in Hampton. They really white washed Virginia history back in the 70s

  • JubalJubal
    edited May 2025

    Trends and Viral media exists but people aren't tuning in for the next episode of the series at 8pm on Thursday anymore. The last of those cultural titans really was Game of Thrones which ended 6 years ago. By then ER, X-Files, LOST, and all the others had long come and died off. Now you've got shows launch on Amazon in 3 episode sets and people watch it sometime in the next couple days.

    @AL3XGage_06 Hard to disagree with you on most of this. I grew up on shows like MASH, Cheers, Star Trek (Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, etc), and am still used to the idea of TV seasons being 20+ episodes long, and for shows that had a continuing storyline, you had to wait a whole week to find out what happened next. Of course, writers often used the mid-season or season finale cliffhanger and you had to wait MONTHS sometimes to find out what happened next ("was Riker really going to kill Picard to stop the Borg?!?!?"). And if the show got cancelled, like ALF, you never did get to find out how it ended.

    One of the joys of going to older Star Trek conventions was in fact all the fan discussion about how the next season was going to resolve the last seasons cliffhanger. As you put it, the 'water cooler chatter'.

    I'll admit that I do have a hard time adapting to the new models of TV shows. Yes, I love "The Mandalorian" and many other Star Wars & Marvel mini-series, but the seasons are only 8 episodes long! And many of these Amazon-type shows are intentionally written with only a few seasons, so that there's fewer long-running shows out there. Who knows, maybe that's a good thing, but it takes away some of the fun from my point of view.

  • [Deleted User]gem7 (deleted user)

    @cuds23 Sometimes weird stories are hard to beleive but you can ask the blind man. He saw it too.

  • NickoliNickoli

    Back in my day, we used to have to grind up the flower and roll it up. These days kids can just push a button and smoke. Why I oughta

  • [Deleted User]preciousthings (deleted user)

    It's interesting to reflect on the cultural changes around smoking. When I was under 10, my mom would write a note allowing me to buy her a pack of Marlboro Light 100s, and I’d go to the store with money to get them. I even remember going to the doctor’s office where the doctor would smoke while talking to you or during a Pap smear. It’s crazy to think how much attitudes toward smoking have changed in just 30 years!

  • [Deleted User]preciousthings (deleted user)

    I remember my mom having me light her cigarettes on our stove, sometimes using the coil burner while I waited for it to heat up. I'd even puff on it a bit before handing it to her. It's wild to think about how kids were depicted smoking in movies back then. Now, my boys freak out when they see someone smoking, and I’m not sure where that comes from since I’m pretty open about it. I understand I grew up in a different culture, but it’s fascinating how quickly perceptions can change—even when it feels like they don’t.

  • JohnR1972JohnR1972

    In addition to changes in the public acceptance of smoking, there have been massive changes in entertainment. I remember being the TV remote control before TV’s came with remote controls. Dad would tell one of us kids to change the channel or turn the volume up or down. The first TV remotes were acoustic rather than infrared so they made an annoying, audible tone when you pressed a button, but they were a lot better than having to get up to adjust the volume.

    I also remember the Star Spangled Banner at the conclusion of the “broadcast day” and the test pattern that was displayed on all 3 channels (ABC, CBS, and NBC) when they signed off the air each day around midnight and didn’t start broadcasting again until about 6:00 am.

  • [Deleted User]gem7 (deleted user)

    @JohnR1972 Holy scheiss, you just brought back fun memories. My dad never missed Friday Night Fights.

  • CuddlesofcuddleCuddlesofcuddle

    Imagine choosing the smoking section and lighting up a joint that looks like a cig.
    Oh dear, what's that wonderful horrible smell 😂💨

  • SunsetSnugglesSunsetSnuggles

    Wal-Mart has apparently stopped selling cigarettes in many of its stores.

    It still amuses me to see the non-smoking sign in all the airplanes. On my most recent flight, it dinged and turned off for a moment, which gave us all a little chuckle.

    I remember seeing people constantly smoking outside of buildings and on street corners when I was growing up. Then when vapes became a fad, you'd see those massive clouds come out of car windows. Nowadays it feels rare to notice someone smoking in any form, outside of a bar atmosphere.

    @gem7
    Delighted to see you back, dear sir! I knew immediately upon reading that joke that it had to be you. 😄

    ~ Sunset Snuggles

    🫂 Enthusiast 🌄 Travel Junkie 📸 Shutter Bug

  • Darkeyed_maleDarkeyed_male
    edited June 2025

    The issue in my head is more of retailers ignoring your age and card you, because of new hidden policies using old policies as an excuse.

    Originally you were carded to stop minors from purchasing items. Now, It's clearly not.

    If you can't tell that an older person is over 21, then how can you tell the difference between a dollar bill and a twenty dollar bill?

    And using the "ABC is coming down on us," is thin. We need to have this conversation. It's ridiculous.

    Selective use of our brains is the new culture.

  • JubalJubal

    The issue in my head is more of retailers ignoring your age and card you, because of new hidden policies using old policies as an excuse.

    Originally you were carded to stop minors from purchasing items. Now, It's clearly not.

    If you can't tell that an older person is over 21, then how can you tell the difference between a dollar bill and a twenty dollar bill?

    And using the "ABC is coming down on us," is thin. We need to have this conversation. It's ridiculous.

    Selective use of our brains is the new culture.

    Yup. "Zero tolerance" policies are often an excuse for "zero thinking". When I go to buy a bottle of Irish whisky at the liquor store, they don't card me. But EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. that I pick up any kind of beer or wine at Walmart, they card me, even though I have gray hair that's over 21 years old.

  • UREverythingUREverything

    Single heater .25 cents. Grab three and 40oz

  • Darkeyed_maleDarkeyed_male
    edited June 2025

    @Jubal
    Ignoring our brains for a paycheck..damn..can't do it. I will always be the one in a thousand (maybe in millions it seems currently) that asks why. Smoking bans seem selective to me as well. Hahaha I don't smoke but goodness gracious 😅

    As a server we hated non smoking cause the smokers were busy smoking, non smokers (at this time in my history) argued. They would just be looking at each other lol, If the kitchen was slow. Now we have phones...

    Almost forgot about that lol

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