For people too young to remember, a lot of people were against smoking bans. The argument was pretty simple: "Why not let the market decide? If you want to go to a bar with no smokers, go to one that doesn't allow smoking." This was persuasive to a lot of people.
But I recall that non-smoking bars were extremely rare and I would always end up smelling like smoke every time I went to the bar. The problem was basically that going to a non-smoking bar would exclude any friends that smoked, so bars that became non-smoking were limiting themselves to only those patrons who didn't smoke themselves and had no one in their group who did.
In hindsight, it betrays a fundamental problem with the "let the market decide" argument: there are situations where a small number of consumers with uncommon preferences can end up altering the whole market such that the majority of consumers are forced into un-ideal purchases. In the case of smoking at bars, it was actually better to say "Hey you few people who smoke, you're kinda fucking up everything and we do actually need big government to step in and stop you from doing that."
Ah yes, the smoking section, and the second-hand-smoking section in restaurants
as a young person who hates cigarettes and recently went to las vegas for the first time, it was wild walking around the casinos thinking "this is what everywhere used to smell like, its incredibly disgusting!" I'm glad we managed to stop smoking indoors, probably one of the greatest advances of society.
If you as much as had a coffee out you used to have to immediately wash everything you were wearing down to your socks. Turns out, jeans don't automatically stink if you cross your front door with them. Who knew.
It's been a while, but that tobacco smell on clothes was so weird. It smelled sweaty even if it wasn't, like you had been jogging through a house fire. So gross.
I remember cigarette smoke on airplanes.
I remember growing up in Ohio when we banned smoking, there were commercials CONSTANTLY about it.
Smoke FREE Ohio vs smoke LESS Ohio.
And even in school I could tell that smoke LESS Ohio was going to force places that didn't have smoking, to allow smoking in certain areas.
And the guy in the commercial for it acted incredulous that they would ban smoking in bars! The horror! A place where people are densely packed clearly should be filled with cancerous death fog, slowly killing people who want to be at the bar but not partake in death sticks.
I was super happy when the ban happened. I hated going to nearby states without the smoking ban.
It took years for golden corral to stop smelling like shit.
Negative health effects aside, I do kinda miss the smell of certain places - the smoking tables of a restaurant, an 80's arcade, the back bar of a country pub... not in a way that I liked the smell at all, but that's what it always was, and taking an element away from it leaves a noticeable gap.
I suppose people of a later generation will never remember the difference, much like I never really knew anything but colour TV.
That said, I absolutely 100% do not miss going out on the piss, getting home somehow, and waking up in my clothes that absolutely reeked of smoke. It was horrific. A quick wash never seemed to clear it fully either - it was either a wash that lasted so long that it looked like you bought your clothes from the children's aisle, or a whole day line drying to get rid of that stale smoke smell.
I'm glad the world is moving on.
I remember this happening, and the smell went from just dirty and grim to a little bit of body odour. Many people complained, because they didn't want to smell people's BO, whereas 90% of others were just happy to not have clothes that stunk, or to be able to not have a sore throat after being at a club.
With that said, vaping is so much more commonplace today than smoking was. I've been to a few gigs in the last month or two, and people just vape wherever they want. Pretty much every venue, shopping center, and indoor area says you shouldn't vape, but it's just not enforced at all.
A couple years ago I was in I-Hop with the fam and this young woman came in reeking like a walking ashtray. It brought back a semi-nostalgic memory of people I used to know who smoked so much it was in their clothes, their hair, their furniture, etc. - it was part of them. I never minded the smoke itself, it was that rancid cigarette butt stench that I always hated.
My mom used to pick the smoking section. I'll never be able to empathize with that.
Still true in some parts of the EU
What a nightmare
I honestly don't know really anyone who thinks it's a bad thing, and back when it happened I was in bars a lot and knew some proper alkies who loved their ciggies.
It's crazy, people used to smoke on the dance floor even. Like the beat turns from fast to slow and you stamp out your cigarette so you can dance the slow one. Or even worse, you don't stamp it out, just put it between your lips and keep puffing while gently dancing away to the slow song with a partner. (Careful, don't burn her hair.)
I used to smoke and we never smoked inside because we knew it made the house stink and the walls yellow. The closest we got to smoking inside was smoking in the garage when it was so cold in the winter that it really wasn't a good idea to be outside in the first place.
I remember getting stuck in the smoking section of cracker barrel because the good section was full as a kid.
First time I flew on an airplane I sat in the smoking section. I was 15 yrs old then.
Still does in Japan and Montreal
In Greece they still smoke there, even if it's banned.
I grew up in ghetto whitetrash America, wheee bit more than cigarettes
Some cities still do.
Now it smells like skittles and creme brulee.
Cigarettes smell gross objectively but I get a wave of.....nostalgia I think? when I smell it
My parents never smoked, but on the rare occasion of going to a sit-down restaurant the whole place smelled of cigs despite being in the "non smoking" section. You know because you're still in the same room with them.
And when my dad would visit his fire department friends they'd all hang around and at least one of them had one lit up.
We do live in better times in some ways
I hate how so many cities smell like asphalt and burnt rubber. It is a disgusting smell and it makes our cities feel so dirty and nasty.
