If you are a young person you have no idea how bad everyone and everything smelled until at least the 1990s.

Yeah, it was weird. Most restaurants had a non-smoking section because allowing people to smoke everywhere was the norm. Leaded gasoline. Little kids playing with real fireworks. The 70s and 80s were a wild ride of irresponsibility.

It wasn't all bad, though. It was cool being a kid at times. Playing outside almost every day until dinner time with the other kids in the neighborhood.

Jokes on you. You also didn't know how bad everyone smelled because you smelled just like them.

My neighbour smokes indoors. When she opens the door, I get the smell you are talking about.

In the 80s and 90s a cool ash tray was a good gift for literally anyone. Even teenagers since half of them were smoking reefer

Once in a great while, I have a brain fart and tell the restaurant host "two for non".

Also once about eight years ago I was in Kentucky doing the bourbon trail. It's pretty rural aside from the distilleries, and finding somewhere to eat lunch on Sunday was hard as almost everything is closed, we ended up at some place they called a bourbon gastropub, but that meant that the dining room side was the only part fit to eat in, but all that was open was the horrible bar which was made of raw particle board, and there were members of the Klan sitting at it, who had the leather vests with the blood drop cross. There was literally nowhere else to eat so we ordered, but I felt terrified the whole time, and as we were wrapping up one of the Klan lit a cigarette at the bar and just sat there, and nobody said anything. It was quite stunning.

I always thought I had bad indoor allergies until i moved out of my parents house. They have chain smoked inside with the windows closed for my whole life. Moving out was the best thing I ever did for my health.

I hate cigarettes now, especially since I quit smoking myself(didnt smoke inside though) I don't even know why I started in the first place. I'm dumb I guess?

Dont worry americans if you want to smell smoke 24/7 just come to france or eastern europe.

going to the grocery store and seeing an employee with a big dust-mop going up and down the aisles pushing along an ever-growing pile of cigarette butts because everyone would just drop 'em and step on 'em and keep on shopping...

I grew up in a house with smokers, picked it up as a teenager and smoked a pack a day for 20 years after that. Now I can smell someone lighting up 2 blocks away.

It's kind of crazy. As time passed without smoking, I noticed many things smelled differently to me. For example, I was repulsed by the smell of cheddar cheese the first time I smelled it after quitting. I can't put it into words properly but it smelled so different from what I was expecting that the thought of taking a bite made my stomach turn.

I remember coming home from shows in high school/college and I would have to shower and throw my clothes in the washer. I was so happy when smoking was finally banned in clubs.

Living in Norway, it always strikes me how disgusting smoking still is, even outside, when i go to central europe. You get completely unused to the amount of smoke and stink e.g. outside of stores

Grew up in Asia. The less fancy one. Used to go buy my Dad cigarettes from across the street and toss out the filters when I was like 8 lol.

*He's been smoke free for over 22 years. The amount of disinformation from Big tobacco, at least where I grew up, was insane. He is a very educated man and still... Cigarette was a status symbol, symbol of sophistication, when he was growing up.

You can also just take a trip to the Waffle House off I-95 in Florence, SC. It allowed smoking when I was there in 2014 and probably still does.

I have a old friend from school times and both of his parents smoked heavily making his freshly washed clothes smell like ashes. Every time he opened his sports bag in the changing rooms I could feel the smell meters away. Fortunately he never developed a smoking habit.

Well, now the streets just smell like weed instead.

Despite never having touched a cigarette in my life, my mom smokes pretty heavily... Knowing i probably stink to everyone else really sucks ;-;

Since my colleagues have missed the invention of Deodorant and washing themselves I'd beg to differ.

i’m old enough to remember smoking sections on airplanes. Not to be dramatic but, I felt like I was going to die!

Born in early 90's. We were still responding "non" to the first question that was asked entering a restaurant.

I still remember when it was okay to smoke inside hospitals. Fun times...
When I quit, it took just a few weeks to recover my sense of smell, and I wish it didn't because my house reeked of acrid smoke for months. Even my clean clothes smelt like unwashed smoked ass, it was sickening.

Wish I could still buy one of those.

Even as a kid I always liked the smell

And the cold tobacco doesn't bother me either

However there's one tobacco smell I don't like, when someone smoked a cigaret (in cold weather) very fast before boarding the train/bus. It's a very strong, musky smell

I was born in the early 80s. Yes I remember a time when so many people smoked and indoor smoking was extremely common.

Even children's places were ok for adults to smoke in. You know on how many arcade bars today they have cup holders bolted onto the machines for people to put their drinks (alcoholic or otherwise)? Back in the 80s and 90s, they had the same thing in many of those arcades... but they were bolted on ashtrays.

My mother in law smokes, so a visit to her house always results in throwing whatever clothes we’ve taken directly into the washing machine when we get home.

Worse though, is that it takes a few days for the smell to leave my CPAP machine. I put a new filter in, but it still somehow lingers.

A lot of countries still do. Japan has changed a lot in the 15isj years since I first came and even more in the decade I've been living here

I quite a pack a day habit 12 years ago and one of the first things I noticed when my sense of taste and smell returned was how aweful smokers smelled when they'd walk into a building after a cigarette. I had thought the smell was off me within maybe 10 minutes but I found out quick that the smell never really goes away. Feels like a previous life thinking I smoked because I can't see myself ever smoking even a single cig for the rest of my life because it's so revolting to me now. Oddly enough, however, sometimes I'll see someone light up a fresh cig in a movie or something and I'll get this strong 2-3 second craving for a smoke. It's so strange how even over 12 years since my last one, I still get these strange urges for a cig by seeing someone of TV light one up.

At one of my first jobs in an office, everyone had an ashtray at their desk and there was always someone smoking at any given time throughout the day. Same with the breakroom. Sometime around then was when they started making people go to the breakroom to smoke, then a few years later it moved to having to go outside, which just meant walking through the cloud of smoke surrounding the door to get inside. Well, at least one thing has changed for the better since then. 😄

Noone could smell anything from smoking so much, the smoke stank paradox