Thanks. Longtime viewer, first time commenter.
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To me the big lesson I take from history here is how hard and slow the process was to make smoking less acceptable and reclaim some smoke-free space. I remember school lessons telling us to do things like write little notes to our parents and stick them in their cigarette packs.
That didn’t go over well.
And now people I guess just want to forget about it all!
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No, they are clearly not… 
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The usual Republican hypocrisy
I remember ashtrays in theatres and cinemas but it was a very long time ago. The good old days when my grandfather had a classy sterling silver cigarette box to offer guests.
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OMG, i think I read about that in a Judy Blume novel and tried it when I was about 11 yo, replacing my mom’s cigarettes with little rolled up notes about the harms of smoking.
Did not go over well.
And then there was the “prank” where you get a stiff horse hair and insert it into the cigarette. That hurts everyone involved. So stinky.
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It wouldn’t surprise me if something like that happened in a Judy Blume novel but I remember a scene of that in Ramona And Her Father by Beverly Cleary.
And, tangentially, the books of Cleary, Blume, and Betsy Byars all tend to run together in my head because they formed a special literary trinity in my childhood.
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You are brand new here.
A hint - read upthread, in fact, read the whole thread.
In my first few months I had my ass deservedly kicked here more than once for not reading more upthread and into the room.
I do wish you luck - it’s bloody lovely here.
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Yeah, I’d lead with…
Christ, what an asshole
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Doh! I do believe you’re right. I do conflate those childhood favorites. Thanks for the correction.
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Truth. I also use it sometimes as a counter to the objection that we can never achieve gun control in the US, because it is so entrenched and the interests have seemingly unending resources. The same could be said (and moreso) of big tobbacco and smoking, yet relatively speaking, the reduction in public indoor smoking and cigarrette use is dramatic. It’s just that it will take time. It’s still worth doing.
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i think the thing to remember is that people howled and screamed over the smoking bans – not to mention how all the bars and restaurants were going to go out of business – and then a few years later, nearly everyone agreed how nice things were
sometimes law needs to lead with what’s right, not just what’s going to be easily accepted.
( see also: same sex marriage and desegregated schools )
[ eta: and i think gun restrictions would fit this pattern nicely too ]
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Oh yeah, that’s true. But as soon as it let out…
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Must have been a local law, then. ISTR no smoking signs and announcements before movies when I was a kid. I’m not sure that they were enforced in any way, but I think those were the rules where I grew up.
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OMG, we took the train from Paris to Strasbourg in 1998 and we didn’t make reservations for the one non-smoking car. All of the rest of the cars were full of military guys and they smoked the ENTIRE time. They looked directly at us whenever they’d light their cigarettes. (It was kinda funny in retrospect.)
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