We Live In A Different Time

Back in the 60s and early 70s (when i was a kid) there was hardly an adult in my extended family that did not smoke. I sure am glad that changed. Over the years, most of those adults kicked the habit. I did have an aunt (Grandma's youngest sister) that died of throat cancer in her mid 40s.
 
Could you imagine Dora the Explorer pushing Juul?






True enough. One of my grandfathers, a WWII veteran, used to smoke at the Sunday dinner table. He smoked Pall Mall for like sixty years. While I never smoke indoors, I continue to carry on the habit. Which is "funny" because as a kid and a teen I was always the loudest voice against my grandfather's and father's smoking habits. But then one day, about a year into my career with the US Army, we were deployed and I had a really bad day. A five ton truck picked up me and this forward observer guy and another guy in the back was smoking a Newport. I bummed one and the rest is history. My wife is constantly on me to quit but I just can seem to shake it. I enjoy it. However, no minor child of mine will smoke—ever, at least not in my presence.
 
I still remember seeing dozens of crushed cigarette butts on grocery store floors. And people smoking in their hospital beds.

And of course airplanes. There was no such thing as smoking and non-smoking sections until the 80s. Same with restaurants.

The only place I can recall where no one smoked was in church.

My father smoked Camel non-filtered cigarettes. Three packs a day.

I was raised in a cloud of blue smoke.

My earliest memory is when I was crawling around the living room floor and was under an end table next to the couch when my father accidentally dropped his cigarette and it fell onto the back of my hand. Boy did I scream!

I ended up being a smoker myself. I started when I was 17 years old working in a factory. I started out of sheer boredom and my best friend's mother worked there. She smoked Pall Malls and I started bumming cigarettes from her.

Decades later, quitting was one of the hardest things I have ever done.

Nicotine is a bitch.
 
Different times indeed. Remember lawn darts?

God, I miss those!

 
retro-vintage-candy-cigarettes.jpg
 
I remember buying for my father single cigarettes (3 for a nickel) and packs as a kid from the store when he sent me there. 1960's. For Christmas I would buy hi a carton as a gift. At that time from early 60's on 25 cents a pack then a little higher. Less then 3 dollars a carton at one point. Pall Mall and Chesterfields (no filters) were his favorite at that time.
 
We smoked at school in the late 80s... outside of course. Nobody hassled ya.

I quit maybe 15 years ago. I was driving, shook a smoke outta the pack and lit it... looked at my other hand... The one holding the steering wheel... and there was a lit cigarette in it. So, there I was all alone with a lit cigarette in each hand. Enough was enough. I wasn't smoking for the taste or to relax... it was just addiction and habit. That was the last cigarette I ever smoked.
 
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I still remember seeing dozens of crushed cigarette butts on grocery store floors. And people smoking in their hospital beds.

And of course airplanes. There was no such thing as smoking and non-smoking sections until the 80s. Same with restaurants.

While I have fond memories of the "good old days" of yore, I'm glad in live in a time where smoking is not prevalent. Always detested smoking being everywhere. My grandparents (my legal guardians) smoked. Of course most of their friends smoked. Hated going to restaurants because smoking was allowed there (which would start to change in the 80s). The last time I experienced a restaurant with a smoking section was at a Denny's in Fort Lauderdale after midnight. Unfortunately it was the only place I could find that was still open (everything at the airport was already closed).

I'm so glad that smoking has greatly diminished in our society.
 

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