Did We Really Smoke That Much?

[max]

I have been watching some of the original Perry Mason shows and I can't believe how much everybody smokes. Everyone has a cigarette box and all meetings between characters start with a smoke.

My dad smoked and I smoked for a few years, but I don't remember it being non stop. I also don't believe that we knew anyone with a cigarette box or one of those fancy silver or gold big desk type lighters.

 

[Frank237]

Maybe I notice it more as "The Day the Earth Stood Still" is one of the favorite movies from my kid days...but the scene at Walter Reed Hospital, where the two Doctors are discussing Klatuu's condition...BOTH smoking! Imagine being in your Doctors office TODAY and as he's discusssing your checkup he offers you a smoke, then lights UP!!

How times have changed.

 

[ohiobuckeye]

Oh yes. I grew up in the 40's and 50's surrounded by a cloud of smoke. In our family and their circle of friends, the non smokers were almost non existant. All the men were smokers and most of the women. Cigarettes, cigars, and pipes were fired up anywhere and everywhere. Stores, restaurants, buses, trains, even movie theaters were filled with clouds of smoke. Church is about the only place I remember that was smoke free but everyone fired up as soon as they cleared the front door. There were quite a few desk lighters around, and many people carried the pocket size cigarette cases, but most of the desk top boxes (humidors, I think they were called)that I remember, were reserved for cigars.
Never thought much about it, but you are right....lighting up and offering a smoke was the way many conversations were started.

 

[tbury]

I have been watching some of the original Perry Mason shows and I can't believe how much everybody smokes. Everyone has a cigarette box and all meetings between characters start with a smoke.

My dad smoked and I smoked for a few years, but I don't remember it being non stop. I also don't believe that we knew anyone with a cigarette box or one of those fancy silver or gold big desk type lighters.

Cigarette companies were big backers of Hollywood and made sure there was a lot of smoking in the movies. All the big stars used to be used in print ads for various cigarettes. It still goes on today, just notice how many brand name items there are in any movie. The companies pay "product placement" fees to the production companies.

 

[LedFowl]

Bowling league back in the day: When you got home, your clothes stunk from all the smoke they absorbed.

 

[mudcat100]

I remember my mother smoked.Camel non-filters.Riding in the car with her with the windows up is exactly why I never started. I know it was bad for her health but it certainly kept me from starting.

 

[Damn Yankee]

I'd Walk a Mile For A Camel

 

[blujax01]

I used to joke that I only smoked a half a pack a day - I smoked the other pack and a half at night.

In the old days we smoked on airplanes. In the back of course, I guess there was some sort of invisible force field that prevented the smoke from drifting forward.
The only two places I didn't smoke were elevators and church. Well, I probably did hit one or two in an elevator if I was alone.

Two packs is 40 cigarettes. If you are awake 18 hours, that's a cigarette every 27 minutes. Figure about 7 minutes smoke time per cigarette and yeah, we did smoke that much.

Glad I'm off them and have empathy for those who still "enjoy" getting their fix. I've been clean since October 2009 and this is the second time I quit. The first time lasted over 5 years and it took another 13 years after I took them back up to gather the courage to go through the living hell of withdrawal once again. Honestly, it was easier to give up cocaine back when I had that issue in the 70's.

 

[chief38]

Next time you watch a Bogie movie like the Maltese Falcon or Casablanca, just watch how many butts he smokes.........

When I was a kid and we gathered for occasions at my Grandparents house, there were CLOUDS of smoke all over (windows closed of course). Cigars, Pipes, Cigarettes, heck, I probably smoked almost a pack a visit without even lighting up!

I do have an occasional Cigar and smoke my pipe once in a while, but I gave up Cigarettes 26 years ago.

chief38

 

[canoeguy]

In WWII, tobacco companies did thier part to help the war effort and hook a whole generation by putting three cigarrettes in every "C" ration for troops in the field.

When I joined the Navy in 1979, you could buy tax free cigarretes on the ship or Navy Exchange, so smoking was cheap for sailors. Now, there are few places on a ship where people can smoke, some smokers have to wait in line to crowd into some small compartment and smoke a cigarrette. We called the smoking space "The Crackhouse" on my last ship....

 

[walnutred]

As a kid I remember our Preacher smoking from the pulpit. This would have been around 63 or 64. I started smoking because I noticed smokers got more breaks on the construction sights I worked on. They could sit down and light up a cigarette and no one noticed. If I sat down and poured a cup of coffee I was loafing.

 

[Dunkel68]

I can remember school desks in college that had ashtrays built in.

 

[CajunBass]

I started smoking because I noticed smokers got more breaks on the construction sights I worked on. They could sit down and light up a cigarette and no one noticed. If I sat down and poured a cup of coffee I was loafing.

It didn't start me, but I remember being told the same thing when I started workinga at DuPont. "If you stand around, light a cigarette. If 'the man' walks up, he'll pick the guy who's not smoking to do something every time."

 

[enfield]

Part of the reason for the smoking on TV was the sponsors. I've been watching old Jack Benny programs and the Lucky Strike ads are long and prominent. I saw Humphrey Bogart sing a Lucky Strike jingle right in the middle of a skit.

L.S.M.F.T. !

I listened to a discussion on 3980 Khz a while back - one of the guys said he'd never hire a man who smoked a pipe. He'd been watching pipe smokers and had discovered that that's all they do - smoke a pipe.

 

[MrSurly]

As a kid I remember our Preacher smoking from the pulpit. This would have been around 63 or 64. I started smoking because I noticed smokers got more breaks on the construction sights I worked on. They could sit down and light up a cigarette and no one noticed. If I sat down and poured a cup of coffee I was loafing.

Absolutely! I started as a laborer (union job) way back then and everybody smoked. The few that didn't smoke (young new stupid) usually had to keep working through the breaks even though the breaks were supposedly mandated.

Remember Johnny Carson, Jack Parr, Tom Snyder? Hell, even Chet and David, they ALL smoked. I recall a Carson show where Dean Martin was guest-hosting and his guests included Bob Newhart who didn't smoke. Everybody else did smoke and it became a joke to see if they could create enough of a cloud that Newhart couldn't be seen! Every office was full of smokers, in fact, the smokiest part was always the executive area.
After thirty years I finally put them down and I was doing FOUR packs a day!
When I put the last pack down on the gurney was the best moment of my life.

 

[mjr]

We certainly had a lot of encouragement to smoke. Even a future POTUS pushed cigarettes:

 

[blujax01]

$54 a carton here in Ohio. $3000 a year at 1-1/2 packs per day. Wow!

In the 70's, I remember $5 a carton. Or $3.50 if you took the toll bridge (10 cents) over to Kentucky.

Back in the 60's we took the family vacation south and the Old Man would gather cash from the neighborhood and load up the Rambler station wagon with Raleigh and Bel Air while we were passing through North Carolina.

Hmmm, Interstate transport of tobacco - felony much?

 

[tomhenry]

Yes, we smoked that much. Whenever somebody gets all misty and starts talking about the "good old days" the first thing I think of is breathing somebody's smoke everywhere I went.

Even the non-smoking areas in restaurants were no more than a line on the floor four feet away from where I was eating.

 

[chadwimc]

My high school had a smoking area in the court yard...

 

[truckemup97]

My high school had a smoking area in the court yard...

Yeah, we had an area for the seniors and teachers to smoke. And some of the less intelligent juniors.

 

[seagill]

When I was in boot camp smoke breaks were a huge reward. It left us non smokers feeling left out. I started to smoke to ween myself off chew. I found smoking gross and thought it would be easier to quit. What a stupid mistake! Once I get my weight back under control, I plan on trying to quit, Again.

 

[ace22]

times have changed i guess.
not going to quote everyone but i remember several of the comments above.
i had a doctor who smoked while in the examination room with his patients, i remember him saying that he never saw anyone die while smoking a cigarette, he lived to around 90yrs old.

 

[feralmerril]

Riddle of the day. The goverment has all kinds of warnings and campaigns against smokeing yet subsidys etc for tobbaco growers?

 

[ldausmc1369]

The Smoking Lamp is Lit

How many remember that? Most of us in the USMC took up smoking for that very reason. If you did not smoke, you got some other detail! Unfiltered desert ponies! $.15 a pack! Had forgotten about the cigs in the c-rats! They were so damned dry they'd go up like tinder! Packed in the late 40's early 50's. The Corps never threw anything away! Was literaly lighting one off the other when discharged. Finally kicked the habit 18 years ago cold turkey! I didn't smoke yesterday, I haven't smoked today so far, but I might tomorrow! It's still tough not to light up in the early morning with a cupa joe!

 

[Rule3]

How about flying commercial airlines. Not only did you get your complimentary soda, peanuts or pretzels but those little packs of 4 (I think) cigarettes.

The smoking light is on and the entire plane would fill with smoke .

I estimate I smoked 328,500 cigarettes before I quit.

 

[MrSurly]

Having a smoking area in a restaurant or a plane(!) is exactly like have a peeing area in the swimming pool.

 

[Rule3]

Having a smoking area in a restaurant or a plane(!) is exactly like have a peeing area in the swimming pool.

Probably worse. At least there was chlorine in the pool

 

[feralmerril]

The lifeguard went up to this guy and said, "Sir, you gotta quit peeing in the pool!" The guy said, heck, you know everyone does! The lifeguard said, yeah, I know. But not off the 20 ft. diveing board!

 

[kraigwy]

When I was in school, if you were 7th grade and higher you could smoke. 6th grade and below you had to have parents permission.

When I joined the army it was "light 'em up if you got 'em, don't have them get them from your squad learder". Those that didn't smoke were put on details, ironic that they often spent the time picking up our butts.

When I was in Vietnam I found smoking was a great stress reliever, especially in or just after a fire fight.

Remember talking to a guy from Iraq. He was having problems dealing with the stress in the sand box. The phyc recommened he start smoking.

We got sundre packs to supplement our c-rat smokes. Seems like there was no end to Pall Mall (stale as they were). We got what we needed from the sundre packs so the Pall Malls were traded for..............well those young ladies needed smokes too.

 

[stantheman86]

I smoked from age 16-22,quit shortly after college, got really into fitness and "healthy living"........ and then started up again when I deployed to Iraq when I was 27, in 2007 Smoking is a part of life on a deployment for an 11B in the active duty Army............ it gives you something to do, they're cheap overseas, it's a stress reliever and everyone else does it......hell my squad leader in Iraq must have smoked 5 packs a day, I never saw that guy without a cigarette, and I was at 3 packs a day most days......in a combat zone where there's the constant threat of being shot at, an IED blowing up, getting mortared, etc......, when smokes are 50 cents a pack, it seems like the natural thing to do We would play cards for a few hours or watch movies on a DVD player, and it would be no big deal to blow through a pack in one night.

For you guys who have been out of the military for a long time, yes, in the Army pretty much everyone still smokes. I just got out about 6 months ago, and I don't think any demographic in the US has a higher "smoker percentage" than military personnel. It gave some welcome relief from the drudgery of a range, training exercise, detail, etc. to go off to the smoking area with some friends and smoke 1(or 2) cigarettes. It is true, smoking was an "accepted"' way to take a break, some E-6 or E-7 would come up and be like "When you MF's are done with those smokes go clean out that TriCon". If every hour or so you took a smoke break, it was fine, but if you took a break just to stand around, that was not acceptable.

As far as "back in the day" smoking didn't seem to be a big deal.........I grew up in the 80's and 90's, and was in college in the late 90's-early 2000's and you could still smoke in bars and restaurants. It's only been the last few years that if you still smoke you might as well be a leper.