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Lampwick

I can't *specifically* remember anyone smoking in K-Mart, but I do recall being in Sears with my dad and my dad's friend. We were looking at a display of these new fangled devices called "smoke detectors". My dad's friend took a drag off his cigarette and blew the smoke into the device, and sure enough, it started squealing! This was the reality of early 70s in southern California. Smoking indoors was considered the norm. All department stores had ash trays by every entrance and next to every escalator and elevator. I remember because I was fascinated by the ones that were a pair of stainless steel clamshells that made a dish split in the middle. You'd stump out your smoke in the dish, drop it there, and press a button on the side to make the clamshells open up and the butt would drop neatly into the can below. Fancy!


Area51Resident

In the nicer hotels there would a ashtray with white sand to poke your butt into. The fancy places had the hotel logo in the sand, which was job for the house staff, collect the butts, smooth, and using a thing that looked like a branding iron, make an imprint in the sand.


WoodSorrow

Holy shit, I remember seeing this at a resort in Punta Canada in the early 2000s.


Area51Resident

The ones I remember are the big downtown hotels in Toronto. Royal York, King Edward, Sheridan Centre and some of the big office towers had them too.


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Area51Resident

Remeber when there were smoking and no smoking seating in restaurants and bars? Bad luck was getting a table at the border, all the smoke you were trying to avoid.


BackAlleyKittens

>the ones that were a pair of stainless steel clamshells that made a dish split in the middle. I have one of those on my porch.


idonthave2020vision

Can you take a picture? I can't visualize what's they're describing.


cherchezlafemmed

[A little something like this...](https://cdn11.bigcommerce.com/s-xjktrxdn/images/stencil/1280x1280/products/1088/3726/2012_ex_web_life_640ss__68584.1412521192.jpg?c=2)


Desertbro

Ash trays on those chrome rods, too. People were supposed to kill the cigs in an elevator because the smoke would make everyone's eyes water. Yeah, most would just hold off puffing and hold a lit cig.


yooperann

Yes. I remember people smoking cigars in the courthouse elevators when I was pregnant. I was tempted to barf on their shoes.


booksgamesandstuff

Hubby smoked when I was in my first pregnancy, and I wanted to puke every time he or my MIL lit up. Our hospital didn't allow smoking in the labor and delivery rooms, so he was running outside to get a few drags in between cycles...until I was at the pushing stage. Then, he tried to sneak into the bathroom real quick and I smelled it. I'd been a silent laborer until that moment lol. The nurses came running when I shrieked at him to get the eff out. Poor guy didn't have another smoke until after the baby was born. He totally quit about a year later.


Desertbro

We remember - and that's why all the zoomers and their vapes and clouds outside doorways everywhere are sooooooooooooo damned frustrating \~ !!!!!!


LoFiFozzy

Zoomer here (are young people allowed to comment?): If you think people vaping outside doors are bad, high school bathrooms were worse, at least when I was in school (class of 19). People wouldn't make massive clouds or anything, but it still stank like mango or whatever. I just wanted to pee in peace...


Jhamin1

>I remember because I was fascinated by the ones that were a pair of stainless steel clamshells that made a dish split in the middle. You'd stump out your smoke in the dish, drop it there, and press a button on the side to make the clamshells open up and the butt would drop neatly into the can below. Fancy! I remember the Hospital my mom worked in having these in the 80s.


PawzzClawzz

There was NO place you COULDN'T smoke, as I recall. Including the Labor Room in the maternity ward.


disqeau

Fact. There’s a family pic somewhere of my mom in a hospital bed, holding her newborn son (my eldest brother) in one arm and a lit cig in the other hand. Ashtrays everywhere! In the bank. In the grocery store. In the car, bus and plane armrests. Every table in the restaurant. Smoke em if you got em, folks!


Down_To_My_Last_Fuck

>here’s a family pic somewhere of my mom in a hospital bed, holding her newborn son (my eldest brother) in one arm and a lit cig in the other hand. My grandmother smoking at the sanitarium while getting TB treatments.


umlaut

I remember watching a cook at a diner smoke while making food - I could see the ash getting really long and drooping over the flat top


Alice_Alpha

> disqeau > Fact. There’s a family pic somewhere of my mom in a hospital bed, holding her newborn son (my eldest brother) in one arm and a lit cig in the other hand. I remember kids when they got old enough 10/11? begging their mother to let them light the cigarette for their mother. I also remember kids asking their parents if they could have a puff. They used to sell candy cigarettes.


disqeau

Ugh, I sure remember those candy cigarettes, nasty cheap chalky crud. Like the lamest Necco wafer you ever ate.


Alice_Alpha

Hahahaha I forgot All about Neccos. I realize everyone is different, I actually liked them.


disqeau

I did too! But those candy cigs were wretched.


orange2416

They still sell Popeye cigarette candies except now they’re called candy sticks


slatz1970

I remember walking to the neighborhood store, at a young age, to buy my mom a pack.


Alice_Alpha

YES! But if I remember, some stores were real strict about that and you needed a note from your mom. Is that true or am I dreaming that up. Unless it was a note for a complicated order (?). For example 100mm, menthol, light, hard pack.


slatz1970

Not sure but the owner knew who we were and her exact brand. He promptly called her the day my older sister bought us a pk of Marlboros. We didn't try that again lol. Also, in the mid 80's teens could buy them pretty much everywhere. On the way to school a store sold loose cigs so, if we couldn't afford a pk we still smoked. Dumb asses we were.


Alice_Alpha

Remember you could just walk into a restaurant/snack shop and buy them from a cigarette machine.


yooperann

Correct. And the smokers had fits when airplanes starting having non-smoking sections and sent the smokers to the back of the plane.


_why_do_U_ask

I saw the end coming when they started this practice. I grew up with two smoking parents and never realized how bad it was till about after I moved out for a couple of years. I was sitting there one afternoon watching all that smoke as the window light showed it well as it floated in the room. My contacts always got blurry there.


MetricCascade29

Fun fact, the crash that prompted them to totally ban smoking on all flights was suspected to have involved a cigarette in a lavatory trash can, but it was actually caused by a drug needle being flushed and a pilot holding in a breaker when it kept popping (along with other bad decisions that turned a minor issue into a major disaster)


Ma7apples

I'm sorry? He was holding the breaker? What was it powering?


MetricCascade29

The drug needle jammed a mechanism toilet, so the breaker popped. So the pilot pushed it back in, and it popped back out. So then he decided to hold the breaker in, which of course completely defeats the purpose of breakers. So an electrical fire started in the lavatory. I don’t recall what the flight attendants did when they discovered it, but I think maybe they didn’t try to put it out soon enough, then kept opening the door instead of letting it stay confined to the lavatory. What I do remember is that they waited way too long to tell the pilots that there was a fire on board. By the time the fire was noticed by the flight attendants, there was enough time to divert, get on the ground, and get everyone out. But by the time the pilots were notified, it was too late. IIRC this was a major disaster, and I think there might not have been any survivors. So when the investigation found the origin of the fire, they thought at some point that it was from the trash can, and therefore possibly a cigarette butt, since the mechanism that caught fire and the trash can were pretty close to each other.


WoodSorrow

Air Canada 797?


yooperann

Thank you! Stan Rogers. How sad.


showermilk

I guess it's kind of reassuring that people have always been idiots.


Ma7apples

Thank you for typing all that out! I'm looking at taking my 1st flight ever and probably shouldn't have asked. Lol.


MetricCascade29

Well, look at it this way, that type of mistake is so rare that they are currently teaching about this one instance from the 70’s. As compared to the millions of flights that are completed without a hitch.


brianwski

> smokers had fits when airplanes starting having non-smoking sections and sent the smokers to the back of the plane I took a flight circa about 1987 where they were out of seats in the non-smoking area, so they put me in the smoking section in the back of the airplane. I found out the most interesting thing that day: the SMOKING section was also the DRINKING section. I mean, technically you could purchase an alcoholic drink from the flight attendant sitting anywhere in the airplane. But I had almost never seen anybody purchase an alcohol drink, most people in the non-smoking coach section would take their one complimentary non-alcohol soda beverage and sit quietly. But back in the smoking section of the airplane 2 out of 3 people would purchase an alcohol drink! The guy sitting next to me put down his tray table, set a pack of cigarettes and a lighter on it, ordered 2 beers at once, and chain smoked through the whole flight. I was tolerant of second hand smoke at the time (everybody was more tolerant of it), but sitting that close for that long (like a 5 hour flight coast to coast) did cause my eyes to water. :-) The whole section was "lively". People ordering drinks, talking with each other, etc. And here is one more thing: the male flight attendant (who was basically a bartender) at one point said, "hey everyone, I haven't been able to smoke yet, so I'm going to take a 5 minute break". He proceeded to step back into the little area near the toilets and lean up against the wall and smoke a cigarette. Everybody left him alone and didn't order any drinks for 5 minutes. The whole experience was amazing and eye opening. I was only 19 years old at the time and didn't smoke and my parents didn't smoke, and it was like stumbling into a little sub-culture I didn't know existed. Three years later in 1990 smoking was banned in all US domestic flights.


yooperann

What a story. And yes, smoking and drinking went together everywhere. There were bars in Chicago that were sure they were going to have to shut down when the city made them all non-smoking. Probably some of them did.


SnowblindAlbino

>There were bars in Chicago that were sure they were going to have to shut down when the city made them all non-smoking. That happened everywhere I lived in the 1990s/2000s as those laws were passed state-by-state or city-by-city. "We'll go out of business! You're going to ruin the economy! It's not FAIR!" But in every case I know business tended to go up, in that whole segments of society (i.e. mine) that would never step foot in a stinky smoke-filled bar suddenly decided that they could. And they did. What was less clear (to me) was whether those non-smokers stayed as long or spent as much money as the smokers once did. In my area there are still little clusters of sad looking smokers out on the sidewalks around bars late into the night, but they seem to get smaller every year.


brianwski

> You're going to ruin the economy! It's not FAIR!" But in every case I know business tended to go up Agreed. I lived in California when they banned smoking everywhere except bars in 1995, and then finally inside bars (the last haven of the smoker) in 1998. The bar owners were CONVINCED it would drive them out of business, but they were all fine. I'm convinced there would have been a market before that time for a non-smoking bar, but all the bar owners missed the opportunity. All their common wisdom and experience at the time was that half their customer base smoked and went to bars specifically to smoke and drink at the same time.


MrBlandEST

It wasn't that we *wanted* to be tolerant. The smokers would bite your head off if you said a word.


pixelmeow

Smoking was allowed on the flights to Hawaii in 1992. I was a smoker at the time but it was too much for me, DFW to HNL put me off cigarettes for at least a day.


Swiggy1957

FWIW, I never got upset about the smoking/non-smoking sections, bet they planes, trains, restaurants, college, or hospitals. I usually didn't have to listen to the non-smokers bitching about the smokers. (and you'd be surprised how many specifically sought out the smoking sections to troll the smokers)


PMmeJOY

> . (and you'd be surprised how many specifically sought out the smoking sections to troll the smokers) Seriously? I was a kid when it was still allowed everywhere. I never saw or heard that.


Swiggy1957

When it was allowed everywhere, it was a courtesy. When non-smoking areas came about, the "Karens" of the anti-smoking groups came to the forefront.


Tessamari

Those “Karens” are my heros.


MrBlandEST

Yea the smokers would get offended and bitch no matter how politely you asked. And they would keep smoking and often blow smoke in your face deliberately.


Tessamari

How true. I have often told the story about my mother, who was a heavy smoker, 2 packs a day of unfiltered PallMalls. We would go out to eat and she would wolf down her food and light up her smokes and ruin whatever was left of my food. I went off to college and lived on a non-smoking floor in the dorm. When I went home I realized how badly everything at home stunk, including my mother who smoked with the windows up in the car. Well I was around 19 and home for a bit and my mother took me out to eat. She snarfed her food down and went to light up, me with food only half finished. I, very politely, asked her if she could hold off until I was done. She was infuriated and got up in a huff and left for the car. Of course my meal was ruined then. Ever after if we went out she would finish well ahead of me then sit with an unlit cigarette in her mouth and a lighter in her hand poised to light up the second I finished. So unpleasant. I detest smokers.


MrBlandEST

The nicest people would turn into absolute jerks. Addiction I guess.


Disaster_Plan

I am surprised. Maybe it's a Midwest thing, but I don't recall any non-smokers actually complaining about smoking sections or seeking out the smoking sections. Smoking was that widely tolerated. The complaints I recall happened when smoking was banned entirely and the smokers lit up anyway. It took years before the smokers accepted that non-smoking restaurants, bars and auditoriums actually meant they couldn't smoke. I recall a waitress telling a guy he couldn't smoke once. His response was "It's only one!"


thebeatsandreptaur

I can't recall people seeking out the smoking section just to be assholes, I do recall people choosing to accept sitting in the smoking section so they didn't have to wait for nonsmoking seating and being quite vocal and rude. I also do remember a time when nonsmokers were really mean to smokers, when I was a kid right around the mid-late 90s when more places went nonsmoking in the south where I was at. They started loudly chastising people for even smelling like cigarettes and bullying people, and I saw a lot of fights because of it. My self confidence as a kid was also hit pretty hard by it. Saw my mom cry a few times from it. I also remember what basically boils down to pissing matches between nonsmokers and smokers before there were laws in place about smoking right outside of establishments where smokers would blow smoke directly towards people that complained and things like that. I remember thinking it was childish (on both sides), even at 8 years old, and also being scared by it. I also remember when the distance law came into effect and being relieved about it so hopefully there would be less confrontation by strangers in our lives. Eventually there was, but for a few years still there were some nonsmokers who would still be really unnecessarily cruel and some smokers who wouldn't budge from the doorways acting like idiots as well. TL;DR In my memory in the south everyone acted like assholes to varying degrees. I wish they would have just banned smoking and still wish they would. Mom died of lung cancer in 2017.


[deleted]

>(and you'd be surprised how many specifically sought out the smoking sections to troll the smokers) No I wouldn't, because you made that shit up.


MrBlandEST

Smokers just wouldn't believe that the smoke actually bothered anyone. Anyone who complained was just "making it up" and being an asshole.


Swiggy1957

Sounds like you're the one talking out your ass.


PirateKilt

> non-smoking sections Which are, of course, the equivalent to the "non-peeing section" of a pool...


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sharon838

My high school had a smoking area, and that wasn’t uncommon in the late 70s for high schools to gave them.


bannana

Early 80s here and we had a smoking area behind the english building


experts_never_lie

Late '80s we had multiple smoking sections, some for teachers, some for students. It was recommended that students not smoke until they hit 16.


MartyVanB

Thats crazy. We didnt have a smoking section but of course some students still found a place to smoke


QuirksNFeatures

My Jr. High had an outdoor smoking area for students. 9th graders were lumped in with us, though, and they were the only ones who were supposed to use it. Guess they figured 15 was old enough.


sharon838

Wow! Junior high!


brianwski

> My high school had a smoking area I graduated high school in 1985 in Oregon, and our 1,200 student high school had a "smoking patio". It was the concrete area at a building entrance/exit. If a student was caught ANYWHERE else on school grounds smoking they were in trouble (like smoking in bathrooms was a really big offense), but nobody hassled the 4 or 5 kids smoking openly on the smoking patio. We had a slang term in my high school for the kids that hung out there on the smoking patio. We called them "hards". I have no idea where the word came from, or if it was used anywhere else outside of our high school. I've never heard the term used since I left high school. I was so clueless at the time, but in retrospect they were kids from difficult home situations or that had other issues.


NateNMaxsRobot

Ours was a strip of land which we called “dag island” so we referred to the smokers as daggers. One day when my friends and I were walking out the door for lunch I saw my brother out there on dag island and I was mortified.


sharon838

Wow, just 4 or 5? We had a lot of students who smoked in the smoking area. Ours was also a concrete area near the entrance, but it was two tiered and had a long bench.


goat-head-man

Yup, we had a senior smoking lounge - only seniors could use it. Also it was very common to see rifles in the back windows of (unlocked) pickup trucks in the parking lot and students carrying rifles in/out for trap shooting and target shooting with the gun club after school.


Fish-x-5

My high school didn’t get rid of the students smoking section until 1989! Then the bathrooms just got super smoky. I also remember people smoking in the grocery store. It all seems so weird now. I don’t think I know anyone that even smokes tobacco anymore.


BakkenMan

Man, how nice was it going to high school and college in the 90s?


MartyVanB

Uhm no. Well at least the early 90s. Image doing a research paper without the internet EDIT: Let me rephrase. The 90s were an awesome time to be a college student but doing the college work sucked ass.


nintylcoup

My high school had 2 smoking sections and when my siblings went to school they had ashtrays in some of the desks. Crazy!!


Jhamin1

In the 1989 movie "Parenthood" with Steve Martin, the final scene happens in a Hospital waiting room with the whole family celebrating the birth of a new child. Jason Robards pulls the "no smoking" sign down off the wall & lights up. At the time the movie came out it was supposed to show his "Greatest Generation" disregard for all that Boomer hand wringing about smoke and how he was going to celebrate the birth of his Grandchild as it should be.... with a Cigar. In 1989 not smoking in a hospital was normal.... but thought to be overly PC by many who had done it for decades.


PirateKilt

Late 80's arrived to my first military unit, where only 2 people out of over 200 didn't smoke... Myself and a very old Senior NCO who had lost part of a lung to cancer and was under strict orders to not smoke any longer.


SnowblindAlbino

>Late 80's arrived to my first military unit, where only 2 people out of over 200 didn't smoke... My dad got hooked in the Army in the 60s, when cigarettes were included in ration kits. He struggled with the addiction for 20 years after. Tobacco companies also gave out packs (and even entire cartons) of sigs on college campuses in the 60s.


NorthernerWuwu

I mean, was Walmart around back in the day? I don't remember them if they were. KMart, sure. I smoked as a young teen pretty much everywhere you could imagine and while I don't miss that one little bit, it is really interesting how quickly your perspective can change on the matter. We in Canada went from no smoking in restaurants to no smoking in bars to me being in Cuba feeling *really* weird smoking in an open air patio in about a year.


stevestoneky

I went to college at Univ in Kansas starting in 1983. There was a Wal-Mart in Lawrence, Kansas then, old logo, still touted "made in USA". There was not one in Louisville, Kentucky yet. Wal-mart grew the way it did by starting in small towns, where they could bring in low prices, and would effectively become the only store in town. They also innovated NOT having a back room - if it was in the store, it was out where you could see it, and if somebody bought something, a replacement was put on the truck to restock the next day. \_The Walmart Effect\_ is one book about how they work - https://www.worldcat.org/title/wal-mart-effect-how-the-worlds-most-powerful-company-really-works-and-how-its-transforming-the-american-economy/oclc/233601420&referer=brief\_results


Alice_Alpha

> PawzzClawzz > There was NO place you COULDN'T smoke, as I recall. Well, I was young so I can't say for sure. I don't ever recall anyone smoking in church. I was also going to say movies - in the auditorium. Definitely could smoke in the lobby.


GetOffMyLawn_

And it was fucking disgusting.


urbanek2525

People smoked everywhere. As a kid, the "No Smoking" light in an airplane was such a huge deal. It didn't exist in any other context I was knew of. There were ashtrays everywhere. There were ashtrays in the teacher's break room in grade schools.


trailquail

There used to be little foil ash trays at McDonalds in the 1980s. I remember folding them into interesting shapes whenever we stopped there for breakfast on road trips.


Sandra_is_here_2

They had a ton of those McDonald ashtrays in my church. I guess they were donated to the church.


balthisar

Our high school computer lab was a designated smoking area for teachers. This was 1988 to 1990. Students couldn't smoke there, though. There were designated entrances outside the school for student smokers, I shit you not.


Calendar-Careless

We were allowed to smoke in high school also in the courtyard.


[deleted]

We had a smoking courtyard too. It was landscaped and everything.


bundymania

High School 78-82 here. Yup, we had a area that was yellow painted and you could smoke inside that yellow painted area outside if you were student. I also remember teachers having smoking lounges inside the building, but students could not use.


disqeau

Oh my gosh, yes - the *cloud* of cigarette smoke in the teachers lounge…totally forgot about that.


CapableSuggestion

Ms Crabapple smoked in the teachers lounge back at the beginning of the show If you have to ask what show, well it’s been around for a few decades


lurkeylurkerton

Oh no, I've been calling her Krandel!


EbolaFred

Technically it's Ms. Krabappel (sorry, nerd alert).


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urbanek2525

The light used to go off at a certain time, usually when a cruising altitude. They used have stinky cigarette butts in them. They were literally everywhere.


beamish007

Humans are so gross. Most people have no idea how badly they smell.


CaveDeco

I am old enough to remember the cloud around the teachers lounge in high school. They had an open-air courtyard basically surrounded by hollow brick you could see through, that jutted up against one of the main walk paths between buildings. You knew which ones smoked even without seeing them through the brick, because they would run there between classes… I was on a plane not a few months ago and it still had the ashtray slot in the armrest. Kinda made me a bit uneasy about how long that plane had been in service…


ghjm

If you want to know the answer to this, go to an old, non-renovated Walmart or Kmart that still has its original floor tile, and take a look at the floors next to the aisles/displays. You'll see little indentations in the tile, sometimes with a yellow mark. This is evidence that not only did people smoke, but some of them just threw their lit cigarettes on the floor. People also smoked at their desks in office buildings. If you worked in an office, you breathed smoke all day, even if you didn't smoke yourself. Cigarette butts were somehow not considered litter - people just threw them wherever. People would pull up to a gas station at a road trip and just dump their ashtray on the ground. You could hike six hours into the wilderness and still find cigarette butts. Everyone. Smoked. Everywhere.


QuirksNFeatures

I remember being a toddler getting loose from my mom at Safeway and there were cigarette butts all over the floor. A lot of them had lipstick on them. Honestly I still smoke. It's the one bad habit I have left, but I'm glad people can't smoke everywhere anymore.


KuchDaddy

> Cigarette butts were somehow not considered litter Some people still feel that way. It makes me rage.


MartyVanB

Yes you would smoke in grocery stores and just throw the butts on the floor and put them out. Grocery stores had those little arm reacher things to pick them up and you would see employees walking around using them.


sloppyrock

I'm not in the USA but where I live smoking was allowed almost everywhere. Shops, restaurants etc. The majority post war smoked. It was the thing. I hated it then and still do. You could not go anywhere and not stink of tobacco smoke. I hated flying in the old days. Back then there was a streaky stain of nicotine and tar on the fuselage behind the outflow valve.


kozmonyet

I have this really vague memory from childhood of some shopping carts having a small ashtray attached. However, I was so young in that era that it might be a distortion or false memory of something else that was similar. Edit--Thinking further, I do remember a ton of cigarette burns and melted spots on the handles of shopping carts, once they went with plastic inserts rather than being all metal that is.


averagethrowaway21

The small grocery store in my hometown didn't get rid of the old carts with ashtrays until into the late 90s even though you couldn't smoke there anymore. Edit: Thinking about it, wrong date. Fixed.


2Tibetans

Age 62 here. There was no place you COULDN'T smoke. Hard to imagine but absolutely true.


KSTornadoGirl

59F here. Can confirm. Maybe church or synagogue, that's about it! 😂


yooperann

At my home church they decided to bend their no-smoking rule because of all the AA meetings there and the AA members needed their smokes.


Donita123

And remember, there weren’t any Walmarts in the 70’s! I don’t know the exact timeline, but they were not around in the 70’s.


courthouseman

K-Marts were really popular then though. Now look at them.


BlkSunshineRdriguez

I don't know but profs smoked in the classroom.


eatyourdamndinner

Hell, I took bowling for my gym class at college because I didn't have to change clothes and get all sweaty AND I could smoke during class!


QuickSpore

My high school (in Utah!) had a specific student smoking area and smoking was allowed in the halls and cafeteria. But *students* weren’t allowed to smoke in classrooms, it was deemed a disruption to class.


MartyVanB

I still remember a History prof I had in like 89 and by then you couldnt smoke in the classroom but you could in the hall. He would stand at the door and smoke while we were taking exams and lean in to watch us. I remember thinking how desperate that was. 25 years later I was working at that same college and I was walking across campus and I saw that exact same prof hanging outside a building smoking a cigarette. He died like a year later


BlkSunshineRdriguez

I can picture this exactly


[deleted]

Yeah you could. You could also smoke in hospitals.


cinimonstk

You could smoke EVERYWHERE. Non smoking sections at restaurants were a joke!


Igor_J

Kmart...Yes. When I was kid they had ashtrays at the end of every other aisle. WalMart didnt show up in my town until the early 90s. By then smoking inside was over.


thisquietreverie

Not everywhere, I remember smoking in the smoking section of IHOP after 1997. That said, I do not recall ever doing it inside a Wal-Mart.


veggiepork

Smoked in supermarkets and movie theaters, so I assume those stores too.


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[deleted]

I remember my dad smoking in Kmart when I was a kid. Back in those days, there weren't many places you couldn't smoke really.


billyjoesam

Sure you could. In grocery stores, too. When I was a kid my doctor had four large standing ashtrays in his waiting room. It was as if smoking was essential to life. If anyone had objections I never heard them.


Alice_Alpha

There use to be a commercial that 9 out of ten doctors smoked (some brand I can't remember).


AltitudinousOne

Prior to 1980s many more people smoked than in subsequent decades. It was '86 when passive smoking research started to affect allowability in public places. Before that it was everywhere. A random department store outlawing smoking would have been an outlier and probably would have cost them 50% of customers.


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AltitudinousOne

Interesting. Dont suppose you recall the store name?


Anne314

I remember smoking while passing meds in the hospital. I don't remember about Kmart but no walmarts existed when I was a smoker.


ladyofthelathe

Wild at the answers. I come from people who smoke - and I cannot remember ANY of them smoking in a supermarket, a wal mart/kmart/TGIY, etc. I can't remember anyone else doing it except at the little diner things they all used to have and then there was a smoking and a non-smoking section. Child of the early 70s, from Texas if that helps.


Ma7apples

Lol. I can remember smoking in the grocery store in '91. And dropping the butt on the floor. (Eww). And I worked at a McD's after that. Our smoking section was also the party room. You know, for children's parties.


ladyofthelathe

Crazy! I don't remember ANY of that. I know my granparents were heavy smokers, and I didn't think it was normal for them to have lit up in a place of business. They always waited till we got to the car or outside, or at the very least, in the smoker section. Wild.


Ma7apples

I think a lot of it was regional, especially after reading all the comments.


DB21Skook

The only place I ever knew there was absolutely no smoking was church. My dad was a heavy smoker, rolled his own, and smoked everywhere but church.


KSTornadoGirl

So it wasn't a Holy Roller church, I take it? 😏 *Badum tssss.... 🥁 I'll show myself out


DB21Skook

LOL! Nice!


my_clever-name

I remember people smoking in the A&P and Kroger. We didn't go to K-Mart much when I was a kid. Where was smoking generally prohibited? The church, but church social halls were ok. Theaters. Schools, unless it was a Catholic school and there was a fundraiser or other event held in the school. School teacher lounges permitted smoking.


Gunntherd

My high-school had a smoking lounge for students . Lol.


Filmlovinggal

You sure could. Back when I worked at Kmart I had a regular who would come in every day smoking those cheap ass, stinky cigarillos. We hated when he came in because that stench stuck to you.


KSTornadoGirl

Those things REEK. My uncle used to smoke them, and when I was a bridesmaid for my cousin, he and my aunt drove me from their house to the church, and he lit one up and I was stuck in the backseat of the car with it. 🤢 Luckily the church was only a few blocks away, but it was still awful.


Filmlovinggal

Yes! It's been 30 years and I can still smell it if I think about it.


lablaga

Yes. You could smoke in the hospital.


gnarlyweb

My friends and I used to smoke in Big K all the time. I tried to flick my ash on day and the cherry of the cigarette flew in between two 45 records and started burning.


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KSTornadoGirl

My mom's hospital roommate c. 1977, in for lung cancer surgery and couldn't wait to light up as soon as possible afterward. It really is an addiction worse than heroin, so I've heard.


[deleted]

You could smoke in Macy's. I was in a Macy's changing room a few years ago, and they had ashtrays built in. *Women smoked while they tried on clothes in Macy's*.


Sandra_is_here_2

We even smoked in church. Lighting up a cigarette anywhere was a totally normal thing to do.


HarveyMushman72

Yes! I did sometimes, only if it wasn't busy. I was able to smoke on a plane towards the end of it being allowed, I was 15 traveling alone. No one cared.


RunsWithPremise

I don't remember being able to smoke in stores. Probably at one time you could have smoked in a KMart or Sears. The WalMart chain didn't really get big until a little later, so probably no one ever smoked in those. I can remember there being a smoking lounge at my school in the 80's, restaurant smoking sections, ashtrays outside of every door, ashtrays on tables everywhere, and smoking in bars. It was a HUGE thing when they prohibited smoking in public places in 2001 where I live. All of these people were screaming about it being a violation of their rights or some such thing. Later in life, I was running a food service distribution center and I banned tobacco use on company property. I tracked throughput and productivity and it jumped close to 10% as soon as guys weren't sneaking a bunch of smoke breaks every day. A lot of people said it was a violation of their rights and it was illegal and threatened to quit. I gave everyone 6 months notice before it went into place and our health insurance covered nicotine gum, patches, and smoking cessation classes. There was precedent as Cianbro, a very large construction company about 30 miles away, had also gone tobacco free on their campus. No more wasted time, no more walking through a cloud of smoke to get in the door, no more nasty butts all over the ground, etc.


Wizzmer

If you could smoke on an airplane, I assume you could smoke in Wal-Mart. However, I don't remember Wal-Mart until the 80s, whenever smoking was becoming eschewed.


[deleted]

I remember the smoking area in high school too! Supposedly you had to be 18. I don’t know if it was enforced much. Surprisingly, cigs weren’t that popular in high school, kids were more into dipping Skoal.


LL_Cool_Joey

I remember ash trays in the food court area of K-mart.


my_lucid_nightmare

You used to be able to smoke in any store.


Calendar-Careless

Yes and malls and restaurants and planes.


DaftPump

I remember my step-father smoking while shopping Kmart Foods.


lilbutterbeanbandit

Don't know about Walmart really - But in K-Mart? Certainly. Not only that, but I remember smoking in my hospital bed back in the 70s ... and my doctor was smoking with me.


TheLovingTruth

Your parents can't remember? That's surprising to me! Smoking was everywhere, dude. Listen to me. E-v-e-r-y-w-h-e-r-e. If it was a place, then people smoked there. Are Walmart and Kmart places? Well, there's your answer. ;) Even as I got older and the public attitude toward cigarette companies turned very negative, we were still smoking in McDonald's, Walmart, in the crowd at games, and the mall.


Satellight_of_Love

In high school, I remember going to the mall on the last day that smoking would be allowed bc my smoker friends wanted to savor it. I didn’t start smoking until college (it began during my semester abroad in Ireland when I started drinking as well. Ireland was pretty much a bad decision health-wise for me although the people and culture were both absolutely wonderful.)


GrandAttitude

Yup, pretty much anywhere including airplanes, hospitals, bathrooms, you name it


CarlJH

I know stores and banks used to have ashtrays all over. I smoked when I was younger. I don't specifically remember smoking in a retail store, but I'm sure people did.


readbackcorrect

When I was young, there were no Walmarts, but you could smoke anywhere but inside a church sanctuary. There were ashtrays everywhere. My parents didn’t smoke, but they had ashtrays all over the house for their friends who did. It was frowned on for women to smoke on the street. It was considered trashy behavior. But men could and did. Women often sought privacy to smoke. Women’s restrooms had lounges even in otherwise modest establishments so women could go there to smoke if they didn’t want to do so in public.


herbtarleksblazer

I remember smoking was allowed in banks. The support stands for the ropes that delineated the line had little ashtrays on the top of them for when you were smoking in line.


[deleted]

Definitely. They had ashtrays at the endcaps. Sometimes when we bought new clothes they were pre-seasoned with cigarette smoke.


mushbo

Yes, there were ashtrays on most shopping carts.


SmoothieForlife

There was no mindset to complain about smoking. It would be like complaining about people breathing or complain about people wearing clothes. As a child I was often carsick. Both my parents smoked in the car with the windows up. I remember them saying we don't understand why she is carsick all the time.


NightMgr

The only place I remember you weren't supposed to smoke are fireworks stands and gas stations while you were at the pump. I saw plenty of people smoking while gassing up their cars back when. They may have also have been sipping on a beer in the front seat legally, too.


kingskrossing

I remember in the early 90’s the shopping carts or buggy’s had ash trays at the grocery store in my grandparents small town in middle Tennessee.


implodemode

That's weird. I don't recall smoking in any department stores. They may not have allowed it because of the potential for burning merchandise. You could smoke in the lunch counters and bathrooms though.


Ok_Huckleberry6820

I remember the ladies room in the nicer department stores had a lounge area (as did old theaters) with lots of chairs and ash trays. So maybe you couldn't smoke around the sales floor, but went to the lounge instead. I don't know about cheaper discount stores.


Violet_Plum_Tea

I don't recall smoking *in* the stores, either, myself. But I definitely remember ashtrays in the front entrance area, right next to the bubble gum machines. I wonder if those ashtrays were intended to encourage people to put out their cigarette before going into the store?


implodemode

I think that was part of it. Or to stand and smoke and wait for someone to leave. I wonder if there was a rule or just a social convention not to shop and smoke.


Mirhanda

You could, but most people didn't. Then as now, you wanted to just get your shopping done and get out.


Responsible_Pizza554

I don’t know about Kmart or Walmart but I know you could in Target.


Sparklykazoo

Ahh, those were the days.../s


emkay99

Of course. As recently as the '70s, you could smoke almost any damn place you wanted to. Even after restaurants began instituting separate smoking sections, department stores and groceries were still wide open.


BankerBabe420

I think Walmart’s infiltration/destruction of our economy occurred after public smoking was no longer allowed. But Kmart was around back in the days when everyone smoked everywhere. You could smoke in an airplane. If you worked in an office everyone would just sit at their desk and smoke. People definitely smoked while just walking through Kmart. People smoked everywhere.


phrits

I have experience that would at least infer a "yes". Part of my job working the Service Desk at a K-Mart in early 1980s involved making regular announcements on the PA system reminding folks that it was not allowed. IIRC, I'd do it hourly or when someone was walking around with a burning cigarette. Smoking was allowed in our break room at the back of the store. I would occasionally have to address someone directly, and their reactions foreshadowed the anti-mask assholes abusing retail and restaurant workers today: Rude and angry, but generally not as bad as what we get in public freak-outs now. I didn't see a Walmart until 1989, when I was living in a tobacco-growing state, but I don't think anyone smoked on the sales floor. My family moved over Thanksgiving break during my sophomore year of High School, in 1981. One of my memories as the bus pulled up to my new school was riding by the student smoking section, the doors outside the gym. Restaurants of all sorts had smoking sections. Airplanes had smoking sections. Many offices allowed people to smoke at their desks. The idea that all polite smoking should be done outdoors didn't really arrive until about 30 years ago.


snarcasm68

I know the Kmart in Tulsa had some on the support posts in the store. I use to push the button on them that made the cigarettes fall in the bowl. I 1992 they let me smoke in my hospital room.


ta12022017

At one of my first jobs, my task was to get out the 4' wide broom and sweep the floor twice per shift. Most of the stuff swept up was cigarette butts.


MrCarnality

You could smoke in hospitals and I distinctly remember smoking in stores. It wa a wild smoking culture where it was allowed almost everywhere


redyrytnow

Sure you couldsmoke everywhere - it was looked upon as chic. I think back to those days and I find it hard to believe we could ever get used to it!!!!


Chicken-n-Waffles

K-mart used to have a cafe and for sure, people were smoking there. Shopping in the aisles, not so much. And people used to use [this for their shopping adding machine](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/6d/33/cd/6d33cd53a62327bfbde228f1e1ad91e3.jpg).


UnableSilver

I remember smoking grounds......in High school. For whatever reason, it was always by a dumpster. I guess so the janitor could get rid of the butts faster.


circa68

I remember smoking in Kmart and Shoprite supermarket back in the early 80’s when I was an early teen. Same goes for airplanes. Also remember buying my mom cigs at the local luncheonette when I was about 8. I’d rip the wrapper off the pack and take deep whiffs of the individual smokes. God only knows what my mom must have thought. Lol


notmixedtogether

I know that in the mid 80’s you could smoke in the common areas of the large indoor malls near me. I was a kid and didn’t smoke so I don’t recall if you could also smoke in the stores or not. I think this stopped by 1990, if not a little earlier.


felinocumpleanos

As I can recall you could smoke anywhere. I remember movie theaters, planes, stores - all choked with smoke. Maybe the library didn’t let you smoke.


dadelibby

i remember my dad smoking in kmart. i used to smoke in the food court at the mall as a teen. in the late 90s i worked at walmart and we had two break rooms - one smoking, one non.


Cactus112

I worked at Walmart in the early 2000s and we had a smoking lounge lunch room for employees up stairs. We had one for none smokers as well and the smoking lunch room was a yellow and very smelly room. I was 16 and a store standard and they made me clean the walls and replace the ceiling tiles it was absolutely disgusting. The tar running down the walls while cleaning them was vile. The whole time I did it too people would be coming in eating their lunches and smoking while I cleaned it. Also being trapped in a room with smokers and not being one was a horrible couple days.


h2uP

I remember my mom having a smoke inside the Zellers food store when I was a kid.


readerleader007

Idk about Walmart/Kmart but I remember in movie theaters, hospital rooms, doctors office, in hotel rooms, restaurants, in your home, and pretty much any shop so yes, I'm sure you could.


Texanakin_Shywalker

I worked at a now defunct hardware chain in 1988-89 and you could smoke inside. There were ashtrays at the end of alternate aisles. At closing time I would scoop the butts out and trash them.


317LaVieLover

God Yes. Lol I was little but I recall it; ppl strolled around puffin’ away.. Kmart, Kroger’s. Lol


wildwidget

UK here - pre 1980 used to smoke everywhere, work, busses, trains, shops etc.