Private Benjamin....smoking

[MidnightCitrus]

I'm just watching Private Benjamin, and i cannot believe all the smoking!! everywhere, the bars, the airports....

did they ever make a sequel?

My local Cineworld used to have a cigarette machine, after school there used to be a queue to use it.

Yep, I remember teachers smoking in the classroom in my primary school and in secondary.
I also remember smoking in the changing room at the gym and at the sauna, on long distance flights, at work in a restaurant, and even staff smoking in the kitchen in the restaurant , I think that last was probably 60's rather than 70's or 80's. we certainly used to smoke behind the bar in the pub I worked in late 70's.
I do miss an inter course cigarette when eating out!

I never smoked and have always hated it.

It was awful socialising in any bar, going to watch a band, going out for a meal, going to a party, going on a bus or a train, going into the school staffroom or headteacher's office. Used to come home coughing with stinging eyes, sore throat and coughing and have to bath and wash hair and clothes before bed.

It now seems incredible that we thought we just had to put up with it. A bit like being wolf whistled and catcalled in the street.

The past is another country...

The main thing I appreciated about the smoking ban was clothes not smelling of it when you get home after a night in the pub.

A bit like being wolf whistled and catcalled in the street.

I think young women still get this. We don't see it anymore because we're old.

What about news readers? Could they smoke while reading the news?

I don’t think news readers did but people did while being interviewed. Look at Face to Face on the BBC archive for example. Face to Face, Adam Faith: www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p04qj936

And if you watch the clip of Stephen Fry on University Challenge they are all smoking.

It’s hard to believe now how common place it was. If you asked a guest to go outside to smoke you would get funny looks!

I was talking to a friend about smoking indoors the other day. We used to regularly visit a cafe situated inside a department store which was completely open to the homeware department. It was only separated by low level partitions which has stock such as bedding and towels on the other side. You could openly smoke in the cafe and we were discussing how the soft furnishings must have stank of smoke! This can’t have been more than 15 years ago, seems crazy now

The thing is though that even as recently as the '80s MOST people smoked or had a smoker in the house.

I was a teenager in the 80s and unfortunately took it up just like everyone else (at school, using my dinner money ha ha).

I am now the most vehement anti-smoker - which is odd considering I used to smoke like a chimney - even in bed with a cuppa. So gross!

In, I think, Carry on Nurse, Sid James is smoking in his hospital bed, which was seen as totally normal.
I had a very old red cross first aid book, in it, the treatment for shock was to keep the patient warm and offer a cigarette.
In the late 70s, I had a gp who was a chain smoker. His consulting desk always had a brimming ash tray on it, with the current fag burning away. He did at least not have it in his mouth when he was examining you.
On the other hand, I can remember when fags were 20p for 20, which sounds ridiculous now, but at the time seemed expensive (and they always went up in the budget!). My first job only paid £4 a week, so smoking accounted for a lot of that pay.

This thread is bringing back so many memories. I remember my uncle having nicotine stained fingers, they were like a mustard colour. I also remember my dad had an ash tray that you pushed down so the ash disappeared inside. Some people had the ones on a stand next to the armchair.

@mrswhiplington

This thread is bringing back so many memories. I remember my uncle having nicotine stained fingers, they were like a mustard colour. I also remember my dad had an ash tray that you pushed down so the ash disappeared inside. Some people had the ones on a stand next to the armchair.

Table lighters too. My parents had a beautiful jade table lighter.

When I was at junior school in the early 60s we often made papier mache or clay ash trays to take home as gifts. It was just assumed that people smoked. Metal tobacco tins were sought after by teachers as storage for pencils etc.

I remember the table lighters as well. Really heavy things. I once won a great big box of cigarettes in a raffle at my junior school. The local priest presented them to me.😯 My dad was thrilled.

And of course, don't forget the absolute fog of smoke that used to pour out of the staff room door at school every time it was opened. And entertaining at home and having fags in wine glasses (usually amongst the buffet food) for guests to help themselves to.
As late as 1995 my then local pub used to have free fags on the counter at christmas. I used to smoke myself silly.

Some people had the ones on a stand next to the armchair.

My gran had one of these.

I was a die-hard anti-smoker even in the 70s - I hated the smell (my mum smoked). Top big hates were people who smoked in the toilet - there's something about the combination of the smell of smoke and urine which is particularly stomach churning, and people who smoked while preparing food (that would be you, gran...)

And everyone smoked in their house,when we redecorated after my mam died the walls where yellow from the nicotine.
Weird now when you think of it.How acceptable smoking was.

It was the sight of my mum sucking on a fag at breakfast time that made me decide never to smoke.

My DH started smoking at 9! I was horrified when he told me.

I used to buy my uncle 20 gold bond for Christmas in the 80s. All wrapped up under the tree .

Remember these?

Can you imagine actually lighting up a fag when tucking into a cheeseburger at Maccy's? Seems crazy now but it was totally normal when I was a kid.

I remember when my cousin (now in her 30's) was born. Auntie J came to see her and peered into the Moses basket while taking a drag of her fag and she had to flick her dropped ash off the baby blanket.

Table lighters - my mother has a Cartier table lighter from the 70's that she got for a birthday. It's very smart.

I was watching an old film today on Talking Pictures TV. It was about a mining disaster and they were pulling the men out.
As each rescued man came out the first thing they did was stick a fag in his mouth!

@FlamingoAndJohn

I was watching an old film today on Talking Pictures TV. It was about a mining disaster and they were pulling the men out. As each rescued man came out the first thing they did was stick a fag in his mouth!

They do the same in newsreel film from World War 1 and 2. Put them on a stretcher and give them a fag, it probably relaxed them a bit in lieu of sedatives.

I've started to notice how odd it looks when people are standing close to each other on TV.

Also when a character coughs and everyone acts like its normal, no one flinches or jumps out of the way.

When I was little my mum worked from home. Her job was slitting the cellophane on cigarette packets and slipping shiny new 1p coins change inside for vending machines. . The pennies and cigarettes were delivered to our house every Monday night and she had to refill the machines by the following Wednesday. She also had to take away the cash boxes and count the cash.
I was her little helper