Would you be a smoker if you were living in the 60s or 70s?

[DebbieD78]

Looking at TV ads for smoking and they all seemed to be aimed at women. I wonder if I'd have been taken in by them and taken up the habit if i'd been in my teens or 20s forty years ago.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTFtciWa618
www.youtube.com/watch?v=2B3g80Q03t8
www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rGs89IueTk

I had a job interview in the late 90's - the interviewer smoked throughout.

In VI form smoking was allowed in the cloakroom - I hated having to go through a haze of smoke to get to my locker.

At my parents' wedding there were cigarettes on the table for guests - it was apparently very common.

I think by default you were a smoker then because you were forced to breath in second hand smoke even if you didn't smoke.

Oh, crikey, yes, we could smoke in the sixth form common rooms! I'd forgotten about that. Also in church, hospital - everywhere really.

I was annoyed when they introduced the smoking carriage on the Tube, because all the smoke was concentrated in there. Not half as annoyed as I was when they banned smoking altogether!

The cinema was always a thick fug of tobacco smoke, you could barely see the screen. I remember my dad furiously smoking through kids matinees, with me and my sister in tow.

This was only in the mid-80s.

I remember if you had to knock on the staff room door at playtime the clouds of cigarette smoke that came out when they opened the door. That was the 80s.

For sure. I only gave up social smoking when TTC.

DH and all his mates flew to Oz in 1996 in a thick fug of smoke and gin. I can't believe they were still smoking on planes as recently as that.

I did live in the 60s and 70s, as did my mother and her female relatives. None of them smoked. My MIL did and claims nobody knew about the health risks- which is clearly not true.

I had my first smoke at 15 in 1983 , Most people smoked in the 60s it was seen as glam and sophisticated . smoking is the biggest regret i have as i am still doing it

going back to smoking on gameshows , I have seen old 60s and 70s clips of chat shows parky was 1 and they were all smoking on tv ,

Nah, never liked the smell.

I started smoking in 1966, when I hit 40 a day in the 80's I stopped, but 25 years later there's still the odd time I'd love one.

No. As a child I detested the smell of cigarettes and had a bit of a 'thing' about ashtrays. I nagged my Mum senseless about smoking.

She now says she wishes she had listened, and to tell anyone who smokes that its a really stupid thing to do. She has just come out of hospital for the third time because of her chest, and is now on oxygen at home.

I smoked as a teenager and a student but cut down when met DH as he was a goody two shoes hated it, I gave up totally when TTC.

I never smoked a lot but I loved it! Now, millions of years later, I still have the odd one, usually when drunk and out with smoking friends and I ADORE the ones I have but am never tempted to return to it on a regular basis. Now smoke anything from 0-5 a year! Am sure I'd have had more then just because it was more commonplace.

I was sixteen in 1996, flying to Turkey, and I smoked all the way there. I remember smoking allowed on the top deck of buses, sixth form common rooms and trains.

The first few episodes of Mad Men seemed so shocking purely because of the smoking EVERYwhere It seems so strange now...the smoking ban is still relatively young but it seems like such a COMPLETELY WRONG THING to do to smoke anywhere remotely public now.

I gave in up January of this year after 15 years...and I always, always defined myself as a smoker. But I dunno, I just gave up without too much effort. I don't think about it, don't yearn for it, not in anyway inclined to have one (especially now I'm up the duff!) And I'm glad to be free of it....it does stink you out!

Was the Kings Cross fire caused by a cigarette? I was too young to remember it, but I always thought it was, maybe I'm wrong?

No. Both my parents smoked (ultimately it killed my mother) and I spent my years from 18 playing in a band in v.smoky pubs/clubs. I used to come home smelling like an ashtray!