Both my parents smoked in the 90's and I never really thought about it until I was like 12, by then it was being banned in many more places. I thought cars smelled weird that didn't reek of smoke. I also sometimes smelled of smoke and probably smelled more to people who were not around smokers. Being around smokers from 0 -18 knock on wood I haven't yet had been diagnosed with anything. Second hand smoke everyday. I never took it up, as we know its not good for you. But I dont mind being around smokers, brings a sort of nostalgia for me the second hand smoke that is.

It was disgusting. You could only deal with it. No choice. As soon as someone smoked, I noticed right away. I would get coughing fits if anyone smoked near me at a restaurant. In bars it was horrible. In one particular case my throat was feeling like it was burning due to how thick the cigarette smoke was in the bar. And all your clothes would smell and it reeked in your room or apartment for a couple of days until you cleaned them. I don't miss that time at all. I'm so glad smoking is banned everywhere now.

If only they would ban smoking in apartment or condo buildings next. It shouldn't be allowed when you live in close proximity to other people and your smoke gets into their home.

I had “childhood asthma” and had to carry around an inhaler.

Both my parents smoked so I didn't notice it growing up. Once I went to college and got away from that environment I really started to notice it all around me. Nothing was worse than opening up the closet and smelling the smoke on the coat you wore the night before at a bar. Luckily, my county was an early adopter of non-smoking sections and eventually outright banning and that changed everything.

So, I'm a bit younger than the era you're looking for, but my dad was an alcoholic and I remember as a kid being in the local bar and being juuuust short enough that I was just under the smoke line. I had to breach that line to get up on a bar stool and ask for a kitty cocktail. It always felt like I crossed the border to another world whenever I did.

I think I need to use more force to clear my lungs than my peers, but other than that my lack of athletic ability is mostly self inflicted.

The same way people survived “gardyloo!” days. When you’re surrounded by shit it probably didn’t seem quite as bad as it would to us today.

I didn’t like all the smoke as a kid, but it is more noticeable and horrible these days since it is much less common, in my view anyway.

Well I became a smoker myself (I quit in 2011) but even then I hated smoking indoors and never smoked in my apartment.

We bowled a lot

Australian guy here

Didn't go out much and did lots of outdoor activities.. When I first started work it was allowed in work vehicles, that stopped after about 2 years.

Stillnallowed in lunch rooms etc.so I ate outside or at my desk. Did not go to restaurants etc becase of the smoking, flew on an Air France flight once from Miami to Paria and it had smoking, no escape, fuck that was bad, still remember it decades later :)

My Dad said it was shocking when he was working (he's long dead and would have been about 85 if we was still living, he was a non smoker)

Don't forget the smog and pot smoke. We grew gills back then.

You can get a feel of it by being around a lot of fragrances. You know the people who are noseblind so wear a lot of perfume/cologne. They putting on fragrances in their lotions or other stuff. Their house and/or car reeks but they barely notice. Same feel and they don't even notice the smell, it normal to them. Their kids and pets are getting sick and they don't care. I forgot to add that you are considering the problem if you bring it up.

My Grandpa had one of those full size Chevy conversion vans with a sofa/bed in the back. I have very specific memories of opening the back window vent which was a mesh screen, and sticking my face on it as a child so that I could breathe the outside fresh air rather than his smoke.

Loved that man, but that probably wasn't the best thing to expose a young child to every day.

Oh god, the bowling alleys. The stink of cigarettes, soggy fried food, and machine oil that didn't just destroy your clothes, but actually permeated your soul.

Both of my parents smoked. My two brothers and I would take a pair of scissors and cut the cigarette in front of their faces when they would go and light up.

I don't remember how long it took to get them to quit, but they finally did.

It's just not the health aspect, but smoking is just absolutely disgusting. A smoker just stinks to high heaven and they make everything around them stink long after they leave. How they are not completely mortified by that, I will never know.

Then add the expense and the deleterious health impact.

It begs the question...

What the actual fuck?

That's the neat part - sometimes you didn't.

My dad would always smoke at home. It was what it was, standard in Greece at the time, so what could I do? Ask him not to smoke so I could get beaten up? So I survived by shutting up and leaving home after 18.

Same way we're doing smog?