Remember when planes and hospitals had smoking sections? (Probably a lot of you do not).

Thank fuck this is no longer the case – the "non-smoking" sections were usually just 2nd hand smoke sections
- When every restaurant and bar you went into reeked of stale cigarette smoke. Yuck.

Smoking sections in restaurants were just as bad.
- I worked at a pub for a while, and had an instance where a group of friends sitting outside moved 2-3 metres away to smoke. I basically had to tell them to either stop smoking or go to the designated smoking area because they were ruining the meal of everybody sitting around
  They honestly didn't take the news well. Made me feel less bad about putting my foot down
  
  People do tend to act more entitled in groups.

I remember being in the hospital emergency room with parents during the mid 70's and the doctor lit one up right there. My parents later talked about how inappropriate it was. That was the first time I heard talk of it being bad. Everyone smoked everywhere all the time
- I mean at one point Olympic athletes were spokesmen for cigarettes cause they thought it opened your lungs.
  
  Go watch some of the WSM competitions, they'll lift mass amounts of weight, then immediately get interviewed and will be dragging down a cig.
- I know an older nurse whose job it was to follow a pediatrician around the children's hospital and try and catch his ashes in an ashtray while he rounded on his patients.

I do, but a pack of cigarettes wasn’t $12 back then…
- I can't imagine trying to put $12 in quarters into that machine.
  
  Takes 8 at a time... Christ.
  Ka chunk.
  Click click click click click click click click
  Ka chunk....

My "step-dad" used to sit as close as he could to the smoking section in restaurants and would try to fight anyone that lit up.
Childhood was fun.
- That does sound fun!
  
  Lovely fun trauma, yay.
- I was only a kid when we still had smoking vs non smoking sections, but I remember how odd I thought it was back then.
  The pungent smell of smoke permeated the air throughout the entire restaurant. Usually there was not even a door separating smoking from non smoking. Idk what they were hoping to accomplish.
  
  It's like having a pissing and no pissing side in a pool.
  
  Complying with an under-specified law

I remember when Camel's, Marlboro's, and Newports were $0.60 a pack
- Aww I love meeting fellow older people on Lemmy.

I took a smoking flight once. It totally reeked. Even as a smoker it was unpleasant. I also smoked in my hospital room after an appendectomy, which in hindsight seems absolutely nuts.
I quit 12 years ago after trying dozens of times. I credit e-cigs with helping me finally wean off of tobacco.
- Good for you for quitting, that's hard.
  I know an older nurse who used to have to follow a pediatrician around the children's hospital with an ashtray trying to catch his ashes while he rounded on patients.

I think smoking rooms in hotels are still a thing, but they're certainly less common than they were. My mother and I got stuck in a smoking room despite booking a non-smoking room well in advance and it was awful. Stayed just one night and our clothes smelled like cigarette smoke for the rest of the trip.
I don't really care if people smoke, but gosh, ya'll need ventilation.
- Hmm I wonder where.

Just wrapping up a trip to China... I kept telling my partner how much every restaurant smelled like the 80s. So glad it's not like this any more in the States.
- Oh wow. That must have been awful.

I think the world is better off with the decline of tobacco but I used to spend time in East Germany and they used to have cigarette machines right on the street. My Oma would send me down with 5 marks to pick her up a pack.
- They still exist. In the North not so much, but in Bavaria you'll find them on every corner.

Remember when they didn't have smoking sections, you were allowed to smoke anywhere?
- Where I live they don't even have smoking sections, if you want to smoke you have to go outside and away from doors and windows.
  
  I think that's common now. It's at least the same where I live.
  But way back you could smoke anywhere in a restaurant, etc. even on planes, at one point.
- Sure do. It was wild.

In early high school (15~ years ago), I went with my girlfriend at the time and her family to a local restaurant that still had one of the only smoking sections left in the city. All of her family smoked, and I couldn't even enjoy my meal because my senses were overloaded by cigarettes. It was horrible and I'm so thankful we removed smoking indoors in the states.
- I remember being at a Legion fish fry once years ago and you could still smoke in there after it was banned everywhere else. Fish and smoke do not mix well.
- I got to bar age after most cities in my area passed non-smoking bylaws for bars and restaurants, but lived for a bit in one city that didn't yet have a ban. I smoked at the time. I remember thinking that while it was nice to be able to just have a smoke while chilling on a couch with friends and a drink, the air quality sucked overall and I was glad to see the ban eventually go through there, too.
  A while later, I stopped smoking in my car. If I wanted a smoke, I'd park somewhere and do it outside. For places I lived, if it already had people smoking indoors, I'd just do that, but otherwise I'd smoke outside because the clean air was nicer (both while smoking outside and when I returned to the inside).
  So even as a smoker, the convenience wasn't worth it to me, unless the air quality was already bad.

lol when they did, a pack didn’t cost $12.00
- This looks like a cig vending machine that's still in use today.
  
  Yeah, probably in a bar.

I quit smoking when Marlboros went over $2/pack lol. Airports had these awful rooms where all the smokers would cram in and hotbox. Other countries are still like it used to be here in the US. Japan comes to mind as one such bad example. If you ask for a non-smoking table in a restaurant, they just sit you at any random table and put a little "no smoking" sign on it!
- Japan's changed in the last few years. Chain restaurants there's a separate air tight smoking room or you can't smoke indoors at all. Local places might allow it but I feel like I don't see it much even then. The only places left that have it seem to be bars or izakayas.
  
  That's cool. I went in 2017.

My favorite store in the mall was next to the donut shop and I used to have to hold my breath as I passed because it was so smokey.
- I remember when the donut shops were full of smoking teens in the 80s and the boys would whistle at me. Good times that smelled bad.

When I was little, I asked my parents why they don't smoke and they just laughed. I didn't understand why. Because 100% of the other adults I knew were smokers.

casinos dont allow smoking anymore (at least the ones ive been) and the smoking room they had was so small and pathetic and had no ventilation at all it was terrible
not that i went there to smoke or gamble i just wanted to check it out. it was horrible
- Yes they don't have it here either.

Airplanes even had ashtrays with little flip up lids in the armrests.
- I work in an office that was built in 1980. There are built-in ashtray slots in the restrooms. They've all been glued shut now, but it's very obvious what they are.
  There's a main atrium in the building surrounded by the wings of space for cubicles. I can only imagine the smoke cloud that must have hung in the air back in the day!

clearly the tobacco industry didn't lobby hard enough

I remember when the Denny's not far from my apartment had one of these vending machines.
- Denny's should've been able to grandfather in their smoking sections for the night shift. It's not like you went to that place to taste your food anyway.
  
  I remember McDonald’s having those goofy little aluminum ash trays.

The packs cost more and you got less in them so a 20 pack would have 17

German airports still do, have smoking rooms in fact
- Wow! But a lot of Germans smoke right? And in restaurants too?
  
  It's been a few years, but last time I was there, (some) bars in Berlin still has large smoking sections.