I was born in the early 90s and remember making fun of the idea that a non-smoking section separated from active smokers in the IHOP by a thin barrier that didn't even reach the ceiling could do anything.

Boy, leaded gasoline really fucked up whole generations, didn't it? Oh... We are still dealing with the fallout from that, aren't we?

Omigod.

We had to do this with our first house. Former tenants were 2 pack a day each with kids in The house. The water cascaded down completely brown.

My wife's parents used to smoke heavily. She tells me how they had to clean the windows monthly just to be able to see out of them

Ashtrays everywhere. Companies marketing for kids who proudly make massive branded ashtrays, like McDonalds.

Cigarette lighter? You mean the finger print eraser and "lesson enforcer"? It was always empty when I grew up, seems like every child needed to learn that it was still hot even after the glow had vanished :)

The bic type lighter where everywhere, including in the coin shelf in cars

Like, even teachers smoked. Not in lessons, but if they were out in the playground supervising, or in the staff room, they'd light up.

My headteacher had a pipe. I think it was about the only thing that kept him going, right up until the cancer got him.

Part of the reason kids have asthma from that era, myself included, is because our mothers smoked while pregnant.

When I was a kid I used to kick cigarette butts down the aisles at the local grocery store.

I’m a weirdo and I loved the smell, so naturally I became a smoker at the ripe old age of like, 10.

I know how much other people hate the smell so I’m always so paranoid about it.

I’m about to be a stay at home dad for a bit. I’m quitting to kill the expense. Wish me luck!

I went on a road trip a few years ago and we went to a bar... somewhere along the mid Atlantic. Maybe Virginia or one of the Carolinas, and people are smoking at the bar, and I felt like I had just landed on a different planet. Like... I had almost forgotten people still smoked at all, let alone a dozen people puffing away in a small barroom.

We got pretty drunk and had a good time though. But then when I took a shower in the morning, it was like all that smoke residue was oozing out of my pores and hair. Being hungover and having a steamy, cigarette-smelling shower did not start the day off well.

Same. I'm so sensitive to smoke I will run away from anyone smoking in my vicinity even outdoors.

I came to Ireland when they just banned smoking and it was still legal in Germany. The first time I walked into a pub and ran against a solid wall of sweat and beer farts I missed smoking.

My pack has no vagine or anoose.

For real though, about to quit. Wish me luck, boys!

I know one of those bars. When my city banned indoor smoking back in the mid-aughts, that bar still reeked of cigarettes for years. It was just coming out of the walls

I worked for an Internet startup in the mid '90s that was so desperate for venture capital funding we were sucking up to RJR Nabisco (who were rolling in so much cigarette money that they actually started a venture capital division just to do something with the cash). One day some of their executives showed up and they spent the entire day chain-smoking in our conference room (our building was a non-smoking building). The smoke was so thick everywhere you couldn't even see to the end of the hallway. I made a point of coughing loudly and my bosses sent me home before the end of the day. In the end we got nothing from them.

It's a warm memory because most of those bastards have probably died a miserable death by now.

Was in Tokyo and Osaka last year.

Tokyo was gorgeous. No smokers in sight at most locations. Some vapers, but whatever.

Osaka was the complete opposite. I had to find outdoor restaurants. The gaming bar I hung out had a smoking corner near the bathroom. Lots of cigarette butts all over the city.

My wife is from an Eastern European country, and whenever we visit her folks I have a similar experience. Every single restaurant reeks of smoke, and there is apparently no political appetite to change that.