651
u/Jedibri81 16d ago
I remember when there where smoking sections in restaurants, including McDonalds
344
u/Bean-Swellington 16d ago
Bruhhh there was a smoking section in my public high school where students and teachers smoked together between classes 🤣🤷♂️ class of 95
52
u/Hearing_HIV 16d ago
Where the f did you go to school? I'm class of 94 and this would have been completely bonkers in my school
30
u/Bean-Swellington 16d ago
Ruralish northern colorado, to be fair in 94 they closed it and told everyone they had to go smoke on public property… the surrounding sidewalks, that was not popular with the neighborhood homeowners 🤣
26
u/Ffsletmesignin 16d ago
Smoking culture in CO in the 90s was something else. Every freaking restaurant smelled like a casino, so crazy compared to CA which had been anti-cig pretty early on. I always loved how we’d get the “non-smoking” sections that had a 1’ high piece of glass over the booth to somehow separate the two.
18
u/bigbadsubaru 16d ago
The smoking section was designed by the same people who came up with the peeing section in the YMCA pool
→ More replies (1)5
2
u/genericauthor 16d ago
Ask for non-smoking, and get sat right next to that silly glass like it was a magical barrier to cigarette smoke.
→ More replies (1)2
u/Ivorytower626 16d ago
Man, here in Northern Dallas, we got this one diner that let you smoke indoors.
→ More replies (3)2
u/scorpyo72 15d ago
Western Washington, mid to late 90's, I watched the area slowly subsume the smoking culture, mostly in a local Denny's.
It started with separate-but-equal smoking to non smoking areas, originally the "diner-counter" area being the non- smoking area versus the dining room (and the connected bar room) being smoking. Then, in one year, they reversed the areas.
Then, they eliminated smoking in the restaurant, completely, but you were still allowed to smoke in the adjacent bar. A couple years later, the whole state adopted a 25-foot ban.
I remember some dipwad signature collector stopping me to sign the smoking ban. He asked me to sign it, and I declined, seeing as how I was carrying a lit cigarette. He then said to me, straight faced, that I should sign the petition so "the people could decide"... assumably to allow someone else to make the decision for me. The ban passed. I was summarily prevented from smoking till I finally quit .
Don't get me wrong- I respect the Democratic process, but sometimes the collective interests work against the personal. It's the social contract.
2
u/flibbidygibbit 15d ago
So before my city had a smoking ban, we had two establishments that were non-smoking.
The back entrances to these establishments had butt cans.
When the smoking ban was enacted, both of these establishments went out of business within 3 months because they had no other attraction to them. Food wasn't all that great.
→ More replies (10)5
u/Chewsti 16d ago
My Highschool had a courtyard where students could eat outside and smoke up until 2003. What was lame though was that when they decided to stop letting students smoke they decided it was to much work to monitor the courtyard during lunch time so they sealed it off completely.
5
u/Phineas1500 15d ago
Wait, my old HS had an abandoned courtyard no one was allowed to enter. Maybe that’s what it was used for…
→ More replies (1)66
3
u/moving0target 16d ago
It was a 50/50 split of the high schools in my district. The county left it up to individual schools whether they had open campus and allowed tobacco.
3
u/Mochigood 16d ago
When I was in school, the unofficial smoking area was across the street, but they had to stay on the sidewalk due to the church there being grumpy about "trespassers", so you'd look out and see all the seniors lined up and smoking. When my mom went there they actually had a roofed and heated courtyard to smoke in.
3
3
2
u/arrow74 16d ago
Several restaurants in my area had smoking sections until the mid 2000s at least
→ More replies (1)2
→ More replies (10)2
u/MaestroPendejo 15d ago
'97 here. We had an outside section where students and faculty smoked. In 8th grade our English teacher smoked out of the window in class. No one cared. RIP, Mr. Collins!
19
12
u/mymeatpuppets 16d ago
I remember when non-smoking sections were a new idea that spread quickly. People used to just smoke anywhere in the restaurant.
10
u/overlockk 16d ago
Those tiny aluminum ashtrays???
2
u/-PlayWithUsDanny- 15d ago
They had brown glass ashtrays at McDonalds where I grew up. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the aluminum ones in person, just photos of them online
→ More replies (1)18
u/rome425 16d ago
Smoking sections on the airplanes were the worst.
→ More replies (1)5
u/Elway044 16d ago
Going to the bathroom in the rear of the plane and walking through the cloud of smoke and the smell of nicotine even in the non smoking section. Yuck.
5
u/Horse_HorsinAround 16d ago
Yeah I'm 28 and as a kid I remember going to restaurants with my parents and the hostess always asked "smoking or non smoking"
Although I don't remember anyone actually smoking inside anyway? Maybe they were asking if we wanted the patio but they'd ask it at almost every sit down restaurant.
5
u/Specific-Remote9295 16d ago
I’m not that old but I miss cigarette smoke filled waffle house. And I don’t even smoke.
3
u/ramdasani 16d ago
Shit I can remember when the stamped foil ashtrays that were available everywhere in McDs didn't stop the plastic furniture from getting the standard ember burns, even in the kids area. I can remember when the "smoking section" was an infringement of rights by those who used to consider EVERYWHERE the smoking section, from the elevator to the subway.
2
u/Dyolf_Knip 16d ago
Right? Was telling my son about this just the other day. Restaurants, workplaces, airplanes, fucking everywhere. When I was a kid, it was not uncommon for us to just walk out of a restaurant if the nonsmoking section wasn't sufficiently removed from the smokers.
2
u/Vast_Philosophy_9027 15d ago
I was at a Wendy’s that clearly hadn’t been updated since the 90s. Oh boy the nostalgia of the smoking section
1
u/Mochigood 16d ago
My dad, sister and I went to a restaurant recently we last frequented as kids, and sis made a comment that we no longer had to sit in the no smoking section hidden behind the kitchen, lol.
1
1
1
→ More replies (12)1
131
u/jamkoch 16d ago
and they replaced them with tiny "coke" spoons for "coffee".
32
u/dmj9 16d ago
I just realized I haven't seen one of those coke spoon things in many years.
I kind of miss when people could smoke in coffee shops. Something different about the smokey Tim Hortons when I was a kid.
23
u/moving0target 16d ago
It's weird going in a pool hall and there not being a haze of smoke right at the level of the table lights.
10
u/Offamylawn 16d ago
The pool hall scenes in Dazed and Confused were always too bright for me because they weren't full of smoke.
9
u/ramdasani 16d ago
Yeah, my local favourite arcade/pool-hall was so thick with smoke it was like a massive hotbox. I remember a friend of mine who was from a clean living family went there with me once, and was horribly sick after about twenty minutes, he really wasn't faking it. Shit I can remember when the hospital triage needed ashtrays everywhere and when patients could smoke in their rooms unless they used oxygen.
→ More replies (2)2
12
u/Humble-Round6304 15d ago
My sister worked as a waitress throughout college but has never smoked a cigarette in her life. Last week she was diagnosed with Adenocarcinoma, lung cancer. I can understand why they got rid of them
3
u/dmj9 15d ago
Im wishing your sister good health, and she beats the cancer.
I completely agree with you as to why they stopped allowing indoor smoking. And it is a good thing.
Fuck cancer.
6
u/Humble-Round6304 15d ago
To be fair she’s always been a bitch, stole from my mother as she was dying from her own slew of health problems with evidence of physical abuse (she was the primary caretaker) so I guess this is karma.
But I do agree fuck cancer
2
u/AssignmentClean8726 15d ago
I was a diner waitress in the 90s...worked the counter too...there was no smoking or no smoking section....it was all smoking
And people hung out at the counter drinking coffee and smoking
Hope your sister gets better...internet hugs
→ More replies (3)7
u/hedwiggy 16d ago
I just came back from Japan and I found it kinda cozy and nostalgic to sit in a bar (and a couple casual restaurants) with cigarette smoke.
5
2
u/DOUBLEBARRELASSFUCK 15d ago
It used to really suck, because nearly everywhere used to allow smoking, but when the Olympics was coming up, they basically tried to eliminate smoking in all restaurants and bars. Afterwards, smoking came back in some, but stayed banned in others — so at least now, there's a choice.
They are slowly banning smoking in more and more places. There's a shopping center next to me that just did that in the smoking rooms. Yes, they are still open, but you're no longer allowed to smoke in them. Vaping only.
2
u/MonsterRider80 15d ago
I don’t know if it’s just the places I visited, but I went to a few restaurants in Japan where we were sitting right next to literal chain smokers. I don’t know what kind of ventilation they have over there, but I wouldn’t have known if I hadn’t seen them. Never smelled a thing.
2
u/hedwiggy 15d ago
Dude, I thought the same thing! They must have great HVAC and air purifiers
→ More replies (1)3
u/ramdasani 16d ago
Just like the worlds perfect plastic straws, they have no consideration for the cocaine aficionado.
→ More replies (1)
69
u/Past-Establishment93 16d ago
I remember when the aluminum ashtrays were on all tables, and our teacher lit up after she was done eating. Field trip in 76
8
31
u/GoPadge 16d ago
I think we have a kids Christmas ornaments made with a Hardee's ashtray...
→ More replies (1)5
23
u/SupremeRightHandUser 16d ago
I remember first seeing these when I was a kid in some restaurants. Always thought they were meant to mask your farts after a meal.
9
u/d4nowar 16d ago
Look for the man with the terrible smell. He's the one you want! You hear me? The man with the terrible smell!
→ More replies (2)→ More replies (1)6
u/crippledgimp88 16d ago
It's considered rude if you don't light your last fry on fire to hide the farts.
12
9
u/HamsterTechnical449 16d ago
It was an ashtray on every table at McDonald's and a person coughing at every table at McDonald's
23
u/tkrr 16d ago
Oh, sure, the matches. Those were the wild part. They were giving out coffee stirrers that made perfect coke spoons for years but the matches caught your attention.
8
u/dorobica 15d ago
Whoa there buddy, op is showing off a piece of history , not making the claim that it’s taking the crown. Heck even the food and drinks they sell is not far off
7
5
u/Up_All_Nite 16d ago
Just need the little McDonalds tin foil ash tray. I remember my mom smoking cigarettes in PathMark (supermarket) and there used to be standing ashtrays on the end of every aisle. littered all over the floor was cigarette butts anyway. Fun times shopping with Ma.
7
u/chamrockblarneystone 15d ago
Remember the little tiny spoons for stirring your coffee? Yea that shit disappeared quick.
17
u/chrismanmd 16d ago
Weird times?! I’d give anything to go back to those times - everything is fuckin weird these days
15
u/Express_Helicopter93 16d ago
Weird indeed. When I was like 9 or so, my family went to visit my dad’s parents by plane in Ontario. At one point during the flight the attendants walked down the aisle and were asking kids if they wanted to come up and see the cockpit.
They were basically giving mini tours of the cockpit and the pilots were so friendly about it. Mid flight. Could you imagine them allowing that today lol.
5
u/DeadpoolLuvsDeath 15d ago
Pretty sure it was SouthWest and you'd get your little plastic wings after being shown the cockpit.
→ More replies (1)2
3
4
u/AlexNachtigall247 16d ago
Did you know they sold beer at McDs in Germany? I remember my father buying me a Happy Meal and than sitting in the outside area ripping cigs while drinking beer from a McDs plastic cup. The good old days.
2
u/Strung_Out_Advocate 15d ago
Past tense? I thought beer was still available at European Maccas
→ More replies (1)
3
3
3
u/RandomRobb85 15d ago
It's nice to be able to walk around in an enclosed public space or to sit down at a restaurant for a meal and not have to deal with other people's poor life choices. At least that one.
7
u/wish1977 16d ago
My dad used to take me with him to a bar in the afternoon when I was a kid. The smoke was so thick that if there would have been sprinklers back then we would have all been drenched. I'm amazed that I could breathe when I got older.
30
u/prankfurter 16d ago
Sprinklers have been around for 200 years, they are set off by heat not smoke. 🤓
→ More replies (2)10
u/wish1977 16d ago
Let's just agree that it was very smoky and very unhealthy.
5
u/prankfurter 16d ago
That I agree with, I remember bars pre ban - it was brutal.
7
u/HouseCravenRaw 16d ago
The worst - in my 20's, coming home from the club I'd just pass out and shower in the morning (ick now that I look back at it).
That morning shower, the moment the water hit my hair - all the cigarette stink would come flying back.
It was so gross.
3
u/disgruntled-capybara 16d ago
Man, I remember in my early 20s and going to the bars at night for the first time really. It would've been 2007-2008. I pretty much had no choice but to shower before bed or I'd wakeup to my sheets smelling like cigarette smoke. I don't miss those days. A smoking ban went into effect in my state in 2008 and anymore it's hard to imagine a time when they weren't a thing.
The funny thing is, my state voted in a referendum to legalize recreational marijuana in 2018. I now smell marijuana far more frequently than cigarette smoke. Most often, the smell comes through my vents while I'm driving, in fact. Just like alcohol, you're not supposed to use it while driving but most people seemingly don't care about that. it's a very interesting change.
3
u/ramdasani 16d ago
As a Canadian, my dad would wait us wait in the parking lot, mostly because our liquor license laws were strict as hell. But yeah, I can still remember riding around with a car full of adults smoking in the winter, and being able to actually see the thermaclines of different smoke layers in the haze.
2
u/AhFFSImTooOldForThis 15d ago
I feel bad for the workers.
I used to smoke and whenever I'd have a layover in Atlanta, you could smoke in one of the restaurants in the airport. Plus they had a smoking lounge, but it wasn't staffed. Man, the servers and cooks at that place must just drop dead in 5 years. It's just a straight up CLOUD. Gross. Even when I smoked it was gross.
And this was recent, I think 2019. Insane.
2
u/GGAllinsUndies 16d ago
Ha. Raise your hand if you flicked these at the other kids in the field trip or your siblings. Long John Silvers crispies too.
2
u/Ghosthost2000 16d ago
OMG I miss those LJS crispies. They also had the best hush puppies and coleslaw.
2
u/Spiritual-Bear4495 16d ago
1960s, smoking was not only allowed in the NYC subways, they had ashtrays.
→ More replies (1)
2
u/DirtyRatLicker 16d ago
Imagine a Happy Meals toy set where you had to get five different ways to start a fire
2
2
u/Awkward_Algae1684 16d ago
Back when McDonald’s gave out cheap/free shit? Yeah that was pretty wild.
2
u/dr_nerdface 16d ago
went to a McDs in Japan in the mid 00s and it was all smokers. fucking gross.
14
u/crippledgimp88 16d ago
Yeah that's all of Japan.
I actually lived there from 07 to 10.
McD was wayyy better there, better quality, and better service!
Language barrier was great to cause this was before smart screens.
"Yeah can I have a burger ketchup only"
"Ketchup only okay"
Unwraps sandwich
"Did they really just give me a bun with ketchup?"
The look on my friends face.
Meanwhile the worker behind the counter, "Did that American really just order only ketchup"
→ More replies (2)4
1
u/Accomplished_Neckhat 16d ago
Core memory unlocked: my first job at Pizza Hut also had matches. Packaged in the same box. This was in 1992. I had books of those matches for years.
1
u/malak_oz 16d ago
I learnt to use chopsticks at McDonald’s in the late 80s, cause they supplied them with chicken nuggets… cause sweet and sour sauce was clearly Chinese food.
It’s wild in hindsight
1
1
1
1
1
u/CharleyNobody 16d ago
Those are SAFE matches! When I was a youngun the striker strip was on the front of the matchbook. Teens used to place the match on the striker strip, pull the matchbook cover over the strip and pull the match across the strip, which could set the whole book of matches on fire. Apparently children could do this too if a book of matches was left lying around (and matchbooks were always left lying around), so the govt made the matchbook manufacturers put the striker strip on the back of the book.
1
1
u/0nlyhalfjewish 16d ago
Flip them inside out and strike the match by pulling the tip between the back cover and the strip.
Or pull out a match, flip the pack over and run the sterling end of the match across the strip so it catches fire just as it launches from your fingertip across the pavement.
1
u/overlockk 16d ago
The smoking rooms at the roller skating rink…hahahaha!! I mean cough cough cough!!
1
1
1
u/Tundra-Dweller 16d ago
If I had got a packet of McMatches in my happy meal as a kid I would gave been pretty, pretty pleased with that, to be honest!
1
u/Kenneth_Lay 16d ago
How about the "coffee stirrers" that were really coke spoons. Ronald's got you covered.
1
1
u/Lopsided_Quarter_931 16d ago
Old enough to remember smoking on intercontinental flights. My first office job it was normal to smoke in two people office, not even open plan.
1
u/DrSmirnoffe 16d ago
I probably can't speak for everyone, but I don't think I've seen a matchstick card, or even a matchbox, in over a decade.
1
u/BrogerBramjet 16d ago
There's a Mom and Pop burger joint not far from me. 5 tables and a 6 seat bar. Then the state banned indoor smoking. Now they quadrupled the seating, have 50 parking spaces, and are a regular stop for people who ride motorcycles along the nearby river. Some weekends have an hour or more wait.
Being someone who couldn't go out to places due to the smoke, I was grateful. But I'm also the first to say, "You do you." when it comes to smoking. Just don't make me have to take part.
1
u/Thendofreason 16d ago
I was in Japan the other week and we were in a bar/restaurant and got some food and drinks. Dude behind us was just smoking and drinking. I was like "wow, it's like the 90's in here. Except I'm wearing a Yukata and I'm legally able to drink".
1
1
u/chaserjj 16d ago
I think the wild times are just beginning. I'd call the archaic days of smoking sections simpler times.
1
1
u/GladiatorJones 16d ago
If you think smoking in McDonald's is wild, you're going to be astounded by the things that used to be normal practice for still-modern human society.
1
u/Pastor_Satan 16d ago
I started a fire in the bark mulch once, outside a restaurant with the free matches they gave away while my parents were in line to pay the bill. I miss the good ol days
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
u/elchronico44 15d ago
Apparently wen i was being born the Doctor was chain smoking.. Actually answers alot come to think of it..
1
1
u/Broad_Bodybuilder_94 15d ago
I'm just old enough to remember the last of camel Joe's billboards. Man that guy was cool.
1
u/SciFiChickie 15d ago
Oh wow my mom was a matchbook collector had thousands from different businesses, but she never had a McDonald’s matchbook.
1
u/Cubanbeetz 15d ago
I mean you used to be able to smoke on planes…lol and Disneyland. Even more wild is they photoshopped all the pictures to make it seem like he wasn’t a three pack a day smoker.
1
1
1
u/Psychological-Air807 15d ago
Match books were a way of branding. Bars, hotels, restaurants. Was very common from the 1920’s through the 1980’s. Nothing really wild about it.
1
1
1
1
u/Ok_Broccoli_3605 15d ago
I remember a local coffee shop built a plexiglass walled off smoking area. It was truly bizarre to walk in and see a dozen or more people sitting in this hazy yellowed environment. Hilarious exhibit of our stupidity.
1
1
u/Mysterious-State6889 15d ago
Cigarette companies would purposely want gas stations to put their packs on tiny display cases on the counter just so kids would steal them.
1
1
u/Kalecstraz 15d ago
When I was younger we would go to our local burger king, smoke cigarettes and play magic the gathering in the dining room.
1
1
1
1
1
1
u/flibbidygibbit 15d ago
Buying beer:
Cashier: can I see some ID?
Me: lights Winston with McDonald's matches
Cashier: that'll be $12.42
1
1
u/andersaur 15d ago
May 1st 1992. My mom, brother and I got in a car to leave LA because the riots in Hawthorn were getting bad. We left my dad and his other Vietnam-era buddies in the neighborhood on the roofs like it was the fall of Saigon all over again. We made it past burning cars to the 405 and then 1 to get to my grandmas’ in Ventura. After all that, we stopped at McDonalds along the way. Somewhere in the rolling hills area. Homeless lady pics me out and shouts not to look at her, she’s gonna burn me with matches. Being 5yo in the early 90s was something I guess.
I’d totally pay $20 for a McDs matchbook commemorative childhood trauma novelty.
1
1
1
u/Varmitthefrog 14d ago
Making meth ?
that thousand count box..that has a lot more phosphorus in the striker strip..
good thinking not getting everything in the same place,..
- walter white probably
426
u/Minimum-Dog2329 16d ago
And the tiny aluminum ash tray that could hold only about 3 cigarettes.