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- cross-posted to:
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When I moved to Tennesse from Virginia, it was still legal to smoke on restaurants in VA. The day we moved we got into town after most places were closed, and we were starved, so stopped at a waffle house. Lit up a cigarette at the table and the waitress freaked the fuck out. Lol. Waffle house and smoking are so intrinsically linked my head that now, years after quitting, I still crave cigarettes whenever I see that fucking sign, and I genuinely almost never crave cigarettes. They stink and I don’t miss them. But it was just… The place you smoked and ate hash browns. I can go to bars without associating them with cigs as much as I do waffle house.
A group of us teenagers would go to a local diner similar to a Waffle House and sit, drink endless coffee, and smoke. We were there at least one night each week.
We made sure to be there when the ban finally went into place in my state. At midnight exactly, one of the waitresses came over, said put them all out. We did and she left with the ashtray.
I never went back.
When I smoked, I used to have a collection of ash trays from restaurants, and even a metal one with a tree for holding the cigarettes that came from a hospital. When I found out TN didn’t allow smoking in restaurants I started asking all the restaurants I went to if they had any left and if I could have them
This is how my folks dropped me off everywhere.
Did you ever see the next to last episode of Good Omens…
I grew up in a home with heavy smokers, so I really had no chance at all as a kid. I have childhood memories of being in a smoke filled car with windows rolled up. Didn’t even have to crack the windows because there were ashtrays built into the cars of that era. And then if the windows were open or cracked, there was another danger. I lost count of how many times I had ashes fly back into the back of the car directly into my eyes and mouth, or the lovely feeling of a burning “cherry” searing into my forehead.
I remember in Maryland around that time places like Denny’s would have areas walled off with plexiglass in the dining area for smokers.
I remember even as a kid hearing about all the backlash from restaurants about smoking bans. How they’d have no customers, etc. And none of that happened. It’s the first time I realized that a lot of business owners are idiots, that having a seemingly successful business doesn’t even require understanding the business or customers.
Then came Kitchen Nightmares and the like on TV to erase any doubt that these were well run businesses behind the scenes.
Pubs were also whining a lot about how they would be on the breadline before the year was out.
Don’t know what it’s like round your way, but the pubs in my town are still pretty busy.
I can at least understand why a pub owner would be concerned - smoking and drinking often go hand-in-hand. I can see why they thought people would be less likely to stay and drink if they had to leave to smoke. But restaurants got no such sympathy from me, keep your nastyass smoke away from my food
“Do you mind if I smoke?”
No, do you mind if I fart? It’s . . . just a habit I picked up.
-Steve Martin
Reminds me of this episode of Nathan for you; https://m.imdb.com/title/tt5199634/
The bar owner basically does exactly that and blames anti smoking laws on her failing bar
Such an incredible show.
I remember boarding a short regional flight in northern Ontario in the mid 80s. We were placed in a non-smoking section, while the row behind us was smoking. I remember seeing those little ashtray drawers on every seat and every single one no matter smoking or non smoking had cigarette butts and ash in them.
And wherever you walked, malls, stores, grocery stores, banks, schools, hospitals, banquets, dinners, gatherings … everywhere, anywhere … someone or a few people were smoking.
People were considered weird or rude or just plain stupid if they asked someone not to smoke in public.
When I was a kid I was in the school band, and for one or two of our performances at Christmas we actually had to go out of our way to ask the people we were playing for not to smoke during the performances.
AND WE WERE SECONDARY SCHOOL KIDS!!! (11 - 16) I mean for the love of god we were children, and musicians at that, and still adults thought it was fine to smoke in front of us., in enclosed rooms.
I remember being in high school in the early 90s and a friend of mine and I snuck into one of the local bars one Friday night.
It was far scarier than wandering into Mordor. There was so much noise you couldn’t hear anyone … which always confused me because people were having conversations with one another. Dark and dim because the walls were black, the floor was black with dirt and beer, the ceiling was black and the furniture was black. The only light you could see was the bar and the band playing loud shitty music.
And smoke, so much smoke that you could swear the place was on fire. So much smoke you got high on the smoke in the air. Smoke so thick you couldn’t see ten feet in front of you. And in the smoke you saw ghouls, goblins, orks, giants, witches and warlocks speaking in weird tongues you couldn’t understand. The only way to survive in there was to be drunk out of your mind.
I’m too young to have known that in my home country but I remember doing my Erasmus in a country where people were still smoking in bars.
It felt gross, if I did not wash my clothes and hair directly after a night out my bedroom would smell like cigarettes for days.
My dad used to smoke when we went over to his house on weekends and I hated how gross ashtrays looked :(
And how my hair and clothes would just smell of smoke even though I didn’t smoke at all - especially when we went to my grams house in the summer.
The real question is how old were you when you realized there was no N in restaurateur. My decades were at least several.
Apparently “restauranteur” is common enough to have an entry in the Collins’ so consider your honor restored
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/restauranteur
Apparently I was today years old.
Although (in my limited defence) I am not sure I have ever actually used to that word or written that word down.
Jokes on you, that smoke wall was the only thing that was protecting Harambe.
