Do any of you 20th century people remember this during the old days?

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CCJockey381@reddit

A smoking section in an airplane is like a peeing section in a pool…

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sir_thatguy@reddit

Not really, unless your pool has a water fall and no water is reused.

Cabin pressurization is a total loss kinda thing. The ACM pack pumps in more air than is needed and the outflow valve regulates how much gets out to maintain cabin pressure.

So as long as the smoking section is nearest to the outflow valve, typically the rear of the plane, then it’s way more segregated than a pool or restaurant.

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CCJockey381@reddit

You are clearly too young to have experienced the dubious privilege of flying in "Non-smoking" when it was a thing.

Even in the most modern aircraft, cabin air may be "Total Loss," but is not "Immediate Total Loss." Thankfully the smokers got tossed off the plane.

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DrEarlGreyIII@reddit

the sea has both a peeing section and a pooping section

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XLB135@reddit

That and entering a restaurant preparing to answer whether you want smoking section or non-smoking section. ::shudders::

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The air is engineered to circulate on the diameter of the fuselage, so there there is somewhat of an attempt to keep the smoky air in the smoky part of the plane. That of course is spoiled by people and flight attendants moving up and down the aisle and pushing air as they go. My dad who was an engineer who worked on aircraft interiors had once told me that you could tell where the smoking section started on older airplanes because of the darker tar staining on the interior panels in that section of the plane.

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GuaranteeUnhappy3342@reddit

Lived in a cute garage apartment that had been occupied by heavy smokers. The smoke stains and a gradually decreasing reek of old stale cigarette smoke!

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GuaranteeUnhappy3342@reddit

Lived in San Luis Obispo when they started banning smoking. We had just about quit going to bars and some restaurants due to the reek of smoking.

At the time I was kind of used to tobacco smoke, parents smoked as I was growing up, most of my teen friends smoked growing up…even high schools had smoking areas. Even dated a girl that smoked for years. (Not going into the pleasures of a trip from LAX to VTE in those days…before even the laughable “No Smoking” areas.)

It was when we stepped into a smoke free (still a lot of traces of old smoke!) restaurant the first time…what a pleasant surprise!

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rotardy@reddit

Yep. Can also attest to how many old captains hated the no smoking rules and remember many days sitting on the ground during extended delays with cockpit windows open while the captain was burning an cig

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frix86@reddit

Everything was that way, not just planes. Restaurants were notorious for that.

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Several_Hospital_129@reddit

My mother hates the smell of cigarette smoke. Occasionally she would turn around and leave a restaurant before we were seated, because the smell had filled the restaurant.

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TheWoodser@reddit

"Would you like the smoking or second-hand smoking section?"

The waitress...

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Capable_Yak6862@reddit

Restaurants were the worst. There would be a 4’ tall wall separating the smoking and non section. It did nothing. Can people really not make it through a 30 minute meal without needing to smoke?

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Dave_DBA@reddit

That is today’s thinking. Back in the day it was more like, “Can people really not make it through a 30 minute meal near a smoking section?”

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anemisto@reddit

I ran into a restaurant with a smoking section in like... 2018. Apparently, Connecticut has no state-wide smoking ban. (It was an IHOP, IIRC.)

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snklznet@reddit

I remember Distinctly being mad about always being in a smoking section as a kid. Both parents smoked like chimneys

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trubol@reddit

Smoking or non-smoking?

Smoking.

Here. Have a nice flight

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trubol@reddit

I remember when the smoke ban kicked in, I was on a 2h-bus ride and the dude next to me was so freaked out he couldn't smoke he ate one cigarette.

Like, really. Slowly ate the thing, chewing real slow.

My mum tells me she saw doctors smoking in the delivery rooms when I was born in 1977

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slwilke13@reddit

It was the same in restaurants. The “non-smoking” section always had a ton of smoke in it. Glad that it’s over!

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daveb2457@reddit

Grew up in the 70s in a smoking family, hated it and every enclosed space in public was hopelessly polluted. I think that what really irked me the most was that smokers thought their "right" to smoke anytime and anywhere needed to be respected. Oh well I guess it was the addiction.

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Key-Monk6159@reddit

So true but weirdly as a non smoker, it never really bothered me nor did I hear anyone complain about it. Must have just been the times. Obviously I very much prefer today.

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rex_swiss@reddit

My first international flight was in 1991 aboard a 747. I was a few rows from the back. The instant the No Smoking light went out everyone around me started lighting up. And I instantly reached up and hit the FA call button. Luckily there was an aisle seat open a few rows up out of the smoking section. It did make a difference!

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discombobulated38x@reddit

I don't remember it in planes, but I remember it in restaurants and it was so grim.

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ruralcricket@reddit

I worked for an airline back then. You could tell where the airframe leaked by the brown smoke/tar streaks on the outside.

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Evening-Age-7480@reddit

Folks were more tolerant back, and less informed, back then.

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ventus1b@reddit

I remember there being a smoking section towards the back of the plane and you always hated getting the last non-smoking row. Or the second-to-last. Or third.

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CanadaRobin@reddit

Or having to use the bathroom.

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makgross@reddit

Yeah, that was dumb, but frankly the dumbest thing was charging for checked bags. It used to be A LOT easier to get off a fucking plane.

There was a time when smoking was only prohibited for flights under 4 hours. Which meant all overseas flights and nonstop transcontinental flights had smoking, but there was relief if you took a stop in Denver or Chicago.

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Lampwick@reddit

Nicotine patches existed.

Patches are for quitting by allowing you to break the habit of smoking first, then tackling the drug addiction later. They're not a 1:1 substitute for cigarettes. Also they were prescription only until 1996. People who've never smoked regularly don't get how intensely addictive smoking is. Former heroin addicts all say that it's easier to quit heroin than cigarettes. About a third of the male population were smokers up into the 90s. Of course they catered to that.

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madmax7774@reddit

Peperidge Farm remembers!

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maporita@reddit

I used to smoke in those days and one time I took a flight and I was seated in the non-smoking section. So I had to walk to the back of the plane and stand near the toilet to have a smoke. It's insane when you think about it now.

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Dave_DBA@reddit

The airlines didn’t come up with this idea. It was universal.

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Admirable_Site_8337@reddit

Can totally relate. Ironically I grew up to be a smoker for a few decades, but as a kid it was annoying as hell.

Very similar to smoking sections in restaurants, but worse of course due to the small round tube everyone is in.

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Every-Progress-1117@reddit

Yes, trains and busses too. Smoking was pretty much ubiquitous.

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Metahec@reddit

I remember ashtrays in hospital waiting rooms

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let-me-see-your-boob@reddit

We had smoking and non smoking sections in restaurants too

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Kanyiko@reddit

Flew a lot as a kid in the late 1980s and early 1990s (had an aunt in the diplomatic service on foreign postings, used to visit her during the holidays) and I remember those times. My memory was of aircraft cabins smelling of a mixture of cigarette smoke and sick (there always was somebody who had to use their bag); and even in the non-smoking section the seats had the ashtray, which usually had discarted chewing gum in it instead.

The same went for public transport - trains, busses, travel busses, etc.

Nostalgia is a view of the past with all of the bad bits filtered out - I'm definitely not missing the smoke and smell of cigarettes.

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SectorAntares@reddit

Then there is Las Vegas, where smoking seems to be mandatory. Everywhere.

The only thing worse than the smoke is the constant racket of the slot machines.

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SectorAntares@reddit

The problem with smoking sections was, they never had separate ventilation. If you sat in the non-smoking section of a restaurant, you might be back to back with a smoker because the booth behind you was the start of the smoking section. In an airplane, you might be one row in front of a smoker.

Sometime around the turn of the century, there was a company in Florida selling excursion flights in a DC-3. Their website noted that they were a charter operator, not an airline, so the non-smoking rules did not apply and customers were welcome to “light up a cigar” (!) during their flight. I can only imagine…

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