I think most of us remember when restaurants had smoking areas, since North Carolina just enacted a restaurant no-smoking law in 2008, but when I went to high school, we had a student smoking area.
Yes, I remember while growing up there were smoking areas in resturants. There was one resturant we would go to that was a coffee shop that had no designated smiking area yet smoking was allowed. It wasn't a place that always smelled of cigarette smoke. Not too good a thing to be around now that we know the dangers of second hand smoke. I also remember when area of some of the office buildings I worked in had designated smoking areas. Now those are mostly outside, since it would seem that smoking inside a building is become more obsolete.
Ken, we're showing our age here. I remember my High school having a student smoking area as well. The boys would gang up on breaks and smoke, but they thought the girls who smoked were kind of "racy," or immoral or something. LOL I was glad I didn't start smoking until I left High school.
Oh, I remember them too. It's funny how different laws are in the US as opposed to Europe. Here in Romania, we still have certain smoking areas in restaurants. I'm not so sure about it, but last I recalled, public smoking became illegal in the States, right? Well, they're trying to make that a law in Romania too. I'm guessing it will only affect me for the better, as I never smoked and that means that I won't get to inhale other people's second-hand smoke.
When I first joined the workforce of a bank, the first thing I noticed were the ash trays that adorned most of the office tables. Even if the offices were air conditioned, smoking was allowed. In our department, there were 2 women who smoked and majority of the men smoked. The boss was a smoker too so that gave encouragement to smokers. My husband was telling me when he was in college, smoking was allowed in the classroom. Would you believe that? Even some of their professors were smoking inside the classroom. What a great change we had.
When I was in school, there was no such thing as a smoking area, at least not for students. The teachers had what was called the "teacher's lounge", and they could go in there and smoke, and teachers were also also allowed to smoke outside of the school building. Students who were caught smoking anywhere on school grounds were in serious trouble, and could even be expelled. Any of the boys that did smoke in high school went across the street and off of the school grounds to do it. I do not remember any girls smoking, but there probably were some that did. My parents ran a little neighborhood grocery store, and it was not unusual for the people to send their kids to the store with a couple of quarters to buy the parents a pack of cigarettes, and the kids got to spend the change on candy. No one ever even thought about the kids buying cigarettes for themselves back in those days, and kids that did try smoking were usually made to sit and smoke until they got really sick and threw up. Whether that actually cured them from smoking or not, I have no idea; but it was certainly not a pleasant experience for the poor boy who was caught smoking his parent's cigarette.
Smoking in public places is also forbidden by law in the UK and other European countries. Unfortunately it has had is that it has killed of a lot of traditional British pubs. It is also common now to see groups of people standing outside bars, restaurants and clubs to smoke, which is not good when you are passing by, and there are complaints from non-smokers about workers leaving the building for cigarette breaks while they have to stay behind to answer phones and get on with business. I do support the smoking ban because it is better for health and makes public places more pleasant to be in. I remember when people smoked on planes, trains, buses and when watching movies!
...and in offices, too. I can remember my early office jobs and there would always be more than one or two old stagers who would have a fag dangling from their lips pretty much all day long.
It has been about 15yrs since any of the restaurants here had smoking areas in them. I do remember the smoking areas in high school. And yes, all of the boys would gather there at lunch time with a few of the girls. Girls in general just did not smoke often when I was in high school. And I remember when my youngest daughter (she will be 29) was born smoking was actually allowed in the rooms of the maternity ward. I complained because my room mate and all of her visitors were heavy smokers and I had gone out of my way to avoid being around cigarette smoke while aI was pregnant. I was not a smoker and could not breath due to the fog of smoke that was always in the room. I was moved into a private room where I could breathe!
Yeah, I definitely support the ban too, and I cannot wait until they enforce it in Romania too! I visited Budapest about a month ago, and I was suprised by how clean and fresh everything was there. They have very strict laws on public smoking and littering. One could only dream of the same order being present in Romania...
Not just restaurants. I remember going with my parents aboard a train from one state to another, and there was a car designed as smoking area too.
When I was growing up in a family run store like Yvonne kids were sent to the store to buy cigarettes sometimes and we hoped that the parents were near by to ask if they sent their children to buy cigarettes! Cigarettes were only for adults over 21 back then and everything is going back to the age requirement again which is good. There has been a lot of changes to where a person can smoke cigarettes and now laws about e-cigs too. Cigarette bans around Hawaii include beaches, parks & bus stops now aside of the other places worldwide that have stopped smoking. Well at least there is a smoking area for people who smoke cigarettes for everyone has rights.
My high school had an outdoor smoking area for students, too. I'm tempted to say it wasn't that long ago.. but maybe it was lol Smoking was still allowed in McDonald's etc in my home state until I think 1989, so I was surprised when I came here to Iowa and found you could still smoke in many buildings until just a couple of years ago.