[cooljay788]

Times have changed for smokers.

20 years ago, a pack of Newports used to be only $1.75 per pack in Chicago. A Marlboro carton was about 19 bucks (I rememba seeing) for $19 by 1990. Of course, a pack was actually less than a buck in the earlier 80s within the Windy City.

I even rememba the days of seeing cig vending machines in all kinds of restaurants, including Dunkin Donuts!

In the early 80s, I rememba seeing people smoke all over in fast food restaurants, before the days of smoking/nonsmoking sections. And in the early 80s, it was hard finding an open table at McDonalds....that's how crowded fast food restaurants used to be in my town back then!

Heck, even when there used to be smoking sections just 10 years ago, I STILL saw crowded Mickey Ds in downtown Chicago!

I'm not old enough to recall seeing people smoke in supermarkets. But I heard of smoking in supermarkets, waiting areas and patient rooms of hospitals, and people smoking on buses and trains. That must've happened in the 60s particularly.

I DO rememba seeing people smoke in shopping malls during the 80s. And smoking used to be allowed on planes in that decade. I rememba hearing about free cig packs being given out on planes and at auto races during the 80s as well.

Oh yeah, I certainly rememba smoking being allowed in seats at Cub and White Sox games in those days. I sat behind a red-haired lady at a White Sox-Brewers game at the old Comiskey Park in 1988. She smoked regulars, but I don't rememba her brand. They might have been Winstons since they didn't smell like Marlboro Reds.

It used to be cool seeing people smoke while waiting for the trains at subway stations, although there WERE No Smoking signs on the wall. I think it wasn't til 2003 when the city decided to start enforcing no smoking inside of subway stations.

I certainly can't forget the days of cig ads on outdoor billboards, mags, newspapers, and within sport stadiums/arenas being very common.

When cig commercials got banned from radio and TV in 1971, that's when Big Tobacco started placing more ads in mags especially. I recall seeing Ebony mags in the early 70s...and when I include the back cover, those mags used to have as many as 13-16 pages devoted to cig ads. I was personally surprised smokeless tobacco ads weren't common at all back then.

Ebony mags in the 80s were no different.....11-13 pages worth of cig ads including the back covers. I recall seeing TWO-page Marlboro Country ads too.

Now in modern times....

Smoking ain't allowed anywhere in sport stadiums, at least the ones in my town. But I'm sure this is common in stadiums nationwide. If you leave to go outside to smoke, you can't re-enter, even if you show em your ticket.

You won't find cig vending machines in even Chicago taverns, let alone restaurants. Since my state has a smoking ban, you can't smoke em with your Bud if you bought em from a machine anyway.

Everyone knows about no smoking on planes. And I'm sure most airports nationwide are smoke-free period.

A pack of cigs in Chicago now costs a lot. I ain't paying 8 bucks for a pack of Newports even if someone put a gun to my face and demanded me to buy the FSC Newports.

How many cig ads are in Ebony now? Well, sometimes you might be lucky to run across 1 page for Newports. But even those are rarely seen in modern mags. The only mags in modern times that seem to have tobacco ads period (smokeless tobacco ads included) are adult mags. Like Playboy. And even Playboys no longa have tobacco ads on their back covers.

I actually miss the days of seeing cig ads on the back cover of almost every single mag out there. Including cig ads on Sports Illustrated back covers.

Based on antismoking logic, it's funny people are still smoking despite cig ads period being a thang of the past. And it's also funny teens are still starting to smoke! I thought getting rid of cig ads in mags and their back covers were supposed to help cut down on underage folks learning about cigs. LOL at antis!!!

Goes to show you cig ads were neva the main influence on a person's decision to smoke. I think growing up with smoking parents, smoking siblings, and/or smoking friends are ALL bigga influences than Joe Camel and the Marlboro Man.

I ain't gonna smoke Camels just cause "I wanna be like Joe Camel in this 80s mag ad." I'm gonna smoke the brand I enjoy the most. Joe Camel can smoke as many of those yucky Camels as he wants. That brand would make me quit smoking in an instant if it was the only brand out here.

[Eddie H]

Times sure have changed for smokers.

36 years ago, a pack of Camel Filters was $0.65 , yes 65 cents and you saved by buying a carton for just $3.00 back in Seattle, Washington! Now, the state of Washington has the 3rd or 4th highest tobacco excise tax in the nation and that carton costs $72.80

Dunkin' Donuts didn't get rid of smoking inside the donut shop until the year 2000 and still had smoking in some units up until 2005. Their biggest profit margin was on coffee sales because people only went there to smoke cigarettes, do crossword puzzles and socialize (not eat donuts).

Grocery stores only stopped allowing it in every state just in the last five to ten years. I often "accidentally" light up at the grocery store and many other places where smoking used to be allowed. You can still get away with it if you hide it...like don't exhale in any employees' face and such.

I smoked on airplanes from 1973 to around 1986. I didn't go on a plane again until 2006 so, I don't know when they stopped it. You can still find empty ashtrays with old tar and nicotine residue in them on most older planes.

I smoked inside the US Post Office in Rochester NY from 1985 to 1992 or whenever it was that idiot democrat Bill Clinton made an "Executive Order" . A sex addict who was smoke-free and president made the decision and trampled my rights all to hell along with half a million other smoking postal workers.

I smoked inside the Federal Bldg in St. Pete , FL from '77 until '81 (that's how long I worked there).

Yeah, in sports stadiums in Tampa Bay there is one designated area on one side of the stadium so you have to walk there. If you way over on the opposite side, too bad for you and you miss some of the game too. In stadiums that dont let you back in if the designated area is outside the property, that is because of the baloney Homeland Security act which takes away rights of American Citizens assuming that we are all terrorists. Of course, profiling is not allowed (even though that is common sense). Instead, we gonna search grandma's underwear for Osama bin Ladin istead of the guy from the middle east with the beard and the towel around his head. hahaha


I also miss the billboard and magazine ads. Smoking IS increasing so really, what did outlawing the ads do?

I smoke mostly what my parents smoked and my grandpa not what I saw on an advertisement.

Bring back the 65 cent packs of smokes please and government roll back your employee payrolls to save money instead of taxing me out of my job and my home!

[thor91]

Jesus! $1.75! I can barely get a pack of gum or a sodab for that price much less a pack of fags!!!!

[luigi]

When I was in college, one of my professors would smoke while teaching. I started smoking shortly after.

[cooldude]

My grandpa and also my mother, used to send me to the store with a "note" to buy cigs for them. Eventually, I learned how to change the numbers requested and would buy for myself. When my dad broke up with mom and we moved away from her and the grandparents, I stopped smoking until about a decade later.

[storrs19]

In 1988 when I started buying my own cigarettes a carton of Lark was $8.90 in Louisville, KY. I can remember them being $12.90 in 1995 then all of a sudden they jumped to $21 a carton and we have never looked back. I can't afford them now as they are $60 a carton. I order Non-FSC Marlboro online for $46 a carton. I can't think of anything that has jumped up so much in price. Thanks a lot you bunch of crying liberal nuts who want to run my life.

I also remember when I started smoking you could smoke almost anywhere. I remember visiting my dad in the hospital in 1990 and bringing him some smokes. We would sit in his room and have a smoke and just talk. I can also recall going to stores like K-Mart and there being diner there. This country just plain sucks if you are a smoker any more.

As for school well in elementary school I remember seeing the teachers smoking in their lounge as well as the principal in his office. This was the same in junior high school as well. By the time I got to high school there was a designated smoking area INSIDE the school for students and teachers together. This was in 1988, not all that long ago. Now if you light up a cigarette on a sidewalk near a school here come the cigarette gestapo to take you away. Never mind the idiot bringing a gun in and killing 20 people or so.

Give me a damn break! This country sure has it's priorities in the wrong place.