well, the first use is for a prop cigarette lighter gag, and the second time (wendy with coffee) it is met with a "no smoking!" retort from the store manager.
so it's not exactly "approved behavior" out of the gate.
The lady in the checkout line was a bit over the top, but Wendy wanting to smoke in the break room would not have been unheard of in the 80s. Did anyone else notice the scene in the mall where there are people smoking in the background? It's crazy to think how smoking was allowed in malls and other public places in the 80s.
shareIt's crazy to think how smoking was allowed in malls and other public places in the 80s.
I remember certain areas of the mall reeked like cigarettes. Not a problem now. I never experienced flights with smoking.
shareMy niece and nephew (5 & 7 respectively) would be shocked by how common public smoking used to be. They've never heard "Smoking or non-smoking?" or seen an ashtray in a restaurant or inside of a store.
Heck, up until the year before I got to high school ('88) they had a "Smoker's bathroom" for kids over the age of 16 or 18 (whatever the legal age was then) and who had their parent's permission. Not that the rule change meant much. Many a time I walked into one of the bathrooms and was greeted by the stench of smoke.
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A journey into the realm of the obscure: http://saturdayshowcase.blogspot.com/
If this bothers you I wouldn't recommend you watch any sci-fi from the 50's, all they do is smoke. There's a particularly funny scene in The Day The Earth Stood Still. There's a couple of doctors standing around talking about the physiology of the alien and while they're talking one of the doctors pulls out a pack and and hands one to the other doctor, just before they light them up another doctor comes in and they talk for a second before he leaves, then the two doctors light up their cigarettes and start smoking in silence for a few seconds and then somebody else comes barging through the door. Lost Continent is known for being a smoke-fest, they sort of spoofed it on an episode of Star Trek DS9. As the writer described it "Continent took it to an art form that is just jaw-dropping to watch. Every time there is a problem, everyone just starts handing out cigarettes."
"Dan Marino should die of gonorrhea and rot in hell. Would you like a cookie son?"
When I was a kid from the late 1950s to early 1970s every adult I knew smoked. My parents smoked continuously, except when they were asleep or in the shower. People smoked everywhere you went. There were ashtrays in restaurants, libraries, and doctors' offices. I had two doctors who smoked while they were with me in the tiny exam room. I worked in a supermarket and one of my duties was to push a big broom around the entire floor every hour to clean up the cigarette butts. It was a different world, my friends.
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