Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Tv shows set made and/or set in the 1950s and 1960s such as Mad Men and Perry Mason show the adults smoking everywhere, but a character in Mad Men doesn’t want her daughter to smoke. Meanwhile, in the 1970s, smoking bans began to be enacted (https://www.nytimes.com/1976/12/15/a...n-smoking.html), but legal smoking ages were lowered and high schools added smoking areas to prevent students from smoking in the bathroom. Is it possible that rather than there being a progression from smoking being totally allowed in the 1950s to being totally forbidden in the 21st century, it actually became more socially acceptable for teenagers to smoke in the 1970s even while where people could smoke began to be restricted, and that it was only in the 1980s or 1990s that the alliance of anti-tobacco activists and “just say no” people began?
Smoking was cool for everybody while being simultaneously frowned upon until the late 80's. That's when the war on smoking really kicked in. I remember it clearly as establishments began enforcing no smoking policies and our government began criminalizing it, but not to the point of making it illegal because there's just waaay too much money in the game.
Tv shows set made and/or set in the 1950s and 1960s such as Mad Men and Perry Mason show the adults smoking everywhere, but a character in Mad Men doesn’t want her daughter to smoke. Meanwhile, in the 1970s, smoking bans began to be enacted (https://www.nytimes.com/1976/12/15/a...n-smoking.html), but legal smoking ages were lowered and high schools added smoking areas to prevent students from smoking in the bathroom. Is it possible that rather than there being a progression from smoking being totally allowed in the 1950s to being totally forbidden in the 21st century, it actually became more socially acceptable for teenagers to smoke in the 1970s even while where people could smoke began to be restricted, and that it was only in the 1980s or 1990s that the alliance of anti-tobacco activists and “just say no” people began?
Teenagers smoked openly in the 50s. We carried cigarettes rolled up in our t shirt sleeves. Only rules were where. It could not have gotten more permissive than it was in the 50s. Even some of the goody two shoes smoked.
Booze was common but was all clandestine. It was not allowed. It however was generally available through the older guys.
Pot was rare and exotic. Much more common in the 60s and 70s.
MN enacted the Clean Indoor Air act in 1975. There was pretty much no smoking in public after that. There were smoking sections in some places but they were pretty much gone by the 80s.
MN enacted the Clean Indoor Air act in 1975. There was pretty much no smoking in public after that. There were smoking sections in some places but they were pretty much gone by the 80s.
Phyllis Kahn, the author of the Clean Indoor Air Act, was also the author of bills to lower Minnesota’s drinking and voting ages, and this article was published in 1976 (http://www.danielleflood.com/sitebui...andschools.pdf), so perhaps that supports my theory.
It seems incredible now, but my high school in the late '70s did have a smoking area for students. It was already considered kind of a low-class thing though. Preppy kids, brains and jocks almost never hung out there.
As a former pack-a-day smoker who has been quit for three years, I still miss it. If they ever cured cancer I might consider going back. Then again, it's so expensive nowadays to smoke that I don't know how anybody affords it.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
