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.
We live in something of a puritanical culture compared to how we once were and to some other countries (but only about certain things). I can recall working in offices where the smoke was so thick you couldn't see clearly but nobody thought it was a problem. I got my first performance rating on a new job in a bar over beers and cigarettes in the middle of working hours. Nobody seemed to complain about flirting in the workplace. That all seemed normal until it suddenly didn't anymore. Ashtrays and some of those old lighters are collector's items.
Over Christmas and since, my husband was introduced to MadMen. Since he doesn't watch TV with commercials, he has been watching this starting with Season 1. The shows depicts from 1960 to 1970.
What really blows both of us away is the smoking and the drinking - all the time. Mothers smoking in front of their children while having breakfast.
Did this really exist?
Both my husband and I grew up in non-smoking households and frankly, I was not around this at all.
At one point, I worked at country clubs but the smoking was usually isolated to the card room or the bar area.
However, it got us to thinking and we're noticing how many older people do seem to go out for cocktail hour and it just seems there is more drinking going on with the older group, especially in over 55 communities.
I had a realtor I was dealing just a couple of days ago and she kept telling me I had to get back to her before 4:30 PM because cocktail hour was going to be starting.
Do you see people drinking more as they have more time on their hands? More social situations requiring this?
Yes, as everyone has commented, smoking was commonplace, everywhere. I smoked while pregnant and probably while I breastfed! Sad but true.
No one has commented on your question about cocktail hours in over-55 communities. I can tell you, drinking seems to be very important to some folks in my over-55. Mostly wine for the ladies, not sure about the husbands, but I've seen quite a few very tipsy to the point of slurring their words. I hardly drink at all now, plus I used to get wicked hangovers, so that type of imbibing is not for me.
I was in my 20's in the 60's. Absolutely loved Mad Men - watched the entire series twice. Took me back. Loved revisiting the hair, makeup, clothes, houses - everything about those years. Of course, no one I knew in the Midwest lived that hard. The series did take place in NYC, after all.
That said, I, too, was astonished and appalled at the heavy drinking and smoking in Mad Men. No one in my family did either, although I certainly worked with people who some of that.
My first job was at a local bank in late 50's. There were one or two male vice presidents who smoked at their desks. None of the female employees ever did, however. Took another job downtown in early 60's. Male bosses smoked at their desks. Took another job in a suburb, drinking in the office after hours was done by some of the men.
I had a neighbor who every night would smoke and have cocktails with his wife before dinner. He eventually quit smoking in his 50's, but he still loved his cocktails. Had a couple of heart issues, as I recall. Remember the paramedics coming twice. He died in his mid-80's with breathing issues and leukemia. He enjoyed life, however, with the exception of his final 18 months or so.
My dad's father was an alcoholic. He said the best years his family had were during prohibition. My dad made me promise never to smoke or drink before 21. Turns out, I've never liked alcohol or cigarettes so it was an easy promise to keep. Cigarettes and alcohol have killed a few people I've known. Today I absolutely can't tolerate the smell of cigarettes.
And maybe there are more smokers in different parts of the country?
Let me know if you do not agree.
I spent five years in Oklahoma. Smokers everywhere. No such thing here in Texas. But i could be wrong.
Since moving from CT to FL I've noticed that smoking is more prevalent here in FL. Also, there are some bars that allow smoking whereas in CT and NYS it's against the law. By that same token, I've also noticed more anti-smoking ad campaigns on TV here in FL.
My mother was a smoker but gave it up while in her 40s. I, too, absolutely abhor it.
Yeah, cocktail hour is a thing here too. It astonishes me that I can go to any grocery store and see a whole aisle (or two!) dedicated to wine but I can't find my favorite flavor of Celestial Seasonings tea. Plus many supermarkets (Publix, Winn-Dixie) have separate package stores for the hard stuff.
Last edited by Daisy Grey; 01-13-2020 at 02:47 AM..
As others have attested, I think it's a fairly accurate depiction. Both of my parents smoked and we had an entire kitchen drawer devoted to their Marlboro's. If you look at pictures from that era, many people will have cigarettes in their hand. One of my female bosses told me they practiced the hand gestures with the cigarettes while smoking to look elegant. If you look at old movies, you'll see it as well. When I first started to work in the 70's, people smoked at their desk all day, every day. It wasn't till the late 80's that companies STARTED to forbid this. For the first time in my life my eyes stopped burning!
It really was a different era and in many ways, people didn't know any different or any better. Women smoked and drank during pregnancies. It was also quite common for the executives and sales reps in my company to drink at lunch, especially at a business lunch. I worked in the insurance industry and we'd have an annual "convention" with each carrier having a hospitality room - aka food and alcohol.
Oh, and tons of people in my office went to Happy Hour after work, but then a lot of the people were young and single and that's how they socialized. Well, now that I think about it, they did that for a few decades. It really was a different era.
As for drinking in retirement, we visited one new home community in our search for a home and was told by the sales rep that they were "a drinking community with a retirement problem". I don't think he was kidding. We didn't buy there, so I don't know if his joke had some truth behind it or not. Friends have stopped going to their neighborhood community gatherings where they live because they felt it was just an excuse to drink and got boring after a while. So far, we've observed only moderate drinking, so I don't know if it's just something people do out of boredom or because they can because YAY, they're retired - or if maybe they always drank.
i remember ads for cigarettes with doctors smoking.
i remember people smoking in hospitals.
and yes in hospital rooms.
i remember people smoking on airplanes.
and in offices. and in restaurants.
when I was newlywed and we bought our first house (this was 1979), i became an outcast on both sides of the family, when i asked people to go outside to smoke instead. both my father and father in law smoked at the time.
My mother (now 77) worked in a large building that housed doctors' offices. The building had been built in the early 1960's. At that time it was extremely common for patients, doctors, nurses.... everyone, to smoke. My mom didn't start working in the building until around 1976 and by then they had banned smoking in the building and most doctors and nurses had given it up entirely. But the building still smelled like smoke and ashtrays, no matter how many renovations they did. Her work clothes had a smell to them that was an odd mix of smoke, antiseptic, and her rose hand cream. She never smoked. The last time I was in that building, maybe 2010, you could still smell the faint cigarette smell.
But I'm 47 and I vividly remember people smoking everywhere, like you wrote. Every hospital, restaurant, public building of any kind, car, airplane, bus.... every place had ashtrays. And every piece of furniture with fabric or vinyl upholstery was dotted with cigarette burn holes.
You could smoke on Airplanes until the late 80's I believe.
Just watched The Crown and it also portrays even the Royal Family as heavy smokers and drinkers.
Smoking killed a lot of people in their 50's-70's back then.
Queen Elizabeth became Queen because her dad King George died at age 56 due to mostly Lung Cancer due to heavy smoking.
Quote:
The stress of the war had taken its toll on the King's health,[97][98] made worse by his heavy smoking[99] and subsequent development of lung cancer among other ailments, including arteriosclerosis and Buerger's disease.
Princess Margaret the Queens sister was a chain smoker and heavy drinker that eventually killed her. She was basically an Alcoholic also....
Quote:
The Princess's later life was marred by illness and disability.[128] She had smoked cigarettes since the age of 15 or earlier, and had continued to smoke heavily for many years.[129] On 5 January 1985, she had part of her left lung removed; the operation drew parallels with that of her father over 30 years earlier.[130] In 1991, she gave up smoking, though she continued to drink heavily.[131] I
As others have attested, I think it's a fairly accurate depiction. Both of my parents smoked and we had an entire kitchen drawer devoted to their Marlboro's. If you look at pictures from that era, many people will have cigarettes in their hand. One of my female bosses told me they practiced the hand gestures with the cigarettes while smoking to look elegant. If you look at old movies, you'll see it as well. When I first started to work in the 70's, people smoked at their desk all day, every day. It wasn't till the late 80's that companies STARTED to forbid this. For the first time in my life my eyes stopped burning!
It really was a different era and in many ways, people didn't know any different or any better. Women smoked and drank during pregnancies. It was also quite common for the executives and sales reps in my company to drink at lunch, especially at a business lunch. I worked in the insurance industry and we'd have an annual "convention" with each carrier having a hospitality room - aka food and alcohol.
Oh, and tons of people in my office went to Happy Hour after work, but then a lot of the people were young and single and that's how they socialized. Well, now that I think about it, they did that for a few decades. It really was a different era.
As for drinking in retirement, we visited one new home community in our search for a home and was told by the sales rep that they were "a drinking community with a retirement problem". I don't think he was kidding. We didn't buy there, so I don't know if his joke had some truth behind it or not. Friends have stopped going to their neighborhood community gatherings where they live because they felt it was just an excuse to drink and got boring after a while. So far, we've observed only moderate drinking, so I don't know if it's just something people do out of boredom or because they can because YAY, they're retired - or if maybe they always drank.
It wouldn't take a genius to figure out that heavy drinking and smoking aren't healthy. Supposedly the hangover is the body's way of creating a deterrence to overindulging in alcohol. While the knowledge of all the cancer risks and such might not have been developed, common sense says that the act of smoking anything is unhealthy.
I'm from the Bible Belt. People drink, but it's generally somewhat low key, frowned upon in a lot of social circles, and things like craft beer and spirits have only taken off in the last five years or so.
I lived in Iowa for a year back in 2012. I had never seen such a heavy drinking culture. People would commonly go out to lunch and drink two or three beers. People were practically never cut off at bars. A level of intoxication that would get you a public intox charge here in TN was an every day thing out there. I spent three years in an affluent community outside of Indianapolis and you wouldn't believe the number of 50-60 year old guys with great jobs and a good life that would get falling down drunk every weekend.
.....Technically, we're drinking a better product than the Everclear gutter drunks and it rarely gets out of hand, but a lot of us craft beer drinkers are drinking at least several relatively high ABV beers a night.
I had never heard of Everclear grain alcohol until I made limoncello this year. 151 and 191 proof, it adds no flavor when infusing, and the 191 is outlawed in some states. It was not cheap at all, but I guess more bang for the buck?
I grew up in a blue collar Midwest family. My parents smoked, but quit in their 60’s and lived to their 90’s. No one in our family smokes now. Drinking was relegated to an occasional beer on a hot summer’s day, otherwise no alcohol in the house. The only adults I ever saw drunk, were my aunt and uncle who owned a bar and that was one time. My exposure to alcohol was limited.
I had my eyes opened wide when we were with our son’s English in-law side of the family for a wedding celebration brunch. Wine bottles were continuously going up and down the table all throughout the brunch. When done and getting up to leave several hours later, someone suggested we go to the upper observation floor of the hotel for a drink. WTH!?! I couldn’t believe everyone did. Well, actually I couldn’t believe they were able to stand up and get upstairs. While they drank heavily, no one smoked.
I’m fine with not drinking when with those who do enjoy drinking. After a few drinks they don’t care or notice what anyone else is doing anyway. And while I may feel a bit Puritanical at times, I don’t drink to fit in.
As for my homemade limoncello: it’s cold, syrupy, lemon liquid sunshine in a shot. It still takes my breath away and makes me cough though.
Last edited by jean_ji; 01-13-2020 at 08:05 AM..
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.
