Smoke Filled Rooms

I went to pick up the dog the other afternoon. Necessity had dictated he be transferred from one household to another while I was away and so Jack spent the weekend hanging out with an aging obese Pug named Baby Girl. He seemed to have a great time and the sitter had done me and Jack a huge favor, stepping in to help out in a tight spot.

When I went to pick him up, however, the experience was odd from a contemporary perspective: The homeowner was a man in his late 70's, a widower, and a life-long smoker who still smoked cigarettes in his home. It was a peculiar experience being in that house. I called Tam when I left and told her I'd only been in that house for 10 minutes but I smelled like I had been in a bar in the 70's or 80's. I wondered how I'd even done it back then.

Then I got to thinking how, for years and years, this had been the status quo. In my home as well as many others at least one parent smoked; cigarettes, cigars, a pipe. In our case it was a pipe that followed my dad around. A visit to or from his siblings, however, was always heavily perfumed by cigarette smoke. I hate to wax nostalgic on this subject but there was a whole generation or two or three, a quarter to a third of which smoked. And those cigarettes drove industry, manufacturing, creative genius, and a whole lot of entertainment, both at home and out and about.  I mean, in a way, how peculiar that now, when you go in a place like 21 or the Polo Lounge, the 50/50 or the Macleay Country Inn, you get abruptly shown the door should you dare light a cigarette on the premises. Whether it's a high end watering hole still operating after 70 or 80 years, or a good ol' honky tonk-- it's no smoking.

Not that I'm lamenting any loss here. Cigarette smoking is terrible. The disease and decay that follows smoking is horrid. No one would smoke if they actually believed it would happen to them. It's like war: Bad for humans and all living things. And, with that said, and all things considered, it's weird that my son in all likelihood will never know a smoke filled room. As good as it is that most all people have the decency to smoke outside when they must, as good as it is that a whole lot of people do not smoke any more, there was an entire era in this country when the United States was growing, industry was king, our battles appeared to be won, prosperity was within reach, and people, like factory smokestacks, puffed along all day.

As much as smoking was an accepted part of our culture for so many years perhaps it was a parasite. Perhaps the genius and industry of those previous generations was actually hamstrung, not fueled, by smoking. Hopefully we'll find out as cigarettes become more an anomaly than an accessory. In the meantime I can tell my son about it-- just what it is that he can be glad he's missing. No need to pay a visit.