Ashtrays, some in every room. Even people who didn't smoke had one in case someone came over who did.
I still have this one, it is heavy and could kill you if someone threw it at you.
by Anonymous | reply 1 | May 11, 2020 12:51 PM |
They are a perfect way to serve nuts to your guests.
by Anonymous | reply 2 | May 11, 2020 12:54 PM |
Ashtrays were a perfect housewarming gift. And an engraved Zippo lighter said "I love you" for any romantic anniversary.
by Anonymous | reply 4 | May 11, 2020 1:01 PM |
My finest ashtray. It doesn’t even get used for guests. I once got super drunk and used it though.
by Anonymous | reply 5 | May 11, 2020 1:06 PM |
OP, no many did not have them.
My mother and my grandmother would not have one in the house and if they saw a pack they were on it like white on rice to keep the addicts from lighting up in their homes.
by Anonymous | reply 6 | May 11, 2020 1:09 PM |
Do you enjoy killing threads and conversations, r6?
by Anonymous | reply 8 | May 11, 2020 1:14 PM |
We had tons of them but no one smoked.
by Anonymous | reply 9 | May 11, 2020 1:14 PM |
I was so bored last week I watched the entire Brady renovation. They didn’t mention it on the show, but in old clips they showed and in the after renovation, there appeared to be cigarette butts in Mike Brady’s dens ashtrays.
by Anonymous | reply 10 | May 11, 2020 1:15 PM |
Fuck. I remember when airlines had ashtrays on the armrests! Light 'em up, boys and girls.
by Anonymous | reply 11 | May 11, 2020 1:16 PM |
R6 Thanks for your comments. R8 is just being a baby.
by Anonymous | reply 12 | May 11, 2020 1:17 PM |
R6; Go smoke a cigarette. Preferably, in front of your mother and grandmother.
Lighten the fuck up.... literally.
by Anonymous | reply 13 | May 11, 2020 1:19 PM |
I don't smoke, but have relatives who do. They used to have a bad habit of putting their cigarette ashes into partially empty soda cans, even though there was an ashtray nearby. The combination of ashes and Coke resulted in a horrible smell.
I'm not familiar with the ashtray in OP's photo. What are the 2 smaller sections for?
by Anonymous | reply 14 | May 11, 2020 1:22 PM |
The small red butane lighter goes in the small hole. And I'd assume loose pipe tobacco goes in the larger one.
by Anonymous | reply 15 | May 11, 2020 1:32 PM |
R14 OH YES! I learned my lesson as a kid about sneaking sips of soda from unattended soda cans! Wasn't there a scene in Caddyshack similar to this - adults dropped their butts into unfinished cocktails and some poor kid wound up puking it all into an open sunroof??
by Anonymous | reply 16 | May 11, 2020 1:35 PM |
Thanks, R15!
by Anonymous | reply 17 | May 11, 2020 1:36 PM |
R14 / R15 The lighter nested into the LARGE hole; you can see the lighter sitting next to tray in the picture. Perfect fit. The small hole has me baffled. Maybe it was for some type of container that held fresh cigarettes?
by Anonymous | reply 18 | May 11, 2020 1:40 PM |
large holes are best
by Anonymous | reply 19 | May 11, 2020 1:41 PM |
My mother was the type that required *everyone* to remove his/her shoes before entering the house, and she never let anyone forget that the living room carpet was white wool. This was the early 1960s. Yet, she had the pale blue, Italian glass, ashtray with a matching lighter that was a glass ball, similar to a paperweight. What cracked me up, even as a young child, was that she has tiny matchboxes that were covered in pale blue flocked paper and had tiny gold plastic cherubs on them. Of course nobody could uses them.
by Anonymous | reply 20 | May 11, 2020 1:42 PM |
R16, I don't remember such a scene, but it's been a long time since I watched Caddyshack. I'll have to see it again.
I was a kid when I first experienced that unholy combination. To me, ashes & soda smelled like vomit.
by Anonymous | reply 21 | May 11, 2020 1:42 PM |
R14/ R15 Looking at the OP picture again, whatever belongs in the smaller hole is pictured in the bottom right but I still can't tell what it is.
OP, what is that thing?
And, yes, I get all the jokes about the big hole and the little hole.
by Anonymous | reply 22 | May 11, 2020 1:45 PM |
I should add that my mother also has a Bitossi ashtray in the family room that went with the blue and green acrylic bunch of grapes. I still have the ashtray. I use it for thumb drives.
by Anonymous | reply 23 | May 11, 2020 1:45 PM |
Yes r18 r22 The thing in the bottom right is a butane lighter. And yes it goes in the small hole.
r15
by Anonymous | reply 24 | May 11, 2020 1:46 PM |
The premise is idiotic and it should read many stupid americans owned these trays for when addicts came over.
It does not kill a thread to point out that it was not everyone, those who were sane wanted nothing to do with ashtrays.
by Anonymous | reply 25 | May 11, 2020 1:51 PM |
R18: I clicked on the link and R15 is correct. It's a lighter that fits in the smaller hole. And as he already mentioned, the larger compartment with matching lid is likely for loose pipe tobacco. Sounds about right.
by Anonymous | reply 26 | May 11, 2020 1:52 PM |
NY to LA non-stop last three rows. It was heaven.
by Anonymous | reply 27 | May 11, 2020 1:53 PM |
Back in the 80s my non-smoking parents kept ashtrays for guests. It was socially correct to let guests smoke in your home, if you asked them to go outside it was considered rude and a social faux pas. Crazy to think about that now, but that was how things were back then.
by Anonymous | reply 28 | May 11, 2020 1:53 PM |
R28 what a horrible house it must have been, reeking of the stench of the addicts.
by Anonymous | reply 30 | May 11, 2020 1:56 PM |
r30 everybody did it back then.
by Anonymous | reply 31 | May 11, 2020 1:59 PM |
As already established it was not everyone.
by Anonymous | reply 32 | May 11, 2020 2:01 PM |
The larger oblong cavity with the lid was for a deliberate tap in an cover of ash, the larger central area would catch any excess as it burned off from lighted resting cigarettes.
by Anonymous | reply 33 | May 11, 2020 2:01 PM |
Regarding homes smelling like smoke... It absolutely depends on a couple of factors. If a couple both smokes, it's hopeless. It's going to stink. If one person smokes, and the house is large enough it doesn't really smell. Also, it's really cigarette butts that leave a lingering smell. The faster you get the cigarette butts out of the house the better.
by Anonymous | reply 34 | May 11, 2020 2:04 PM |
R32, established by whom? Regardless of ones preferences, not allowing smoking in ones home was considered *extremely* rude through the 1960s. Even Quakers, who forbade smoking, had the standard response, "If you must sin, do it outside." It was a reality of corporate culture that one was expected to entertain at home. One could lose one's job if one did not allow business associates to smoke in one's home and many businesses would not allow the compromise of entertaining in a restaurant instead. (To put this in context, a person could be fired for exiting an elevator before a superior, not removing your hat in an elevator, or, in the case of women, applying makeup in a public place. ) Note that the same was true of liquor. Even if one did not drink, one was expected to have a full bar.
by Anonymous | reply 35 | May 11, 2020 2:15 PM |
We had a half dozen ashtrays. Mom would usually use the cheap metal one at the kitchen table, while the nicer ones were in the living room and game room.
by Anonymous | reply 36 | May 11, 2020 2:28 PM |
Remember in "Susan Slade" when the baby takes the cigarette lighter and sets himself on FIRE??? That's good drama!
I have some nice heavy glass ashtrays, a bunch of copper enamel ones, a copper Air Italia one and had a huge ceramic dark green with orange splashes combination cigarette box, ashtray and matching lighter (similar to the one the baby used)! I am not sure if I got rid of it or if it's in storage. This thing was so huge, it belonged on a coffee table in front of one of those massive, curved, shimmery sectional sofas like at Mr Drysdale's house.
Remember those ones with a plunger that activated a spinning disc that dropped all the ashes and butts into a receptacle below? They were very typical in departments stores on those tall stands. I had a small one, found at a thrift store in the '80s, that was a ceramic pot (mostly turquoise, glazed in a plaid pattern) with the screw on top with plunger and disc. I think I eventually broke it. I liked those bean bag ashtrays when I was a kid.
by Anonymous | reply 37 | May 11, 2020 3:12 PM |
my grandmother had a matching marble ashtray & table lighter set, I've only seen her smoke once in my life though
by Anonymous | reply 39 | May 11, 2020 5:03 PM |
R20, I can't imagine how you turned out gay.
by Anonymous | reply 40 | May 11, 2020 5:04 PM |
Here's one with a built-in cigarette box. Lots of people had cigarette boxes filled with fresh smokes for their guests, too. (Although most smokers I knew had strong brand preferences, I guess if they were desperate they'd take pot luck.)
by Anonymous | reply 41 | May 11, 2020 5:17 PM |
When I was growing up, the women I knew who made you remove your shoes before entering their home were always nuclear-grade bitches.
by Anonymous | reply 42 | May 11, 2020 5:19 PM |
I remember when you could call what you made ceramics class an ashtray. After 1988 or so you had to call it a candy dish or the teacher would get upset.
by Anonymous | reply 43 | May 11, 2020 5:23 PM |
[quote]Wasn't there a scene in Caddyshack similar to this - adults dropped their butts into unfinished cocktails and some poor kid wound up puking it all into an open sunroof??
It was Spalding and he deserved it.
by Anonymous | reply 45 | May 11, 2020 5:24 PM |
[quote] Lots of people had cigarette boxes filled with fresh smokes for their guests, too. (Although most smokers I knew had strong brand preferences, I guess if they were desperate they'd take pot luck.)
Most smokers are like this. When I smoked, I could only smoke Marlboro or, in a pinch, Parliament. I didn't like any other brands and wouldn't smoke them even if the cigarettes were free. Menthols gave me a splitting headache.
by Anonymous | reply 46 | May 11, 2020 5:25 PM |
R40, you don't know the half of it. The living room was a hoot. The coffee table was a glass oval that was supported by Corinthian capitals finished in antiqued gold and silver leaf. There were two gold and white Regency armchairs with pale blue cotton velvet seats. There was a very long, low casegoods piece in the Hollywood Regency style (It was so low, that a really don't know what its purpose was). Above the white sofa was a faux Louis V mirror. On one wall was a Van Luit mural wallpaper of the Acropolis. I am fairly certain that my mother went to furniture store and bought the whatever was the store window display.
R42, My mother was that with a heavy layer of passive/aggressive on top. She would tell someone who just had a miscarriage that clearly the person was not meant to have children, but in a tone dripping with sweetness and concern.
by Anonymous | reply 47 | May 11, 2020 5:26 PM |
Bulllshit R35.
by Anonymous | reply 48 | May 11, 2020 6:47 PM |
Jeez they still make theses! My Grandmother in the 70's had one in her purse at all times, your own portable ashtray.
by Anonymous | reply 49 | May 11, 2020 6:55 PM |
I don’t smoke but I’ve bought a few of these. They’re cheap too because smoking isn’t what it used to be.
by Anonymous | reply 50 | May 11, 2020 9:01 PM |
[quote] If one person smokes, and the house is large enough it doesn't really smell.
That isn't really true. In fact, it's a load of horseshit, and smells even worse. My mother was the only smoker in our house, and the place reeked of it.
Do you lie like this in every aspect of life, r34?
by Anonymous | reply 51 | May 11, 2020 9:07 PM |
Smoking inside is disgusting. I know two lesbians who live in a small house and smoke like chimneys. I cannot visit them unless we sit outside. Spending even one minute in their house means I need to shower and wash my clothes because it stinks like I’ve been out clubbing in the 90s.
by Anonymous | reply 52 | May 11, 2020 9:10 PM |
R51, did your mother clean? Or did she spend her entire life grunting out fat stupid children?
by Anonymous | reply 53 | May 11, 2020 9:11 PM |
R53, cleaning had very little to do with it. You can clean hard surfaces, but cigarette smoke gets into everything: upholstery, books, carpets, porous wood, etc. There was no Fabreze back then, though I really don't think Fabreze would work on nicotine. Those "cottage cheese" sprayed ceilings were the worst. No way to clean those.
by Anonymous | reply 54 | May 11, 2020 9:17 PM |
I remember growing up on Long Island when you could smoke in a movie theater and UA theaters would charge more for the Smoking Loge Section and it had better upholstered rocking seats.
by Anonymous | reply 56 | May 11, 2020 10:12 PM |
[quote]There was no Fabreze back then, though I really don't think Fabreze would work on nicotine.
There still isn't. It's FEBREZE.
by Anonymous | reply 58 | May 11, 2020 10:34 PM |
r56 I remember smoking in theaters too (SF Bay Area in the '60s.)
by Anonymous | reply 59 | May 11, 2020 10:34 PM |
R53, cleaning has everything to do with it. Admit it - you grew up poor. It is nothing to be ashamed of. But Anderson Cooper will obviously never love you.
by Anonymous | reply 60 | May 12, 2020 12:20 AM |
Everyone had ashtrays in their home in the 70s and 80s. Everyone, EXCEPT YOU, R6.
by Anonymous | reply 61 | May 12, 2020 12:35 AM |
For the formal living room, the one you weren't allowed in to.
by Anonymous | reply 62 | May 13, 2020 5:01 PM |
How did they clean these ash trays that were built in cars and airplanes? It’s seems like it would be a real pain.
by Anonymous | reply 63 | May 13, 2020 5:21 PM |
Ashtrays were also used as a bit of tablescape decoration. Finding the right ashtray for your living room cocktail table was paramount. My mother preferred to use antique saucers and such, because they looked less like ashtrays and had more style. Every table in our house practically had an ashtray. It was part of the decor as well as being functional. If you pay attention, people still put similar things out on cocktail tables today, just because it adds a little color and interest to a stack of books on a cocktail table, for example, to have a fun little dish or something on top. It's replaced the ashtray as a decorative device.
by Anonymous | reply 64 | May 13, 2020 5:34 PM |
R63, the ash tray part was removable.
by Anonymous | reply 65 | May 13, 2020 5:37 PM |
[quote]How did they clean these ash trays that were built in cars and airplanes? It’s seems like it would be a real pain.
It WAS a real pain! The little built-in ashtrays could be removed, but to do so you had to stick your fingers inside of them—and of course the ashtrays were full of ashes and cigarette butts. At the carwash, the attendants would routinely take the vacuum hose to the ashtrays.
The only thing I miss about not smoking is getting to buy novel ashtrays, lighters and other smoking paraphernalia. I really liked these little amenities. But I like being tobacco-free better.
by Anonymous | reply 66 | May 13, 2020 5:41 PM |
They were the most disgusting things. I remember playing in the ones that had sand in them when I was a kid
by Anonymous | reply 67 | May 13, 2020 5:53 PM |
[quote]I remember playing in the ones that had sand in them when I was a kid
Well that's the saddest thing I'll read all day and we are in a pandemic.
by Anonymous | reply 68 | May 13, 2020 9:50 PM |
I collected a bunch of mid-century ashtrays at the time people stopped smoking in the house. They were cheap and you could find great ones in thrift stores.
I keep wallet and keys in one that has two wells (the smaller well can hold coins). There's an enormous one about 10"x10" that goes under the pets' water dish in the kitchen. Another one in my office to hold USB cords and such. And another one on the coffee table in the living room for remotes.
by Anonymous | reply 69 | May 13, 2020 10:34 PM |
I don’t remember my house smelling like smoke. My dad smoked Kent’s and drank Blatz beer and Jim Beam. I remember he had nesting pewter ashtrays that someone had probably bought at a colonial themed gift shop. He had highball glasses with little blue and white tableaux of Greeks lounging and eating grapes. He would sit in his armchair, drinking and smoking and watching “The Rockford Files.” He still had the energy to rise at dawn and do all kinds of crafts and garden projects. I don’t remember the adults smoking during the day, it was more a cocktail hour activity. I still think it seems really fun, but I have asthma so I can’t do it.
by Anonymous | reply 71 | May 13, 2020 10:59 PM |
I adored the standing ones in my old relative's homes.
by Anonymous | reply 72 | May 14, 2020 12:00 AM |
My grandfather and his second wife had a beautiful silver filigree cigarette box, a big silver and crystal ashtray and matching lighter. We would go have dinner with them and then they would pass the box around for after dinner cigs.
by Anonymous | reply 74 | May 14, 2020 12:04 AM |
I am in my late 50s. When I was in college and young and whenever I was making money I would stock cigarette boxes in my apartments. I had traditional ones and kitschy ones from the 50s and 60s. Also there were porcelain cigarette bowls that were placed on dinner tables. People smoked between courses. I loved having guests and everyone in the 80s and 90s would smoke even if they pretended they did not smoke, a couple drinks in, they would smoke. My friends weren't fancy and found it very glamorous to smoke my house cigarettes. I was still getting away with this in Paris and London in 2000 then it all ended quickly, nobody smokes. Maybe just in Italy and Spain.
by Anonymous | reply 75 | May 14, 2020 12:06 AM |
R30 - I remember my grandfather was a tenor and he smoked non-filters and my grandmother did not. Their house never smelled though and, he wore a smoking jacket and fine Italian suits and was the epitome of an elegant European gentleman. I remember him kissing my cheek when I went to visit and he literally smelled good. I don't know how they did it back then. People today don't smoke a pack a day and are still slobs that smell after 30 minutes at the gym.
by Anonymous | reply 76 | May 14, 2020 12:10 AM |
Well up to the 90s, fragrances were made of beautiful strong long-lasting natural materials, and were designed to complement tobacco smoke. All together, it made something intoxicating that today's culture cannot remember, and could never tolerate. I can remember how THICK the smoke was in Paris in cinemas, bars, restaurants, and all the wonderful fragrances, and then champagne to clean it all away. If I was in NY for a long time and go back to Paris I could get choked out of certain bars. If you can't beat them, join them.
by Anonymous | reply 77 | May 14, 2020 12:17 AM |
Maybe the cigarettes didn't have all the additives like they do now.
by Anonymous | reply 78 | May 14, 2020 12:38 AM |
Dang I want a cigarette now.
by Anonymous | reply 79 | May 14, 2020 12:47 AM |
How I knew I was officially an ex-smoker: a couple of years after I quit smoking I bought a new car. I owned it for six months before I realized it had neither an ashtray nor a cigarette lighter.
by Anonymous | reply 80 | May 14, 2020 12:50 AM |
Just put it in the suitcase, they WANT you to take it.
by Anonymous | reply 81 | May 14, 2020 12:51 AM |
[quote]then it all ended quickly, nobody smokes.
It seems to me it isn't that nobody smokes anymore, it's that nobody BUYS their own cigarettes anymore. Lots of people "don't smoke" until they see somebody smoking, and then that poor person is hit up for cigs by everybody, like he's the free cigarette dispenser.
by Anonymous | reply 82 | May 14, 2020 12:54 AM |
[quote] I remember playing in the ones that had sand in them when I was a kid.
That’s nothing, I played in sandboxes with buried cat poops in them.
by Anonymous | reply 83 | May 14, 2020 12:55 AM |
R82 that's true, especially in countries that tax the shit out of cigs and they are very expensive. I used to travel when I was a smoker. 2nd and 3rd world supply and at duty free prices were a few bucks a carton. I seem to remember "luxury" cigarettes were under 20 bucks a carton in Duty free and not that long ago.
by Anonymous | reply 84 | May 14, 2020 1:00 AM |
Smoking on the street in NYC is just too much to bear now, you get ten people asking to bum a cig off of you in two seconds. Nobody wants to buy their own anymore.
by Anonymous | reply 85 | May 14, 2020 1:05 AM |
ah worthpoint doesn't link. sorry.
by Anonymous | reply 90 | May 14, 2020 1:13 AM |
[quote] I can remember how THICK the smoke was in Paris in cinemas, bars, restaurants
I was once enjoying dinner in a little restaurant in the Marais where the air was so thick with smoke the manager actually stood in the middle of the dining room and asked everyone to ease up on the smoking.
by Anonymous | reply 91 | May 14, 2020 1:14 AM |
My parents didn't smoke but they had ashtrays all over the house in case visitors wanted to light up. My mom also had a large glass candy jar where she stuffed all the matchbooks she collected from restaurants, hotels, shops, etc. And I remember when their visiting friends wanted to smoke, they just casually lit up wherever they sat. No going outside, no asking for permission. This was in the '70s-'80s. It was really a different mindset back then.
by Anonymous | reply 92 | May 14, 2020 1:14 AM |
IIRC, it was the early/mid 90s when people started going outside to smoke. By the end of the 90s, it was the norm.
Before that, though, smoking indoors was extremely common and nobody thought anything of it. As has been said, it was considered rude and gauche for a host/hostess to ask a person to go outside to smoke until the 90s.
by Anonymous | reply 93 | May 14, 2020 1:19 AM |
[quote]My parents didn't smoke but they had ashtrays all over the house in case visitors wanted to light up. My mom also had a large glass candy jar where she stuffed all the matchbooks she collected from restaurants, hotels, shops, etc.
Almost the same with my family, but my parents smoked.
They had a dense marble ashtray that could be used as a murder weapon.
by Anonymous | reply 94 | May 14, 2020 1:22 AM |
R77 - true about fragrances as well as everything else. When my grandfather died I went through his things and was amazed at the quality of the fabric on his suits, the colors had not faded, his handkerchief and colognes still smelled good. When he came to visit us in LA in the 90s a couple of old queens lived across the street in a nice Spanish style home and they assumed he was gay as well because he was so dapper and stylish. Sadly they found out he was ogling Latin women but, since one of them was a retired salesman from Bloominfdale he said he remembered when they sold stuff like that until the multifiber agreement killed the quality of men's clothing.
by Anonymous | reply 95 | May 14, 2020 1:24 AM |
Dirk Van Erp (1860-1933) Arts & Crafts Ashtray
Sold - $369
Provenance: Penny Marshall Collection
by Anonymous | reply 98 | May 14, 2020 8:24 AM |
great thread, brings back so many memories, the stench on planes from those back rows of smoking....my dad smoking 2 paks a day and the house having a white vapor cloud from it (I know have copd from it)…..crazy ceramic ashtrays, ….the stand up ones with a horse at the top....aunt Gerry lighting up the most fowl cigs I ever smelled, conversation stopped when she smoked (viceroy?)…..s&h stamps having cute ashtrays.....smoking at restaurants !!!
by Anonymous | reply 100 | May 14, 2020 10:51 AM |
When I was in college in the previous century, all the best parties on campus were at the Lambda Chi house. And in their common room in the basement (where the keg of beer was "hidden") there was a toilet next to the bar that was filled with sand. That was the communal ashtray.
And people still just dropped their butts on the cement floor and ground them out with the toe of the shoe.
by Anonymous | reply 101 | May 14, 2020 11:59 AM |
[quote]I remember growing up on Long Island when you could smoke in a movie theater and UA theaters would charge more for the Smoking Loge Section and it had better upholstered rocking seats.
Forgot to add to my warm and fuzzy memory of movie theater smoking at our local theater, they had a cigarette machine in the lobby for your convenience. And being a theater, as with today concessions were always pricey and I remember waiting in the lobby for the next show and my Mother looked at the cigarette machine and declared "75 CENTS! I would never pay 75 cents for a pack of cigarettes". Of course thru the years she did and now in NY the minimum amount a store can charge under law is $13 for one pack. and people pay it.
by Anonymous | reply 102 | May 14, 2020 1:03 PM |
I remember when the price of a pack of cigs went up to $2.50 and people thought that was outrageous. That was just too much!
by Anonymous | reply 103 | May 14, 2020 2:01 PM |
R92--I have purchased two matchbook collections at estate sales. The first one came in an enormous brandy snifter and it has almost all matchbooks from the '60s--'80s surf & turf steak houses of California in it. The second collection was much smaller and I was able to cull the crappy matchbooks out and get the keepers into the snifter.
by Anonymous | reply 104 | May 14, 2020 4:46 PM |
r104 I have a bunch of matchbooks (mostly '70s and '80s.) What can I do with them?
by Anonymous | reply 105 | May 14, 2020 4:48 PM |
My grandparents (Great Depression/WWII generation) Had those big glass ashtrays and table lighters in the common rooms of their house. Similar to the ones at the link. To a little gayling like myself, I thought it looked so sophisticated lol! I have one lighter and ashtray of theirs, which are never used. I just like having them as a reminder of my grandparents.
My grandfather smoked unfiltered Pall Malls like a chimney and somehow miraculously lived to his 80s. God only knows how that happened, with his constant smoking.
by Anonymous | reply 106 | May 14, 2020 5:00 PM |
R106 my great aunt is 101 and was a party girl for most of it.
by Anonymous | reply 107 | May 14, 2020 5:12 PM |
1) Tastefully display them in an appropriate glass vessel
2) Use them to light things till they are all gone
3) Give them to someone who'd like them
R105 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
by Anonymous | reply 108 | May 14, 2020 5:14 PM |
Cut the covers off and glue them to a vintage coffee table in a checkerboard pattern (One could actually make a checkerboard!) Cover with several coats of polyurethane.
by Anonymous | reply 109 | May 14, 2020 5:28 PM |
R105 - glue them onto a large board, take a photo of them (then toss them) and have that photo printed onto tea towels or something like that. And then take the tea towels, package them up in some kind of box, and light the whole thing on fire.
by Anonymous | reply 110 | May 14, 2020 10:40 PM |
Do old matchbooks have any value to collectors?
by Anonymous | reply 111 | May 14, 2020 10:51 PM |
very old hoarders like matchbooks
by Anonymous | reply 112 | May 14, 2020 10:56 PM |
Since both parents smoked we had ashtrays in every room except in the kid's bedrooms. Some rooms had more than one - even the kitchen. One set I remember were made of glass with three (small, medium and large) ashtrays that would fit inside each other. I found one on eBay that shows an ashtray that was once part of the set.
After our dad passed away, and I was getting the house ready for renters, we had to have all of the rooms painted with paint that covered up (sort of) the smell.
by Anonymous | reply 113 | May 14, 2020 11:20 PM |
Found a picture that shows the set of three.
by Anonymous | reply 114 | May 14, 2020 11:21 PM |
Looking back now, it is just amazing how smoking indoors was tolerated for so many years. Guests smoked in your home, people smoked in restaurants and office buildings, etc. It was everywhere. It's incomprehensible today how people just put up with it.
by Anonymous | reply 115 | May 14, 2020 11:54 PM |
R115
1) Elevators!
2) Planes!
3) Doctor Offices!
by Anonymous | reply 116 | May 15, 2020 1:49 AM |
[quote]It's incomprehensible today how people just put up with it.
People didn't "put up with it", it was just accepted and part of everyday life.Doctor's orders!
by Anonymous | reply 117 | May 15, 2020 2:14 AM |
r116 Hospitals! Schools!
I remember I had a class in college (in the '70s) with a TA who was such a chain smoker that she had a new cigarette started before she finished the first one. And this was indoors, in a classroom.
by Anonymous | reply 118 | May 15, 2020 2:24 AM |
In my university in the 1990s, there were ashtrays mounted on the hallway walls in most of the buildings, so naturally we smoked in the hallways while waiting for class to begin. During my senior year is when they took them all down, this was around the time California had enacted smoking bans in bars and restaurants and enclosed buildings, and of course, many of us were outraged at this infringement of our civil rights.
Today, I'm no longer a smoker, but I just cannot imagine lighting up indoors. It's strange how after so many years of doing things a certain way, we've been trained or conditioned to do it another way until it becomes natural. Like buckling up before we start our cars. Or wearing a helmet when riding a bike or motorcycle. Or putting our kids in car seats. Those were things that we never used to do.
by Anonymous | reply 119 | May 15, 2020 3:42 AM |
[quote]In my university in the 1990s, there were ashtrays mounted on the hallway walls in most of the buildings, so naturally we smoked in the hallways while waiting for class to begin.
My high school had an official outdoor "smoking area" at the end of the 1980s — at the time, the prevailing attitude was "We don't want kids to smoke, but we also don't want them doing it in the bathrooms ... plus the 18-year-olds are legal and have the right to do so." Plus a LOT more high schoolers smoked at the time.
College had those ashtrays in the halls, but smoking in class was not allowed.
by Anonymous | reply 120 | May 15, 2020 4:29 AM |
Actually it wasn't tolerated by everyone originally. In the 19th century and early 20th century, there were designated smoking areas in hotels, trains, etc. Smoking around women was considered very ill-mannered. Men had designated spaces for smoking. Smoking was very nearly banned right before WWI. The tobacco companies used WWI to change public opinion- Why deprive our boys their one bit of pleasure?, etc. After WWI, when women started to smoke and cigarette companies aggressively went after the female market is when things changed.
One thing that is interesting is how often cigarettes are used a currency: prisons, during war time, etc. Through the 1970s, this was common with my family. When my family did the tour of Indian reservations in 1969, we brought cartons of cigarettes and traded rather than used cash. We also did it in Hawaii, since cigarettes were so much more expensive there. We also brought cigarettes on our trip ti Europe in 1970 to use instead of tips. Mind you, no one in my family smoked (No shoes in house/white wool carpet household.)
by Anonymous | reply 121 | May 15, 2020 11:26 AM |
We had an ashtray on the coffee table, but no one one smoked in the family and no one would have been allowed to smoke in the house or use the decorative ashtray. It taught me that utilitarian object on display are never intended to be used.
by Anonymous | reply 122 | May 15, 2020 11:36 AM |
[quote]Today, I'm no longer a smoker, but I just cannot imagine lighting up indoors.
What has been weird lately are people who smoke during Zoom AA meetings. I know I can't smell it, but I'm not used to looking at it anymore, either. Someone I sponsor is completely freaked out over it: "Those people aren't sober!!!" I don't take it that far, but I'd rather not look at someone smoking.
by Anonymous | reply 123 | May 15, 2020 11:54 AM |
in the 70s my mother had a boomerang shaped ceramic ashtray in avocado green, I don’t smoke but i wish I still had it just because it was so mid century stylish.
by Anonymous | reply 126 | May 15, 2020 12:24 PM |
[QUOTE] Someone I sponsor is completely freaked out over it: "Those people aren't sober!!!" I don't take it that far
since when do AA people freak out over smoking? My experience is that they TURN into smokers during rehab.
by Anonymous | reply 127 | May 15, 2020 12:27 PM |
It's a nasty, dangerous addiction. I say that as an ex-smoker. I'm glad society frowns upon it.
What I don't like is the zero-tolerance tactics of the anti-smoking zealots being carried over into other areas of society.
by Anonymous | reply 128 | May 15, 2020 1:09 PM |
My mom always used a Waterford crystal ash tray.
by Anonymous | reply 129 | May 15, 2020 1:16 PM |
well , smell R129
by Anonymous | reply 130 | May 15, 2020 1:54 PM |
At better hotels they used to have those floor stand column ashtrays with the bowl at the top filled with sand and the logo stamped thereon. Pure eleganza.
by Anonymous | reply 131 | May 15, 2020 1:59 PM |
I remember being on a smoking flight to Spain. They even had a “smoking section” but it was pointless.
by Anonymous | reply 132 | May 15, 2020 2:09 PM |
R6's singular experience does not hold true for everyone else. Ashtrays were indeed everywhere - it was the default item for kids to make in arts and crafts classes.
by Anonymous | reply 133 | May 15, 2020 2:10 PM |
[QUOTE] My mother and my grandmother would not have one in the house and if they saw a pack they were on it like white on rice
American protestants from Flyoveria, I’d say.
by Anonymous | reply 134 | May 15, 2020 2:17 PM |
Remember department stores had ashtrays outside the restrooms? People could sit and have a cig when they wanted to take a break from shopping.
The teacher's lounge in my elementary and middle schools allowed smoking (1980s) and the hallway outside of the lounge always smelled of smoke. By the time I got to high school, smoking had been banned on school grounds.
by Anonymous | reply 135 | May 15, 2020 2:43 PM |
R131 - "thereon". Look who went to Miss Borders Finishing School for Young Girls.
by Anonymous | reply 136 | May 15, 2020 2:51 PM |
Cars used to have ashtrays and lighters, not just up front for the driver, but also on the door panels for each passenger. For the kid passengers, this was where we disposed our chewing gum, gum wrappers, straw wrappers, etc.
When I was 9-12, my best friend's dad would drive us to our little league practice in his luxury car, while chain smoking away with the windows rolled up. Nobody spoke of second-hand smoke in those days, so it was never an issue for adults to smoke in an enclosed environment with children present.
by Anonymous | reply 137 | May 15, 2020 3:08 PM |
Oh god yes everybody smoked in front of their kids, no one thought anything of it. I don't remember anyone going outside to smoke in the 80s, everybody smoked in their homes.
by Anonymous | reply 138 | May 15, 2020 3:09 PM |
When I was a kid, we would take long car trips, and my Dad would smoke in the car with the windows rolled up.
by Anonymous | reply 139 | May 15, 2020 4:31 PM |
[quote]Oh god yes everybody smoked in front of their kids, no one thought anything of it.
Honey, millions of women smoked while pregnant.
by Anonymous | reply 140 | May 15, 2020 4:39 PM |
That too r140.
by Anonymous | reply 141 | May 15, 2020 4:41 PM |
[quote]My mom always used a Waterford crystal ash tray.
What are you saying?
by Anonymous | reply 142 | May 15, 2020 4:41 PM |
R140 - they still do out here in Romania. I have to grant it to some of the women that they have the smarts to pull back their hair as they smoke and would come back to the office and head to the bathroom and wash up and use mints. I noticed that they sit at cafes in the morning when I went to the office and drink espresso and smoke one of those super long skinny (menthol is illegal here). The men are also smokers but really hit the Marlboros a lot.
by Anonymous | reply 143 | May 15, 2020 10:29 PM |
40k a month to stare at a wall of shelves with intermittently cluttered with useless dull objets. I'd rather live in the dog-eared Dallas renaissance fantasie on the other thread.
by Anonymous | reply 144 | May 15, 2020 10:50 PM |
Menthols are about to be illegal in Massachusetts.
by Anonymous | reply 145 | May 16, 2020 12:33 AM |
My Dad told me "Don't smoke. But if you do smoke, don't smoke Menthols."
He said he say a guy in the army die from smoking Methols cigarettes. That was enough for me.
by Anonymous | reply 146 | May 16, 2020 1:33 AM |
[quote] Menthols are about to be illegal in Massachusetts.
Who, exactly, is this law targeting?
by Anonymous | reply 147 | May 16, 2020 1:34 AM |
[QUOTE] Who, exactly, is this law targeting?
Menthol cigarette smokers, Rose.
by Anonymous | reply 148 | May 16, 2020 1:40 AM |
So, you mean the minorities?
by Anonymous | reply 149 | May 16, 2020 1:44 AM |
I only smoked Menthols. I was in NY and people stop me all the time and ask to bum one but the second I told them it was Menthol, 99% would say no thanks. I loved me my Benson & Hedges Deluxe Ultra Light Menthol 100's.
by Anonymous | reply 150 | May 16, 2020 1:45 AM |
I could never stand menthols, they gave me a headache.
by Anonymous | reply 151 | May 16, 2020 1:45 AM |
I don't think Benson & Hedges are made anymore. Several brands from back in the day have disappeared or are hardly sold anymore. Vantage, Kent, True, Tareyton and a few others. It's all Marlboro, Camel, American Spirits now.
by Anonymous | reply 152 | May 16, 2020 1:46 AM |
R151, are you still a pussy?
by Anonymous | reply 153 | May 16, 2020 1:52 AM |
We had them everywhere in the 60s
by Anonymous | reply 154 | May 16, 2020 2:10 AM |
why would he do that to a sister? mind boggles. completely uncalled for. And she might have shot him dead, like that skank at Dollar Tree had her brothers do.
by Anonymous | reply 155 | May 16, 2020 2:19 AM |
Menthols are gross r153.
by Anonymous | reply 156 | May 16, 2020 2:24 AM |
minorities like menthols better than regular cigarettes? Which minorities?
by Anonymous | reply 157 | May 16, 2020 2:26 AM |
That’s racist
by Anonymous | reply 158 | May 16, 2020 2:28 AM |
Black people overwhelmingly favor menthol cigarettes, particularly Newports. Older black people like Kools.
Various cigarette brands have a particular demographic, it's kind of interesting. Not just racial demographics, but socioeconomic as well.
by Anonymous | reply 159 | May 16, 2020 2:33 AM |
[quote] And as he already mentioned, the larger compartment with matching lid is likely for loose pipe tobacco. Sounds about right.
No! Pipe tobacco isn't kept out of its sac, the other section with the lid is for books of matches.
by Anonymous | reply 160 | May 16, 2020 2:34 AM |
[italic]Salem! Que Frescura![/italic]
by Anonymous | reply 161 | May 16, 2020 3:04 AM |
I am in my late 50s. When I was in college and young and whenever I was making money I would stock cigarette boxes in my apartments. I had traditional ones and kitschy ones from the 50s and 60s. Also there were porcelain cigarette bowls that were placed on dinner tables. People smoked between courses. I loved having guests and everyone in the 80s and 90s would smoke even if they pretended they did not smoke, a couple drinks in, they would smoke. My friends weren't fancy and found it very glamorous to smoke my house cigarettes. I was still getting away with this in Paris and London in 2000 then it all ended quickly, nobody smokes. Maybe just in Italy and Spain.
by Anonymous | reply 162 | May 16, 2020 3:08 AM |
I remember this thing. It was for making cigarettes at home. You would by the loose tobacco and empty paper with filters attached. It never took off.
by Anonymous | reply 163 | May 16, 2020 12:34 PM |
Gurls, smell Miss R162! She's a veritable cosmopolite.
by Anonymous | reply 164 | May 16, 2020 5:31 PM |
terribly sophisticated, R162. And you know the conversation. between courses was never silly either, it was European politics or perhaps intense discussion on film or literature.
by Anonymous | reply 165 | May 17, 2020 11:50 AM |
R51, don't be silly. My mother smoked until I was in college and our house never smelled. But she cleaned like crazy and had plants. I've been in homes where the drapes smelled like smoke, but they never did in our home.
by Anonymous | reply 171 | May 22, 2020 10:38 PM |
Uh huh and DENIAL ain't just the setting of "Aida". Sweetie, people never smell their cat's litter boxes either.
by Anonymous | reply 172 | May 22, 2020 11:17 PM |
My parents, and grandparents had ashtrays even though nobody smoked and some of the ones that were more flat were used as coasters or to store candy. The ashtray my parents had looked like the one below.
I even have a white marble ashtray and I would just sometimes use it to put out joints or incense in it.
by Anonymous | reply 173 | July 30, 2020 1:33 AM |
R132 it was not that long ago that you could smoke in bars/pubs, restaurants, on planes, trains, etc.
by Anonymous | reply 174 | July 30, 2020 1:34 AM |
My grandfather smoked unfiltered Pall Malls. I tried those when I used to smoke, and I have no idea how that could've been anyone's daily cigarette. It was like smoking three Marlboro Reds at once. Goddamn those things were strong!
by Anonymous | reply 175 | July 30, 2020 1:35 AM |
I still keep a shitty plastic ashtray out on the deck, for anyone who wants to smoke. As an ex-smoker who smoked for 20 years, I'm far from pro-smoking and it makes me sad when I have a friend your young relative who does it, but I'm also completely against all the shaming that happens these days around a simple cigarette. Someone can get sloppy drunk at a party, and that's also legal, but it's somehow more accepted now, generally speaking, than someone lighting up a cigarette.
by Anonymous | reply 176 | July 30, 2020 4:07 PM |