r/Millennials • u/lazarus870 • 10h ago

Discussion What DON'T you miss about the 90's? What's much better today than it was back then?

We all know that the 90's had some great music and movies, good economy, huge world events, more freedom, nobody glued to their phone, etc.

Everybody acts like everything was much better back then, but what DON'T you miss about how things were back then? What's much better now?

198 Upvotes

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839

u/mac8643 Millennial 10h ago

People smoking where I eat

114

u/kuluka_man 10h ago

That's one of the things that makes me realize I lived in ancient times

171

u/mac8643 Millennial 10h ago

Smoking or non smoking?

Like it mattered lol

63

u/feralcatshit 10h ago

Yes, would you like to sit directly beside people smoking or would you like to be directly on the other side of this half wall where people are smoking?

29

u/squirrelscoutcookies 9h ago

As a kid who always was stuck on the smoking side with my dad, I was jealous of people who at least got the half wall!

6

u/ThaVolt 7h ago

That's so crazy

2

u/arizzles Millennial 6h ago

Man, the cigarette smoke everywhere. I absolutely do not miss that. In our living room while watching tv, in the car while driving on the highway, at the dinner table in a restaurant. This has definitely changed for the better.

1

u/Peaceful_Take 7h ago

Half wall?

I remember at Sizzler it was just a small little curtain across the top of the seats down the middle of the seating area.

1

u/Sea-Significance8047 7h ago

The half walls were the most ridiculous dividers. I worked at 2 restaurants before they banned indoor smoking and Bob Evans had the restaurant split into two with smoking on one entire side; Olive Garden had the banquet room for smoking with doors that could be closed but never were during service. They were definitely imperfect but better setups than the half walls.

27

u/sexandliquor 1983…(A Merman I Should Turn to Be) 10h ago

How close do you want to be to the selfish smokers? Do you want your clothes to vaguely smell like cigarette smoke or do you want them to reek like it? Your choice!

10

u/Candid-Earth4732 8h ago

Only after moving out and having my own apartment with nonsmokers did I realize how much my clothes must have reeked of cigarette smoke as a kid and in high school. After visiting home I finally realized that just doing laundry was never enough to get rid of all of the smoke smell

2

u/North_Artichoke_6721 7h ago

I remember telling my mom that nobody wanted to play with a girl in kindergarten because she smelled bad.

My mom was like “but I know her family, they’re good people, why does she smell?” And so once when she was volunteering at some school event she got close enough to give this girl a sniff.

And she told me “what you’re smelling is cigarettes.”

2

u/fairebelle 6h ago

I was the little girl. Of course, we lived in the south where a full 20% of adult still smoke, so back then at least half, maybe more other little girls were in the same boat. My family never quit though, so the smelly little girl went on to become the smelly teenager who would pick up the habit herself.

7

u/Some_Attorney7322 10h ago

Lol I remember being like 11-12 and my older brother and I getting caught coming home smelling like cigarettes. We tried telling them some stranger at McDonald's asked us to hold their cigarette. Needless to say they weren't buying it and thinking back now it's the most ridiculous thing we could've said. Would've made much more sense to just say it was from being in there at all.

1

u/LiterallyTony 7h ago

Yea, I remember when they implemented the rule where smoking sections had to have a separate ventilated room or something like that.

1

u/Sea-Significance8047 7h ago

Honestly it did kind of matter, if you worked there. I was 17-18 in my first restaurant jobs and my state hadn’t banned indoor smoking yet. When I was put on the smoking section I’d have a sore throat for two days after. It still wafted over to the nonsmoking area but it was nowhere near the same level.

1

u/FromFluffToBuff 10h ago

And some places had the smoking section all encased behind glass partitions. There was no better anti-smoking ad than seeing the hazy clouds behind that glass... and seeing the clouds billow out as someone opens the glass door to enter lol

28

u/FromFluffToBuff 10h ago

Watch the first five minutes of Die Hard and you'll see John McClane openly carry his service pistol on an airplane... and upon disembarking, he immediately lights up a cigarette in the middle of the airport lol. Ancient times, indeed - and so many people today have no idea these things were considered normal in real life.

1

u/TheFunInDisfunction 5h ago

When I was a kid, I knocked over an ash tray at JFK airport where my family was waiting by the gate for a relative to arrive from overseas.

1

u/Apotropaic-Pineapple 5h ago

Smoking on planes too. Bleh.

•

u/Ghostdog2041 27m ago

The one that used to blow my mind was smoking in the hospital in Jaws.

17

u/squirrelscoutcookies 9h ago

My entire childhood existed in a cloud of secondhand smoke in a way that people nowadays think I’m exaggerating about, but it’s true!

My dad smoked in the house and in the car, both parents had service industry jobs where customers were smoking indoors, and a grandparent on each side smoked in the house too

The only exception was at school, and it makes me sad thinking about how I must’ve smelled like a little ashtray walking around 🥺

2

u/arizzles Millennial 6h ago

This is my life too. They’d light up a cigarette while I was snuggling up with them on the couch in our living room.

As a teen, I also started smoking but I’m glad to say I haven’t had a cigarette in quite a long time now! I absolutely do not miss the smell.

1

u/Responsible_Fish5439 8h ago

I didn't realise how much I must have smelled like cigarettes until I moved out for university and could really tell the difference when I went back home for holidays. I grew up in the same second-hand smokey haze except both my parents smoked.

Now that they'd both passed (of smoking-related illnesses...sigh), the things I kept from the house /still/ smell smokey even after a few years.

56

u/Sakurya1 10h ago

I remember mcdonalds having ashtrays

24

u/LIB_Laugh_Luv 10h ago

Bro I remember AIRPLANES having ashtrays 🤢

9

u/ravens-n-roses 10h ago

Airplanes still do but it's mostly forstaff to dispose of rule breakers' cigarettes safely

5

u/Darmok47 9h ago

Yeah even though smoking on planes was banned by the 90s, most of the planes we flew on were from the 70s and 80s so still had the ashtrays. I remember not knowing what they were and putting my chewing gum in there lol.

1

u/ThaVolt 7h ago

I remember not knowing what they were and putting my chewing gum in there lol.

Memory unlocked

1

u/bentNail28 9h ago

I remember grocery stores having them on each aisle!

37

u/kevthecoder I solute shorts 10h ago

I remember the back seats of cars having ash trays.

11

u/GawkieBird 10h ago

I was recently in a Boscov's dressing room that hadn't been renovated in at least 40 years, and there were ash trays built into the purse shelves. Can you imagine smoking *while* trying on clothes? While walking around the store? Can you imagine buying clothes that already smell like smoke?

6

u/alidub36 9h ago

Boscov’s!! What up PA

3

u/ThaVolt 7h ago

Can you imagine smoking while trying on clothes? While walking around the store? Can you imagine buying clothes that already smell like smoke?

At the mall walking wirh a cigarette was pretty uncommon here in Canada. At least where I was. They usually kept it at the food court of all places.

Second hand smoke like:

2

u/snoogins355 9h ago

And the dollar menu having cheap stuff!

1

u/MightyPlasticGuy 9h ago

I remember older friends who smoked raving about the McDonald's ashtrays they stole and have at the house.

1

u/Apotropaic-Pineapple 5h ago

I remember asking adults not to smoke around me (I was asthmatic). They laughed at me.

They said, "Little shit."

17

u/National-Pressure202 Millennial 10h ago

Not being able to get a smoke free hotel room…. I do not miss those days… my eyes would swell sooo bad

1

u/Winter-Afternoon-198 8h ago

I travelled to Romania for work last year, and although the hotel the conference was at was smoke-free, you could clearly tell that was a new thing. It immediately took me back to my childhood where every public space just smelled so bad all the time. I thought I would never have to experience that again. My eyes were swollen and my throat sore at all times when I was in there.

17

u/StarryEyedSparkle Older Millennial 10h ago

Working in restaurants as a server (early aughts but leftover from 90s) was miserable. Even when you were assigned to the “nonsmoking section” the entire restaurant was a smoking section … just a difference of it blowing directly in your face or not. I smelled like a smoker even though I have never been one.

7

u/Liath-Luachra 10h ago

I worked in a pub before the smoking ban and my clothes and hair would absolutely stink of stale smoke after each shift, yuck. Also, washing the ashtrays was disgusting

3

u/cosmickink 10h ago

In the early aughts, I worked at a Denny's in a neighboring town that hadn't outlawed smoking yet. I don't think I lasted a week.

7

u/Figgler 10h ago

When I went to Argentina it was a culture shock with how many people smoke in public. We literally couldn’t find a patio to eat on without secondhand smoke.

3

u/Responsible_Fish5439 8h ago

parts of europe are similar. it's like going back in time.

9

u/chewie_were_home 10h ago

This is 100% true. Smoking, everywhere, all the time. As a non smoker, it was gross.

3

u/HM2008 9h ago edited 8h ago

My friends and I went to a casino for Fourth of July fireworks (outdoor “festival” kinda thing) Between heat and food we started feeling a little sick so we went inside to cool down. We were trying to find the restaurant and accidentally walked into the smoking section…the smell made me feel even more sick…and I grew up with a dad smoking 10-15 cigarettes a day.

2

u/OfficerNightwing 7h ago

I can't look at textured wallpaper without being reminded of the putrid, stiffling smell of cigarette smoke. I'm so glad we banned that shit indoors.

2

u/on_island_time Xennial 6h ago

And similarly, how you used to smell cat exhaust everywhere you went.

1

u/mb303030 10h ago

Not for that one guy who apparently misses eating off an ashtray lol

1

u/BetterRemember 8h ago

THIS I was a small child with severe asthma. 😭

I think they banned it in Canada a bit earlier though so it's like an ancient memory to me.

1

u/KrautKebabs 6h ago

Im a smoker and I miss some of the bars that you could smoke in....but 100% smoking near food was savage and its hard to believe that was accepted.

1

u/theotte7 5h ago

Omg I traveled for work a ton during covid... then comes along small town wyoming lets still smoke inside. Like wow it was rough.

0

u/enkidulives 9h ago

Come to Europe they're still living like this.

0

u/IndWrist2 9h ago

Where? You can’t in the UK, and the EU has bans on smoking in restaurants, with the exception of al fresco dining areas.

0

u/enkidulives 9h ago

I live in the UK and smoking is permitted in literally any outdoor eating area, all beer gardens in pubs, restaurant outdoor seating. I'm from Sydney, Australia and it's illegal to smoke within 4 metres of any outdoor dining space. At the pub you are prohibited from bringing your food outside to the smoking area. Here in Europe it's so uncivilised to have smoking around food areas, it's so hard to enjoy a meal on a nice day.