MovieChat Forums > The Twilight Zone (1959) Discussion > Smoking in the Hospital

Smoking in the Hospital

posted 2 years ago by Bossdog677 (1582)
13 replies | jump to latest

I was at a Diner with a female friend and it was being worked by our other female friend and just one cook. She asked what will it be and I said "Eggs Benedict doll and bring me an ashtray". Of course this was a joke because can't smoke in a Diner anymore even if it's just you and your friends working the joint.

So later I watch the Twilight Zone episode "the sky opened up" and two of our leads just start off in a hospital room, one in a bed and they just light up and start talking.

I was not offended by this or tried to force my presentism on it. In fact I was cursing myself for being born too late and having to be here in the 21st century with all you fancy boys. What a great time to be alive that was.

[–] millsey72 (10939) 2 years ago

[deleted]

[–] g-bone (586) 2 years ago

Eye of the Beholder has a bunch of doctors and nurses standing around smoking. You could smoke in hospitals up until the last 70's.

I went to Vegas a couple months ago and it was strange to see people smoking indoors. Got banned in my state about 14 years ago.

[–] [deleted] 2 years ago

Haha, good old Vegas! Whatever is necessary to steal money from the rubes...

[–] riraho (142) 2 years ago

I was born in 1980 and I have pictures from that day taken in my mom's hospital room and there are ash trays everywhere!

[–] millsey72 (10939) 2 years ago

Of course. It makes perfect sense to be allowed to smoke in the hospital. If you get sick from the smoking, you're already in the hospital

[–] Garyandfilm (556) 2 years ago

"What a great time to be alive that was."

Unless you were black, gay, or a woman who wanted a career. And anyway, do you REALLY want to dine out in a smoke-filled restaurant?

Enjoy the show, but stop worshiping the past.

[–] Bossdog677 (1582) 2 years ago

Black, gay, woman it didn't matter if you went to jail you could smoke and that's called freedom brother.

[–] Tristan_Booth (405) 2 years ago

Garyandfilm, I wish I could upvote this. I grew up in the 60s and I hated all the smoke everywhere.

[–] liscarkat (19416) 2 years ago

When I was a kid in the '50s and '60s people smoked everywhere. I had a couple of doctors who would smoke while they were in the little exam room with you, and even one who smoked a cigar while at work. People smoked in libraries, movie theaters, restaurants, grocery stores, and offices. About the only place I don't remember anybody smoking was inside church during services. Both my parents smoked continuously, unless they were asleep or in the shower. By some miracle, I never picked up the habit.

[–] Darren (1459) 2 years ago

I am not old enough to have watched The Twilight Zone when it first aired -- I was born at the end of the sixties -- but I am old enough to remember when everybody smoked, and you could smoke in offices, on planes, in restaurants. When I was a kid, my parents followed a very longstanding custom and kept a table lighter on the living room coffee table so that their guests could light up, even if they didn't have matches or a lighter of their own on them. And I well remember choking on my parents' cigarette smoke when we gathered in the living room to watch TV as a family, and so did every kid I knew growing up.

I am nostalgic for a great many things from my childhood, but the ubiquity of smoking is not one of them.

[–] liscarkat (19416) 2 years ago

Yes, it was everywhere. I can't even remember any adults in my extended family, or any adult family friends, who didn't smoke in the '50s, '60s, and '70s. I didn't like it in the house, but the worst was being in the car with both parents smoking, on a cold day with all the windows rolled up. When we would finally stop and I'd open the door and get out, I still remember how sweet and good the fresh air would smell.

[–] Darren (1459) 2 years ago

The thing I could never understand was the way some of my peers, who grew up hating coughing on that damnable secondhand smoke just as much as I did, went on to become smokers themselves.

I never took up the habit. In fact, I've never taken a single puff off a cigarette in my life. Pity Rod Serling became a heavy smoker -- 3-4 packs a day by all accounts -- it doubtless contributed to the heart disease that took him at just age fifty.

[–] mikethemartian (6996) 2 years ago

In Mad Men they constantly smoked including when they were in a hospital.