Smoking!!


Each time I see "Mr. Mom" I'm reminded of how much the office environment has changed since the early 1980's. Remember that scene in the meeting room on Caroline's first day on the job? Everyone was smoking, ashtrays were overflowing, billows of smoke swirled around. You couldn't do that today in a meeting since practically all buildings are smoke-free. Caroline's big hair and 3-piece suit were part of the 80's. Also, the scene in the supermarket where Jack buys the maxi pads is still one of my favorites. (Did you notice the big boxes of laundry detergent? It comes in much smaller boxes today.)

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Another thing that's changed since then are the microphones at the checkout aisles. They all seem to have telephones to contact the managers now instead of loudspeakers.

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Indeed that is what is becoming much of the fun in many of these 80's movies for me. Its quite a trip to see how things have changed in so many regards. Movies do serve as nice time capsules.

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I know it. It is one right now on WE and I noticed that when they were on Ron's private jet, the one lady was in the background smoking. Lord knows you can't do that today on commercial flights. I'm not sure about private.

Since Florida has become pretty much smoke free, I don't know if I could return to the days that people could smoke anywhere they want.

Ginger

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What about that big, bulky, non-collapsable stroller they had the baby rolling in? HA!!! How'd they have room for anything else in the trunk of the car with that thing taking up all of the room?

I don't think toddlers wear those white hard-bottomed walker shoes anymore either. All of the sneaker companies make little baby sneakers now.

If Ron (Carolyn's boss) had tried any of the crap he tried in the hotel today he'd be sued for Sexual Harrasement so fast his head would spin!

Ah, how the world has changed since I was 8!

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How about that state of the art stereo equipment behind Carolyn in the dream sequence? Couldn't play a cd if your life depended on it. Maybe crank a Men at Work cassette or a Billy Squire 78.

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Billy Squire on 78RPM?? Umm..the 80s weren't that long ago LOL

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I was born in 1985 and my parents had a stroller for me too. But it looked a lot more modern than the stroller in the movie. It was a stroll a bed but the wheels on it were a lot smaller then versus the 1990's. Even the baskets below them were bigger too while in the 80's they were a lot smaller. I would guess the stroller is from the 1970's and it was used on Alex and Kenny when they were babies.

Look at Megan's car seat, now mine looked a lot different too. I would guess hers looked from the 70's too. I don't think they had a law then about car seats being too old. Today they have to be at least 5 years or younger in age to use. If the car seat is more than 5 years old, you have to get a new one. So we would not be able to use one from 2002 because it be too old to use. Even thrift stores won't take them but some do but if they are too old, they will not. Back in the 70's car seats did not have sides on them but then only the tops of them did, then in the 1980's there were sides on them instead of only at the top where the toddler's head is.


Oh yeah and the pads, the packages are plastic now, not boxed and they are a lot smallar too. Even diapers were boxed then too but now they are in plastic packages.

http://s10.invisionfree.com/Nova_Infinity/

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That's very true...smoking is pretty much forbidden in offices these days. These days, you have to go outside to smoke.

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Not only do you have to go outside and smoke, but you have to be at least a specific number of feet away from the building... Lucky I don't smoke. I'd probably get annoyed.

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Yah we have come a long way from 80's now. It just shows how much times have change too. I remember in the late 90's getting hired to a big job and seeing ashtray's built into the walls and how they don't use them anymore.

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I live in Florida as well. I was on vacation in Ohio about 3 years ago and there was a smoking area inside a Wal-Mart at one of those snack bars they have. All I could think of was this movie. I was surprised people still could smoke inside a department store. I don't know if it's still like that there, but it was at the Wal-Mart in Sugarcreek, OH.

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Nope a bunch of *beep* decided to vote for a new law banning smoking indoors in Ohio.

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Woo hoo! Hooray for the *beeps*. I am choosing to consider "beep" in this case to stand for highly intelligent individuals!

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My workplace had a smoking area indoors, but the rule is that people aren't allowed to go outside.
The secretary also smokes on the airplane and all the adults smoke during the poker game with the kids in the next room. My dad use to smoke all the time and I never thought anything of it until years later when I wasn't use to it anymore.
Also notice the kids don't wear seatbelts in the car when going to school. It's strange seeing all this become passe' during a lifetime.

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People were a lot less uptight back in the '80's and didn't have over exaggerated fears of second hand smoke like so many people have today.

~It requires wisdom to understand wisdom: The music is nothing if the audience is deaf.~

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Yeah that room was filled with smoke it was kinda cool to see, this movie kind of captures a certain period of time well with how some things were.

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I loved Caroline's hair! LOL I'd kill for it.

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And how slowly the rest of the world has taken to catch up. I lived in Scotland for a year five years ago, and EVERYBODY smoked at the office building I worked at. Because of the constant rain, they even had a "Smoking Shelter" (or Fag Shelter, fill in your own joke) which resembled a glass-framed bus stop hut. That thing was overflowing with people and white clouds right next to the front door.

Now...the UK has a smoking ban in all public places. Airport did away with their outdoor "smoking balcony", pubs, streets, offices, etc. Only private housing is where you can do it, though I noticed a number of people strolling down High Street bucking the system.

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I am glad about the smoking ban. California was the first state to ban it in public places in 1998. Then other states started doing the same afterwards.

Smoking is bad for your lungs, it is still bad for them if you are around the smoke and you aren't even smoking. It is not fair to the other people who don't smoke to be in danger of their healths by smokers. It is even unfair to force them out of places or force them to move to another spot just because someone lit a cigarette near them. I cannot imagine being at work and having to sit in the office during a meeting and suffer with the smoke from the other employees. No wonder they banned it.

http://s10.invisionfree.com/Nova_Infinity/

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As late as 2000, my boss smoked in his office. The building was supposed to be smoke-free but it was an unwritten rule that you could smoke in your own office if no one else minded. Now who was going to tell the boss his cigarette smoke made you gag?

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I saw that scene and man... wow I think it would have been something to have that happening! I was so wondering if thats how it really was in the 80's and it would appear to be that way! I was born in '80 so had no chance of seen it. Board meetings in the +04 era are not anything like that...
Ive seen many 80's early 90's scenes like that, were the peoples attitudes bit more laid back, back then also??

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I miss the eighties-I was at my happiest in life then and movies were awesome!

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me too.

It makes me feel old reading through this thread about how much things have changed.

I was watching another film with Michael Keaton called "Night Shift" in 1982. they were walking down the street and you see theatres playing XXX porn flicks. Now days, just a few clicks with a mouse and you can have 1000 of streaming porn videos, no I.D....at least back then you had to go through the embarrassment and provide proof you were an adult.

I can't say I like that about how things have changed.

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People are such pansies now, they won't even show cigarette smoking in movies.

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I was a child in the 70's and teen in the 80's. Smoking was a way of life for over a third of the population. You could smoke almost anywhere except for school classrooms and the like. My dad smoked in the car with me and didn't roll down the window. If I hated the smoke, tough titty! Nowadays only about 20% smoke and it's treated like an addiction you must feed in a restricted area or shack.

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So true. When I think of growing up in the late '70's and 80's, I remember people smoking wherever and it wasn't that big of a deal. People didn't do the fake coughing to shame smokers or at like second hand smoke was battery acid coming to burn their lungs out or kill their children. People were way more tolerant.

~It requires wisdom to understand wisdom: The music is nothing if the audience is deaf.~

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I love this thread. Everywhere on IMDB, people are up in arms about this celeb smoking and that movie showing smoking and blah, blah, blah. Here, everyone says they miss the free smoking days 

Poorly Lived and Poorly Died, Poorly Buried and No One Cried

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PopperTheKungFu-Dragon,

You're right on. Even though I never personally smoked, the straight up intolerant demonizing of smokers has gotten out of control. No smoking at the beach nowadays in some areas? What the hell. Second hand smoke isn't mustard gas...as some activist act like it is.

~It requires wisdom to understand wisdom: The music is nothing if the audience is deaf.~

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I do smoke but I realize people don't like it so I don't smoke indoors.

Problem is a lot of workplaces flat-out ban smoking on their property to get insurance discounts. Some states even allow companies to test their employees for nicotine and fire them if they smoke on their own time. Tobacco is not an illegal substance! The paranoia surrounding smoking has gotten out of control and as with most things, it all comes back to money.

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