this post was submitted on 26 Mar 2025
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[–] [email protected] 143 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (10 children)

Before the 1990s, it was cigarettes all the way down.

1980s - cigarettes and hair spray.

70s - cigarettes and alternating body odor and heavy cologne/perfume.

60s - cigarettes and canned food.

50s - cigarettes and gasoline.

40s - cigarettes and either gunpowder or a machine shop.

30s - cigarettes and dust.

20s - cigarettes and bootleg whiskey

10s - cigarettes and bloody mud

1900-1909 - cigarettes and horse shit in the street.

[–] [email protected] 71 points 1 month ago (3 children)

The banning of cigarettes in bars and restaurants made a huge difference. It used to be when you'd get into the shower the morning after going out, you'd reek of cigarettes. It was mind-blowing when that went away.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 month ago

For real, the first time I went to a bar in a county that had banned smoking indoors was amazing. My clothes (and by extension, my dorm room) no longer reeked when I got home. Going out to dinner at any restaurant prior to that point just meant that all my food smelled like cigarettes, regardless of sitting in the non smoking area. I can’t believe it took so goddamn long to ban it indoors.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 month ago

I remember when our family would go bowling, my parents made us all change our clothes as soon as we got home because of the cigarette reek. I'm so glad those days are gone.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago

I hated going to bars. The fucking taste of cigarettes would permeate through the back of my throat. Is wake up the next day with a scratchy throat and dry mouth.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Was a kid in the late 1980s. I never realized how bad smoking was.

My mom hated going out to dinner, so we never ever went. And when I took her to dinner to celebrate in the 2000s, she pulled me aside and cried about not wanting to smell like cigarettes, because her dad smoked and the smell would remind her of him/his abuse. Smoking was already banned and I had to make so many promises that we won't go anywhere with smoking.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 month ago

Grew up in the 90s, parents loved going to casinos, didn't miss out on the cigarettes experience.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Came here with the exact same idea

90s were still cigs like half the time. Bullshit smoking/non smoking sections in the same restaurant

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

Can't smell something that was so pervasive in the environment that an estimated 660 metric tons are frozen into Antarctic ice. Humans only smell changes in things, our brains are wired to grow to ignore a pervasive smell.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Was a kid in the 80's. I hated the smell of smoke and it irritated my eyes. That is a large part of why my grandparents quit. I'm probably why my parents didn't smoke.

I associate the smell of tobacco with my grandparents. Yet for all the fact i hated it at the time because it overpowered everything? I opened up one of those tobacco smelling candles and... It's stupid i suppose but I was crying for a little bit.

Also in the 1800's you'd have tobacco smoke, but not the industrial scale of cigarettes.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago

My family smoked like chimneys, 1/2 died from cancer, 1/2 died from emphysema.

You only need to watch one person die from emphysema to decide to never smoke.

Bonus: One great great grandma died from emphysema and never smoked a day in her life... she was a fry cook for 40 years. :(

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago

I was born in the 80's and all those gave me nostalgia.

Especially the horse shit. Mm. Rode a lot as a kid, and cleaned stables.

cigarettes and horse shit in the street.

In my memory that's when I was about 7-9, rode horses. Dad smoked a lot.

cigarettes and bloody mud

That's when I was in the army. We smoked a lot.

20s - cigarettes and bootleg whiskey

Dad also drank quite a bit.

cigarettes and dust.

15-16, driving mopeds and 125cc's on dusty roads.

cigarettes and either gunpowder or a machine shop.

That's the army again

cigarettes and gasoline.

Mopeds again

cigarettes and canned food.

Student times, lots of tuna and spaghetti and indoor smoking.

1980s - cigarettes and hair spray.

70s - cigarettes and alternating body odor and heavy cologne/perfume.

Mom used a ton of hairspray and dad had a really strong cologne.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (4 children)

What does canned food smell like, though? How about cigarettes and low-quality plastic products for the 60s.

Before 1900: Shit smell gradually replaces cigarette smell the further you go back, peaking in intensity sometime around the black death (in Europe). Actually, coal maybe needs to be in there somewhere.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago (2 children)

50s - Cigarettes and bourbon.

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[–] [email protected] 72 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Everything everywhere before the 2000s smelt like cigarettes and old smoke, it was rancid a fuck.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago (9 children)

Coming home from the pub and your clothes and hair reaking of cigarette smoke

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[–] [email protected] 65 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Post 2020: Had covid, can't smell shit.

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[–] [email protected] 44 points 1 month ago (1 children)

You could argue the 90s smelled like teen spirit too

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I thought teen spirit was sex and candy?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 41 points 1 month ago (2 children)

The 2000s smelled like axe body spray and watermelon bubblegum

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 month ago

93 baby. So yeah pretty much haha.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Fuck, guys dousing themselves in an entire fucking can of axe, all throughout middle and high school. gag

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I just wish more people were like my mom. She told us from a young age that women have a far better sense of smell. So when we think we smell good we have gone too far.

My brother and I learned a small amount of body spray or cologne goes a long way. If I can smell someone from 5 feet away I can only imagine how unbearable it must be for women and their heightened sense of smell.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I forgot who exactly it was, but a woman in my life when I was younger, probably a family friend, told me that less is more when it comes to fragrance. A quick spritz across the neck and right wrist was all you needed. I'm not sure why the right wrist though...

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 month ago (1 children)

That was more 2000s than 2010s.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

LOL 2000s was what I typed first, then I remembered Leslie Knope remarking about Tommy Haverford being surrounded by "a dense cloud of Axe body spray" which was like in 2011 or 12. I figured he would be using whatever was trending.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It was just as pungent around 2006 and probably earlier.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago (3 children)

I remember it being a thing when I was in highschool, but that was late 90s.

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 4 weeks ago

2020s smell like nothing because COVID

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

The 2000s smelled like new tech plastic, the static from CRTs, microwave dinners, pump hand soap, and grass.

2010s smelled like hibiscus, then beach sand, then sickly sweet and rubbing alcohol.

ETA: Gas fumes were also part of the ‘00s

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

The 80s smelled like hairspray and styling gel.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago

All I could smell was cocaine

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 month ago

The 90s smelled like sex and candy, but the smell was actually vintage clothes from the 70s and leaded-gas fumes.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago

2025: dumpster fire and Nazi taint.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago

Every decade before the late 2000's smelled like indoor cigarette smoke

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago (2 children)

The 80s smelled like cocaine and wine coolers.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago

Before 2005 or so it just smelled like cigarettes in any indoor space

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago

70s probably cocaine and body odor.

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