Anybody Remember the Old Guys Smoking Outside . . .?

[macaroni]

Anybody here remember the old guys smoking outside between Sunday School and the main service (yep, I was careful not to get into religious stuff...err maybe just a tad

It was the generation or two before mine, but I saw it and nobody minded--these were the farmers and business guy who ran the town. In my day, after summer stuff for kiddos--(VBS) I did see the old gals take breaks outside the nursery for a quick hit on the cancer sticks! I and recall hearing two old gals gripe each other out and one of them hollering, "I'm going home and get a wine cooler" (and this gang was supposed to be tea-totalers--caused quite a hoot!).

Closest thing saw like it growing up were the old guys in TV shows of Any Griffith outside the courthouse and the barbershop talking shit and watching the world go by--don't recall them smoking but Andy did in one episode (when he delivered a baby and pulled a cancer stick out after) ha!

 

[J.Henry845]

After being an alter boy in elementary school I had worked in the church’s rectory running errands and working the office during my first couple of years of high school.

On Sunday the old guys that did the collections during service would bring the money over to the basement of the rectory to count up and do whatever they did with the cash. I remember about a dozen of them all in the basement smoking cigars and pipes while drinking coffee, eating pastries, and running the bill counting machine. One of the priests was always smoking cigars. Different times.

It was an interesting experience looking back at it.

 

[Chasing Embers]

It wasn't just them, I was doing the same thing over 30 years ago.

 

[pappymac]

Anybody here remember the old guys smoking outside between Sunday School and the main service (yep, I was careful not to get into religious stuff...err maybe just a tad

It was the generation or two before mine, but I saw it and nobody minded--these were the farmers and business guy who ran the town. In my day, after summer stuff for kiddos--(VBS) I did see the old gals take breaks outside the nursery for a quick hit on the cancer sticks! I and recall hearing two old gals gripe each other out and one of them hollering, "I'm going home and get a wine cooler" (and this gang was supposed to be tea-totalers--caused quite a hoot!).

Closest thing saw like it growing up were the old guys in TV shows of Any Griffith outside the courthouse and the barbershop talking shit and watching the world go by--don't recall them smoking but Andy did in one episode (when he delivered a baby and pulled a cancer stick out after) ha!

I remember the smokers between services. They would also be the ones smoking pipes or cigars at outdoor events like picnics.

The world had a different attitude about smoking back then.

 

[kcghost]

I am in the right age group, but I don't recall much of this going on.

 

[mso489]

My version of that experience was riding the train downtown with my dad to his work place in the city one day during Christmas break. We'd ride in the smoking car so he could smoke his pipe, and we'd read the newspaper. Others would do some work out of their briefcases or groups would play cards, mostly poker it seemed. it wasn't exactly a community, but there was a group feeling, like a (mostly) gentleman's club.

I'd roam around his office building, once the tallest building in the city of Chicago, visit the newsstand, and then go to lunch at one of the downtown restaurants like Berghoff's, a German place with stern older men as waiters, and great food.

 

[warren]

Sure. I still do, where permitted of course.

 

[pappymac]

My grandfather would smoke his pipe while riding the city bus to and from work. I would sometime see him getting off the bus with his pipe clenched in his teeth.

This was in the late 50s through early 60s.

 

[warren99]

I‘m old enough to remember smoking cars on trains, smoking sections on planes, in theaters and in restaurants, smoking in college classrooms, courthouses, elevators, hotels and offices. To say that things have changed somewhat over the years is an understatement.

 

[FurCoat]

I smoke my pipe at church. To be honest, I smoke wherever I please as long as I'm outside.

 

[OverMountain]

I smoke my pipe at church. To be honest, I smoke wherever I please as long as I'm outside.

I’m a much better Christian when I smoke a pipe

 

[RookieGuy80]

I do, but it wasn't anything special. Guys who smoked smoked. And they'd smoke wherever they were, or just outside the door of wherever they were if they had to step out.

 

[augiebd]

My uncle and another fellow got caught smoking by a nun. She asked them if they still had the makings, they said yes. She rolled herself a fine quality smoke as fast as you please, returned the tobacco and papers, admonished the lads and carried on. Not sure if she was so upset they were smoking or that they were only 12.

 

[bullet08]

It seems all the priests smoked after a mass. I never seen a nun smoking. I bet they hide better. My friends and I would be smoking cigs and playing pool not too far from the church and a nun would come by to collect us every Sunday morning.