Minnesota's law regarding indoor smoking went into effect on the first of October. It's been very pleasant to be able to go into any restaurant and not have to deal with smoke. It is now quite jarring when I go somewhere else and get hit with the question, "Smoking or non?"
I was not asked the title question, but I might as well have been. On the first of October a law regulating indoor smoking went into effect in Minnesota. Last night I experienced one of its effects.
Before the radio club meeting, I went to the nearby Mexican restaurant and was seated in what had been the smoking section. Surprisingly, it didn't have the lingering smell of a place that had been a smoking area. It did have booths with tall backs and, unlike the part of the restaurant that had been the non-smoking area, it was mostly empty.
The crowd in the room I usually sat included a couple family gatherings. At least one included a screaming tot. The screams of which I noticed, but they were so attenuated that my reaction was a passing thought of "I'm glad I'm not in there." as I ate.
My folks never smoked, but both of my grandfathers smoked. So did some friends of my folks. Thus ashtrays were around in some of the places we'd visit. At the time they seemed rather common whether a glass or ceramic tray on a table or a metal tray on its own stand. Cars had ashtrays too, and not just one thing in a center console, but built into the inner door handles.
When my mother's place of work had an addition built sometime in the 1980s there was an open house to show off the place. While not large by big city standards, it was a fairly impressive building and sort of in the country. From the second or third floor the view through a large picture window was great. In the evening, when the open house was, the view was something like you might expect to see from a futuristic spaceship cruising low, about to land. And then I looked around and saw the ashtrays and it was a rude snap back into the 20th century as the effect was destroyed. Since then the place, like many others, has gone smoke free.
I'm not sure when the No Smoking Section started showing up in the area, but it was welcome. Eventually one airline declared that domestic flights of less than two hours would be no smoking. Even though we didn't fly commercially, we took this as a sign of progress.
Since then things have changed even more. Many places are non-smoking and others often have non-smoking sections that really are non-smoking sections, not areas where no tobacco is burned but where smoke fills the air all the same. I've been on a few commercial air flights and have never seen the No Smoking signs off. Unless I'm at a restaurant that is really a bar (Minnesota law requires food be available if alcohol is served; you can't have just a bar and so must at least have sandwiches as well.) it's unusual for me to encounter smoking inside a building.
The transition has actually been fairly gradual. I didn't realize quite how much I take for granted that I won't encounter tobacco smoke until I happened across a couple ashtrays in some store and it took a moment to realize what they were. They were anachronisms to me.
I've never smoked, not even once, at least not first-hand. I have known and do know a few folks who do smoke. One fellow related something rather interesting.
He'd first started smoking a pipe, but after a while switched to cigarettes as they were more convenient. A few years later he realized he was smoking quite a bit and the realization was discomforting to him. So he decided to switch back to using a pipe, figuring that'd slow him down as it takes a bit more time set things up with a pipe and a pipe needs some attention.
It worked, but not just the way he expected. He found he felt a bit better even if he smoked the pipe as often as he had smoked cigarettes, as he did initially. He figures that the burning paper and whatever additives might be in cigarettes are likely more irritating than plain tobacco.
A few months later he noticed something else. He said he tended not to have as deep cravings. There were times when he'd simply forget and not smoke the pipe and it didn't seem to bother him like when he missed a cigarette or two. He still smokes, and as far as I know isn't trying to quit. But for him it's changed from a decided addiction to something more akin to an occasional recreation. If his experience is at all representative, it might be a path to smoking cessation worth some consideration.
As it now after the moment of the equinox it is now fall, or autumn if you prefer. I prefer fall in its monosyllabic (why does that have so many syllables?) simplicity. There is a chill to the morning that brings with it a clarity. Not a great amount of humidity, but not just too cold. A windbreaker is sufficient and a little heat is all that's needed to feel comfortable. Not the oppressive heat of a harsh summer day, but the snug warmth of heat that is just big enough to displace a chill, not overwhelm a person.
It is not just the change of season that brings a freshness to the air. Today a smoke free workplace law went into effect (probably with a depressing exception for restaurants). Either a smoking area has proper separate ventilation or it is no longer a smoking area. There was a 'smoking lunchroom' here yesterday. There was a thing in which cigarette butts were to be disposed of by the door yesterday. That was yesterday. Today the butt collector is gone and so is the odor of the thing. No more cloud of stink by the door. I expect the lunchroom will have a lingering odor for some time.
It isn't just the first day of fall. It is the dawn of the twenty-first century, finally. It's so nice to be able to breathe free.
