How long does smoke smell linger?

So growing up in a household with a smoker, I know how *shudder* much that smell can get into EVERYTHING!  I also know it can stick around for quite some time. 

I ask because our house will randomly smell like smoke.  Now we are 99.9% certain the previous owners smoked in here maybe back in the 90's and I know the carpet and at least one closet probably still carry the smell a bit. 

But I am not talking about the "stale" smoke smell.  It randomly smells like someone just lit a cigarette right next to us.  At first we ignored it but one night we had just gotten home and were talking in the front room and both of us smelled it.  You know the smell.  Its different than the old smoke smell.

We've only smelled it in the very front (old dining room) and right near the TV where an old recliner was when we first looked at the house. 

It's not often but usually when it's cold outside.  And it's a VERY strong smell. 

I'm not scared of whatever it might be but I am curious.

If I had to guess its residual.  Just an imprint of a time long gone.  Anyways, I guess we will see as time goes on.




I JUST FOUND THIS IN MY DRAFTS AND AM POSTING IT NOW.....

Yea, no my car doesn't smoke, thanks.....

Yo, you people that flick your lit cancer stick out the window going 80mph down the interstate can f**k off!  That is still LITTERING!  You shouldn't do that.  The local wildlife is holding up unsuspecting hikers looking for their next nicotine fix!

Sometimes I see them coming and they explode in a blast of embers on my windshield. 
Other times I see the flying smoke stick zooming past my window. 
And still other times I completely miss them. 

Anyway, as I was driving, suddenly, it looked like my f**king car was on fire! 

...wait....no...

Side Note - She is my freaking spirit animal.  I LOVED her!  I watched that show ALL THE TIME and still do when reruns are on!!!

Moving on.  There I was lala-ing along when traffic slowed in-front of me.  As I slowed down I noticed the front of my car...

OMG IS THAT SMOKE?!?!?! 
My car isn't that old...it should not be smoking! 
Is there a tiny fire????

So I kinda panicked for a sec.  I was so worried it would overheat and damage something. 

Weird...no lights or alarms are going off. 
Ugh what is that smell?!?!

I turned off the outside vent, what is that?!?!?!

*ew ew ew ew ew* Move people!  The exit is right there!!!!

My car could explode at any second, MOVE!

So I got off at the next exit and stopped at in the first parking lot I saw.  I popped the hood and walked to the front of my car. 

Odd the smoke isn't coming from under the hood. 

Then I saw the little cherry glowing in my grill *WTF*.  There was a f**king cigarette wedged in my front grill...STILL LIT!  It was only about half smoked...if that.  Basically someone lit it and then threw the f**king thing out the window.

You'd think going 80 down the Interstate would have blown it out or whatever.  But it was protected. 

When it hit my grill it bent in half and the lit end was inside, partially protected from the wind.  The "smell" was the slight charring of plastic, mixed with cigarette smoke coming in my A/C vent.  I pulled it out, stomped it, and threw it away.  I dumped a load of sanitizer in my hand and drove the rest of the way with the windows down because my car now smelled like @$$ baked in the sun. 

Flicking a butt out the window is still littering.  Its gross. Its dangerous to wildlife...AND TO OTHER DRIVERS.  If you are hell bent on smoking in your car...KEEP IT IN YOUR CAR!

It's a miracle I made it out of childhood

Okay not really my mom and dad and step mom and everyone else were amazing but by today's standards I should have died a horrible death well before I hit puberty.  I say this because today I overheard a co-worker talking to her 9 year old grandson.  She was saying he could go to so and so's house but be sure he had his CELL PHONE so she could find him if needed and don't ride his bike because its too dangerous, he might fall.  A cell phone for a 9 year old...hmmm and wouldn't the bike be safer then WALKING...?  I mean whatever helps you sleep at night but at 9 I had nothing like a phone (obvi, I am old hahaha) and my mother rarely knew exactly where I was at any given point.  I mean she knew generally where I was but not always the exact location. 

As odd as all that may sound to today's parents, I wonder what else was I exposed to or did that would cause a ruckus today...hmmm.

Just make sure you are home before the street lights come on.

Crap I'm late!!!

There was no cell phone or pager or whatever.  As kids we barely wore watches, even the cool ones we all had back in the 80's/90's (TMNT FTW).  So how else was mom/dad able to deem a curfew.  Something that you can't miss.  Granted in summer this meant one hell of a day and in winter may have led to some whining about it only being 5:00!!!  Regardless mom didn't see me for HOURS.  If she wanted to find me she either drove to the local park where she may find me and my besties roller blading or biking to our hearts content.  Or she called different houses asking if I was there and they'd usually say "yes, can she stay for dinner?" or "no but I think I saw her skate/bike by around X o'clock."  Point being she never really knew exactly where I was and that was okay.

Also, my momma worked.  When I went to school she was at work.  When I was little she managed to get off and come get me from school but as I got older my @$$ walked home.  And had to fend for myself until she came home to cook din din.  Well I took din din out the freezer for her to cook but you get the idea.  And if I left, I sure as hell better leave a note or call her at work and let her know.  But other then that I was a lone ranger from when I got home till after 6:00 (or later depending).

Seatbelts are for wimps, biotches!

Okay not really. Sometime during my childhood these became mandatory, at least in the front seat.   But I distinctly remember riding in my dads Monte Carlo which had a bench seat in the front.  I would STAND in the middle, between my parents as we drove around.  Once the "seatbelt" law happened (or was actually enforced)  I rode mainly in the back seat but I didn't wear a seat belt back there. I was too busy playing on the floor or pretending I was a cat in the back window...can you say WEIRD CHILD!

Also, my grandparents had this super cool Aerostar Van (that doesn't SCREAM 80's/early 90's at all).  Me and my cousins used to ride in style, what what! We also used to ride with no restraints.  I am talking jumping back and forth over the seats, playing on the floor and "hiding" in the "trunk" as we drove WTF MPH down I-10 heading to the Sunshine State. We gave no f**ks about safety, suck it seatbelts, we don't need no stinkin' seatbelts, ride or die, or something of that nature *muahahahaha*

Second hand smoke was a rite of passage

I HATED it but whatever.  How many of you rode in the car with parents that smoked?  My favorite was when it was raining and they would roll the windows UP and smoke in the car.  It was like driving in an f**cking cloud.  Who needs to see the road when you are happily puffing on a cancer stick.  Seriously, we would open the doors like a scene from a Cheech and Chong movie or Snoop Dog video.  Puff, puff give mo-fo...nah just ciggy smoke and a soccer mom with a couple kids. 

One memory I have takes place in the summer.  I had swimming lessons and had just spent the last hour soaking in chlorine when mom picked me up.  It was raining out so the ride home was windows up and ciggy lit.  That smell mixed with the chlorine burned into my nasal cavity was the strangest scent! It made me lightheaded and it was almost painful to breathe...which I am pretty sure is why I plastered myself to the floor of my mom's two door Mustang. I don't even want to know what kind of chemical high I was on at the ripe age of five.

When I got older I would roll the window down, regardless of the rain which got me smacked a few times because I was "ruining the interior of the car".  WHAT!??!!?  I'd rather be soaked...sorry, not sorry. 

Toys were so much more fun...and deadly!
 

That looks safe...right???

There were so many things I played with that would be banned today.  There is one thing I remember that would put most parents today in jail for child endangerment.  It was a giant plastic horse...suspended in a metal bar casing thing...attached with tightly coiled SPRINGS.  Uncovered springs...so you could pinch off a chunk of skin or a finger if you weren't "careful".  You climbed on it and bounced...you know like riding a real horse.  It even threw you off like a real horse because the springs were really unpredictable sometimes. If you bounced just right, it would go ten kinds of crazy wacky and throw you off like a bucking bronco!  I weighed negative nothing when I was a kid so I flew off of it more than once. 
 


But I usually got right back on without mom knowing a thing.  I mean how else was I supposed to play "She-ra Princess of Power" while watching the cartoon?!?  I was She-ra and my psycho rocking horse was Swift Wind, duh!




Also, who else remembers metal playground equipment???  I mean how many times did you burn off a layer skin going down the slide?  Or get a splinter from the wood seat on the seesaw? Or try to walk on top the monkey bars and then jump off? Or swing as high as possible and then jump off mid-upswing?  I mean did we all have a death wish?  And who wore sunscreen at the playground??? Its not like we were at the beach or anything! *phish*

SPF What...?

Speaking of sunscreen....I mean we wore "sunscreen" but only at the beach/pool.  That's the only place you can get sunburned...right???  Anyway, it was usually 15 on the face (because that was important to protect) and like 4 or 8 on the body...that's high enough right?  On the rare occasion my mom/step mom managed to wrangle me back under the umbrella and reapply at least to my face my pores were WIDE open and it would burn like fire!  Water babies made me cry like a baby.  I didn't wear a hat (often)...or a t-shirt...or anything else except my yellow polka dot bikini and my orange glitter gel SPF?  Am I paying for it now?  Yea a little.  I got some dark spots BUT I had a hell of a good time!  Shooo we used to take our naps on the beach...that's what the umbrella was for, right???

I also remember being maybe 10 (possibly younger) and going to the condo pool with just my cousins...adults came and checked on us (occasionally) but for the most part we were on our own... We also thought it was super cool to use that stupidly colored sunscreen and pretend like we were Indians...we were kids...it was the 80's/early 90's....shut up!





Anyway, I am sure there are a million other things but these are the ones that came to mind and made me giggle.  I do not have kids but I imagine my friends/relatives that do, would scream in horror if a child was allowed to do any of this today, hahaha.  

Sure, lets all sign a blood pact and die slowly together!

So there is this smoking ban possibly happening down here...it is causing a very heated debate and I don't quite get what all the hubbub is about.  I do not smoke...never have...well not...not important.  Anyways, I've always HATED IT.  I grew up in a strangely typical 80's household where both parents smoked...inside...with me there...and in the car...with me there.  I didn't realize how much I disliked it until my dad remarried and wasn't allowed to smoke indoors.  That is when I started to notice things...like everything I owned smelled like an ashtray.  Dude I was like 10 and started getting paranoid!  This must mean when I go to school...OMG!  Things happened and my mom thoroughly hated my antics until I went to college but that is for another blog post. 


My point is I have a strong dislike for being around smoke so I may be a bit biased.  With that said when I turned 18 (possibly a little before - tee hee hee) I started going out...party all night...come home sweaty and smelling like a pack of ciggys.  Nothing abnormal about that...its just how things were.   Then I started having a skin reaction.  That's right as a blossoming young adult I developed a rather odd allergy.  Whenever I was surrounded by clouds of smoke, even worse in a poorly ventilated area, (be it a club or a house/apt) my eyes would burn almost unbearably and the next day I wouldn't have just normal purple circles under my eyes...they would be bright red and puffy.  The skin would eventually HARDEN, turn scaly (ewwww), and peel off.  "Hmmmm that's odd."  Anyways we discovered I developed an allergy to smoke...go figure.  I dealt with it...what was I going to not go out...are you kidding, I was in college!  I learned to live with it (cortisone creme was my BFF)...then I went to New York and my perception was forever changed.

You see they had recently passed a law there where you couldn't smoke in a restaurant/bar/club/public area/whatever.  Down here we were working on the just banning it in food establishments (which didn't happen until 2007).  It was amazing.  We went back to the hotel after going out and didn't smell like we bathed in an ashtray!  Of course this was short lived as we came home...back to the smokey bars and clubs of the south. 

I have NEVER forgotten that and have always wished something like that would happen down here.  I have so many friends and family that work in the bar/club industry.  Some do smoke but many don't.  It cannot be good for them to be immersed in that much second hand smoke all the time.  So I was ecstatic when there was talk of this ban. But apparently smokers and non-smokers alike who work in the industry are very upset.  Saying that this will be the end of Bourbon Street...it will kill revenue at the casino...people will lose their jobs. 

Look I am not dumb, I am aware the industry will probably take a hit.  People may stop going out to some of these establishments because they cannot smoke inside or whatever.  But isn't this worth it?!?!  Not only a healthier environment for the workers and non-smoking patrons BUT it would encourage others to possibly quit...maybe.  I am sure the markets in NY and CA (among countless other individual counties/cities) took hits when they banned smoking in bars but I am fairly certain they have recovered.   I just don't see a strong enough argument against the ban.  I guess it could affect tourism but I don't believe it will be to the degree that people are screaming.  I may be completely wrong but I don't think people specifically travel here just because they can smoke in our establishments.  There are studies...many many studies showing no adverse affects on businesses caused by smoking bans. I dunno...I know business owners feel like their right to choose is being taken away...I just can't get behind it to continue with everything we know. 

I think all the rigamarole is because people inherently don't like change.  This is something different therefore it is seen as bad.  Look it is 2015, we all know the dangers of smoking and secondhand smoke.  It may not be proven 100% to cause cancer (2nd hand smoke) but it causes a load of other issues.  This is a step in the right direction, not something negative.

P.S.  Yes I think there are other more important things to be concerned about like the increase in crime in the City but this is what they are talking about right now.

**NOTE**- I am not a business owner nor do I work in the industry so I may be missing a huge piece of the puzzle.