The Saddest Place I've Ever Been

[JimHannoonen]

As we can all relate, I used to hate flying. It was basically an exercise in torture. Remember how you couldn't wait to get out of the airport to smoke? Or God forbid you had a layover and had to play "Security roulette". You know, when you would gauge the time you had until your next flight and run out to have a smoke and pray you could get back through security and make your flight.

 

How ridiculous!

 

But the saddest place I can recall was the "smoking room" at the Atlanta airport. Don't get me wrong, I was over the moon that it even existed, because that meant I could smoke without having to deal with security, but at the same time, it was so depressing.

 

Just a bunch of smokers, sitting in a room, not talking to each other. Just sitting there wallowing in stink. And man, did it stink! No amount of ventilation could ever mask the stench.

And of course, all that smoke permeated your clothes, so you reeked like smoke (more than you would normally). Oh, bless the people I had to sit next to on my flights from Atlanta to Sacramento. They never said anything, bu they had to be repulsed.

 

I feel ashamed, but at the same time so happy that I'll never have to sit in that room again.

 

NOPE

[Wayne045]

Been there done that.   Don't miss it even a little bit.

 

I recently (as in a few months ago) did a layover in Memphis TN, and my connecting flight was of course delayed, so I got something to eat and then walked around for a while, and I was shocked stupid when I came across a well appointed smoking lounge.   This was not a glass box with no ventilation, but a real lounge with more comfortable chairs than in the terminal, a privacy wall so that people couldn't see inside, and was well ventilated, because I didn't smell any telltale odor, even when I walked up close to check it out

 

I didn't go in of course since I'm well over 2 years quit.   I did feel a little pi--ed though.  I mean where were these places when I was still smoking?  And how is it possible in this non-smoking era that a nice lounge like that even exists?

[Sazerac]

no, the smoking lounge is not the saddest place,

standing outside a hospital is the saddest place

[Doreensfree]

Oh those smoking rooms...I remember them well....

The look on the faces of the passengers walking by...the shame....standing in that small cube of toxic fumes...my poor lungs...!!!!

[NADA]

46 minutes ago, Sazerac said:

no, the smoking lounge is not the saddest place,

standing outside a hospital is the saddest place

 

 

 

.....there's even a song about that. 

[garry mhudson]

Can relate Jim. Never did Atlanta but I remember talking to a guy in the smoking room in St. Louis telling me that this location and Atlanta were about all that were left in the major cities. I always went to St. Louis for family twice a year and knew it was getting pretty thin out there for smokers. My nightmare as a smoker was flying back from Anchorage Alaska to my home Phoenix Az. Get on the plane in Anchorage about 11pm and sit on board for a couple hours while they wait for a break in the weather (it`s January) and de-ice the wings a couple times. By that time, you know you will miss your connection in Seattle . The walk to go outside to smoke was insane so the fellow I was traveling with and myself called a cab and got a cheap room close by and smoked and got a couple hours sleep. It sucked that the bars were closed but the clerk at the motel helped out. What we did for cigs.

[Boo]

On 9/20/2018 at 1:26 PM, JimHannoonen said:

But the saddest place I can recall was the "smoking room" at the Atlanta airport. Don't get me wrong, I was over the moon that it even existed, because that meant I could smoke without having to deal with security, but at the same time, it was so depressing.

 

Just a bunch of smokers, sitting in a room, not talking to each other. Just sitting there wallowing in stink. And man, did it stink! No amount of ventilation could ever mask the stench.

And of course, all that smoke permeated your clothes, so you reeked like smoke (more than you would normally). Oh, bless the people I had to sit next to on my flights from Atlanta to Sacramento. They never said anything, bu they had to be repulsed.

 

The stench.  The stained walls and ceiling.  Sitting around with your fellow addicts looking miserable and desperately trying to get a fix that would last the duration of your flight.

 

This little trip down memory lane was a good reminder to celebrate a successful quit.

[jillar]

What about chain smoking before your flight as if that was going to keep the withdrawals away till the next fix!