Smoke, smoke, smoke that Cigarette!

You know, I was reading some of the Mad Men forum posts over at AMC when the show first came out. Many of the posters seemed to think that the smoking was overdone in the show in an attempt to make it seem realistic. I hate to tell them but I honestly do not believe it is overdone at all. When I was a little girl it seemed like everyone around me smoked. Everywhere I went, smoking was ok. You could smoke in hospitals then and on planes. I remember quite clearly women in the grocery stores puffing away as they wandered up and down the aisles, cigarette butts literally stamped out on the floor where a boy with a dust mop pushed them away every so often. Diners, Bowling alleys, etc.  My grandmother had a habit of keeping the windows rolled up when she smoked in the car because the cold air bothered her and when mom was there too, good lord, you needed a jig saw to cut through the smoke! I have tried to dig up some numbers and they all pretty much run the same. In the 1950's, 80% of men smoked and nearly 40% of women smoked. One survey I read suggested that the percentage of women who smoked was actually closer to 60%. It wasn't shameful to smoke then. When you really check out the smoking ads from back then like the one above, it really isn't surprising at all to see why people smoked.
There is an extremely cool site dedicated to those of you who dig the whole smoking scene of a lost era. Check it out ! Smokerama