Monday, January 25, 2021

Everything changes

A question for non-smokers and ex-smokers only: when did you last see an ashtray? Meaning a traditional tabletop ashtray, not the enormous outdoor kind. My answer: I can’t even remember.

comments: 7

Pete said...

Probably at my mom and dad’s house, but not since the 1970s. I still remember it: heavy, dark red glass, four notches in the rim, and a design in the bottom that looked like embedded coins. My dad smoked cigarettes when he was younger, but by the time I came around (I’m the youngest child), he had weaned himself off cigarettes with cigars Antonio y Cleopatras, I think), and quit smoking completely by the time I was five. But even when he was on cigars he never smoked in the house, which makes me wonder why we had an ashtray in a prominent, permanent place on the family room table. For guests, I suppose.

joecab said...

Just this morning! I keep my pocket contents in the same big ol’ 1960s amber ashtray my father had until his death.

Geo-B said...

It's an interesting question. My great grandfather was a copper miner in Bisbee, Arizona. He died in 1913, and I have a couple odd objects I grew up with and he supposedly fabricated from copper. One is a small, star-shaped ashtray which I have on a small table in the living room. I was just looking at it yesterday, wondering if I should leave it there. It's metamorphosed from an ashtray to an art object.

Michael Leddy said...

I just realized that I have an ashtray just a couple of yards away. But it’s functioning as a home for paper-clips. I still don’t know when I last saw an ashtray that was meant to serve as an ashtray.

Richard Abbott said...

Here in the UK smoking indoors is prohibited pretty much everywhere (except in private houses with the owner's permission). So the only ashtrays you're likely to see roundabout are outdoor ones. Here at the pub/cafe we have a few such, in a designated smoking area, but sadly our experience is that some smokers think it's OK just to use flower pots or similar, so don't avail themselves of what's provided for the purpose.

Michael Leddy said...

A sight I recall (with no fondness): students ignoring outdoor smoking areas with standing ashtrays and choosing instead to smoke right in front of the doors to buildings, with butts accumulating on the pavement around them. Say anything and you’re a square, a killjoy, a creep.

Sean Crawford said...

I used to have a generic square crystal ash tray from my favourite cafe, a gift after they went nonsmoking. Alas, it fell off the top of my microwave.