I love old movies, BUT ... [View all]

I love old movies, BUT one thing that always bothers me about them ... well, not the only thing, but the one I'm talking about now ... is that whenever people sit down to talk about something, they ALWAYS do two things: 1) light up a cigarette, and 2) mix up a drink. TCM shows a lot of those old movies. Last night I watched "Mildred Pierce" (1945, four years before I was born) and every single adult character in that movie smokes like a chimney and drinks like a fish. They CAN'T have a conversation without a scotch on the rocks and a cigarette. This seems to be the case with almost every movie made in the 1930s and 1940s and 1950s.

Am I the only person who's bothered by this?

In case you're wondering, I used to be a nicotinic but quit in 1990, and I've never been a drinker at all. So I guess I wouldn't fit in as a character in any of those movies. I wouldn't be smoking and I would be drinking tea or Dr. Pepper, or nothing at all.

-- Ron