Smoking in the Boys Room

 Man, times have changed. I was thumbing through the Oshawa Times archives from during the years that I attended OCHS and immediately this cigarette ad popped out at me:

Times were really different, and looking at this makes me feel old. It was hard to believe, but our high school had a smoking area outside the gym on the far side of the school. Here is a photo of it at that time:

As you can see, both boys and girls partook of the nicotine habit. It was beginning to be frowned up, but it still hadn't attained the same stigma as gonnorhea or neglecting hygiene, so the school accepted the fact that it was a personal choice, but one had to "keep it over there".

On school trips, once the main group of teachers were no longer monitoring behaviour, the cigarettes were broken out. Here on a class trip, a gaggle of girls started puffing and chuffing on the cancer sticks:

It was an interesting class trip, because geography teacher Blair Morris chartered a private plane to take our Urban Studies class on flights over Oshawa to see urban sprawl. This photo was shot outside the Oshawa Airport, just up Stevenson Road from the high school.

A few years on, Mötley Crüe did a song: "Smokin' In The Boys Room" which epitomized the smoking area before one was created outdoors. Here is the link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oVBvxA0mm0

If this video were to be re-made today, it would be: "Vapin in the gender neutral bathroom."