Baby, The Past is a Different Country...

[elfs]

This morning on the way to work I was subjected by the song, Baby, It's Cold Outside, a 1944 duet written by Frank Loesser. The narrative of the song is about as straightforward as it gets: each couplet starts with a young woman making protest noises about how she must be running along, and a young man responding with either commentary about how cold and snowy it is outside or how beautiful the young woman is.

The entire theme of the song is about him slowly convincing her to stay in and have a make-out session (and perhaps more) instead. But what's fascinating is that the young woman decides to tell her "vicious minded aunt," that the reason she was late getting home is that she stayed for one more cigarette.

Remember kids, making out is bad, but smoking is an acceptable pleasure.

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[marketeer]

Cleaning out my great aunt's house after she died, I found the Hallmark birth announcement my parents had sent her when I was born. It had a cartoon that showed a mother sitting serenely in bed with a newborn and a father who was pacing and smoking outside her hospital room. So, it was acceptable to depict smoking on a baby announcement back then.