Old News: Heatwave of Smoking Hot Insanity

Yes, we’re having a heatwave — and there’s nothing tropically alluring about it. It’s smoking-hot sweaty-ugly.

We’re talking heatwave now. We’ll get to the smoking hot story of insanity in a minute. And you really don’t want to miss that butt of the newsreel.

On the good ol’ summer heat, though … It’s really nothing new, except that back in the day, actual print newspapers had stories on heatwaves.

Yes, there were full stories, not just basic weather reports, with interviews and cute pictures of the cool joy of romping in the sprinkler or chillin’ with a cold a splash somewhere. We journalists, even back in the late 1990s and early 2000s, actually had a meteorologist’s phone number in our “books” or Rolodexes. Remember those? Yes, there have been many a summer heatwave. And, every summer, they were covered — at length, not brevity.

In fact, for example, the wave of heat was one that the area folks of 1987 rode with a somewhat less alarmist (save for scary climate change of today) steam. Yes, steam. Steamy it was, as it is today and going into the weekend, back in 1987.

“The suffocating heatwave … is expected to last through the weekend, according to weather officials,” a story by Michael Starr in The Daily Register said. He interviewed George Wright, a west Jersey meteorologist, who had said that 85 degrees is the average temperature for this time of year. The heatwave brought temps of mid- to upper-90s.

In fact, two meteorologists were interviewed. The other, Barbara Thomas of the National Weather Service said, “I don’t see any relief in sight.” OK. Insight, that was. Thorough, as demanded in the day of the old newsroom. And it didn’t stop there. A plant chemist was consulted as well.

Then there were residents and those happy-go-lucky heat romping pics. This one was taken by Martin Petterchak. Funny, he took my photo for a story about a program I had run in the 1990s. But I digress … In this case, it was a pic of a cool-quenching sprinkler fight. A doozy!

That usually doesn’t happen with today’s keep-it-brief and clickable stories. Ugh. Some of us still try, though.

Our go-to in most area newsrooms was a meteorologist at Rutgers. And he was very knowledgeable. Dizzyingly knowledgeable, in fact. An interview with this guy about any weather event made one feel quite dumb — cluelessly well-informed and somewhat ready to impart his knowledge. Learning experiences. Well, news cycles change, like the heat. Something like that.

You might say the heatwave coverage was was overkill. You also might say that it was a case of what you don’t know WILL hurt you. I mean, nowadays we just get bombarded with weather reports and charts. Nothing really all that fun or stop-the-scroll worthy.

There were some things that were covered decades and even more than a century ago that were … had there been a scroll. It was more like, “Get the bifocals out! This one looks like a doozy!”

And we found one such story for you. It has to do with a smoking hot issue, what’ll hurt you and all of the worldly insanity packed into a heated moment or thought …

Well, it seems that waayyyyy back 120 years ago, to be exact, a man by the name of Albert Harvey, son of David Harvey of Oceanic, whose wife was Fair Havenite Annie Minton (Yes, they actually named his wife AND said he had a child.) was dubbed insane and carted off to the looney bin, according to a story in The Daily Register. Yes, indeed he was. He was “taken to the state hospital for the insane at Trenton. Why? Because “physicians say that cigarette smoking is the cause of his mental derangement.”

And 75 years ago, in 1949, according to several stories in the Register, “drunkards” were dubbed insane and either jailed or put in an “asylum.” A fight against that began then.

OK then.

Well, call me and legions of others crazy, but I do love a good ol’ smoking jacket. They really were cool and very much on trend 100 years ago for $6! I mean, come on, that looks cool. But keep your super soakers to yourselves. One really had to smoke something with that to stay cool …

And just like coolness and heatwaves have their ups and downs, so do trends, bad habits (depending on how you look at it), and the newsroom priorities.

From 120 years ago, smoking evolved into the cool thing to do in order to be, well, smoking hot stylish, circa 1924 and the smoking jacket craze. In vogue. The tobacco industry went from insanity to another brand of insanity, like killing yourself trying to be as cool as the smokers. Like Mad Men days decades later. Cigarette in one hand and drink in the other, fedora-sporting suited dudes were the cool in the room with their Marlboros. And, yeah, there was that Marlboro man in the ads.

Then the badness of it all came back into not only fashion but reality. This time it wasn’t insanity that naysayers were claiming smoking tobacco caused. It was lung disease. Cancer. OK.

In 1979, there was a huge story in the Register about students at RFH and a proposed smoking ban. Yes, they were smoking in the boys’ room, girls’ room … and the Campus Luncheonette and just about everywhere then. It was the groovy thing to do for those who were cool? Ahem. Hey, the big deal of the story was whether or not to designate a smoking area for students. Yes. You read that right. Relax. It was 45 years ago. Non-smoking is on trend now. Phew. We can all breathe a bit easier and smell the legal pot smoke.

But smoking was in and accepted as status quo in 1979. Remember? For those of you who don’t or weren’t alive then (ahem), this quote from then RFH Principal Donald Trotter in the Sept. 12, 1979 Register really sums it up …

“It is impossible for any school to police smoking. The suspension list would be a mile long. We need to educate students to get them away from smoking.”

In Fair Haven, too, not too long ago, in more recent years, a smoking ban in public places was instituted — not without some objection, as some saw the restriction of a legal activity a slippery slope.

So, think about it — how the past and the present travel a trendy, uphill-downhill road and usually collide at some point. Heat combustion? Smoky explosion of insanity? Sometimes. Chill. We still have water, air conditioning and smoking is legal with a warning. So is marijuana now. Some things always change. Sort of. The heat is on as usual in summer. Smoking is back to being for crazy people, as the trend dictates, without a looney bin in which to lock up the nutty puffers. And school’s out!

Maybe the hot nuts are smoking in the empty boys’ room at RFH? Hose them all down, but don’t lose your hairdo in the heat, of all things!

Hey, drips! Dry up! This was some 1969 wigging out … I feel faint. Take me to the “hospital for the insane” … puff, puff … Keep that under your wig, hotties!

Enjoy your smokin’ cool weekend in the heatwave. Fear not! There’s still plenty of insanity to go around and no room at the asylum!