St. Barth's Time Machine

Okay- everyone who's in their 40s (or older); I want you to think back to your 20s......remember Friday night ?.......around 7:30 - 8:00 PM ? Remember asking yourself "Should I go out ?" What did you weigh in the decision ? On the positive side, fun with friends......cocktails.......jokes/funny stories........meeting new people. What was the negative side of the equation ? Potential headache.......OK that's controllable; just don't drink too much. But the other negative was often the one that kept me at home. The smell. Remember  the 80s and 90s ? Besides Members Only clothes, girls with big hair and all that........there was the smoking thing. Anywhere you went out, smoking was allowed and your clothes and hair would smell like cigarettes the morning after.

Well fast forward to 2012 and St. Barths..........same thing, except no Members Only jackets with zippers. Everyone smokes everywhere. It's really weird, because these kids/adults are for the most part middle and upper middle class kids. Big difference between American kids this age and their French counterparts. I'm not sure my 23 year old son knows 3 people who smoke.

If that wasn't enough, there's the Long Island element who smoke cigars on the beach. You can usually see a weak smile on his wife sitting next to him.........a pasty fat behemoth smoking a cigar...........she did 6 months of yoga to look as good as possible on the beach in St. Barths and he makes her inhale his nasty cigar smoke. That must be some hedge fund you've got there, fella.

Anyway, that's the one and only thing I'd change about St. Barths. I know a lot of these people will be very sorry some day connected French oxygen cannisters (hmm, maybe an investment idea, along with tattoo removal technology).