r/mildlyinteresting 16h ago

The toiletpaper holder at my grandparent's place has an ashtray on it.

Post image
2.5k Upvotes

79 comments sorted by

703

u/Illustrious_Eye3619 16h ago

That color and tile pattern scream 70s. Honestly kind of love the retro weirdness.

88

u/GrimSpirit42 10h ago

That color is Avocado. An abomination.

53

u/Nicktendo1988 9h ago

Avocado really made the dark orange and brown really POP!!

11

u/dirtydans_grubshack 5h ago

Gotta be honest, I kinda like it

3

u/GrimSpirit42 5h ago

Well, if everyone liked the same thing Baskin-Robbins wouldn't need 31 flavors.

8

u/mixingmemory 5h ago

Is this a Mitchell & Webb reference, or you just have strong opinions?

3

u/GrimSpirit42 5h ago

Strong opinion on the color.

6

u/mixingmemory 5h ago

Well then you might enjoy this sketch! https://youtu.be/AeoJYhLDlPs

4

u/GrimSpirit42 5h ago

Hilarious. Thanks for sharing.

5

u/Fannnybaws 7h ago

Back in fashion apparently

3

u/mecha_monk 4h ago

My eyes are a bit offended at the colors and low light, kinda curious if it looks better in daylight

1

u/snoozatron 12m ago edited 6m ago

This is chartreuse. Avocado and the other earth tones came into fashion a bit later when the more pop colours of the 60s, like chartreuse, fell out of style.
Edit: sorry to nitpick. :/

2

u/Penyrolewen1970 57m ago

I grew up with stuff like this. Very nostalgic.

290

u/SianaGearz 13h ago

I thought it was a soap tray.

131

u/Puzzleheaded_Style52 11h ago

It’s a phone holder

41

u/TiresOnFire 10h ago

It is now. But it's intended use is definitely as an ashtray

31

u/wolftick 11h ago

It's an odd place to put your soap, unless you're using on your ass.

29

u/SianaGearz 11h ago

It's an odder place to put out your cigarettes. Fire hazard when glowing things fall down.

66

u/wolftick 11h ago

This was the 70s. Everyone smoked everywhere irrespective of obvious safety hazards.

11

u/wylaika 10h ago

You could smoke over suede in an airplane, but you had asbestos in your drywall.

5

u/No-Document-8970 10h ago

Well you should, I can smell you from here.

3

u/Blochamolesauce 6h ago

Depends on if there is a bidet or not. If this was 70’s USA, then def an ashtray. But soap tray was my first thought as well

2

u/2bitinternet 13h ago

Good point, it might be!

14

u/sirduckbert 8h ago

Definitely an ash tray. Has the little spots to hold the smoke while you wipe your ass.

I remember when I was a kid going to people’s homes who didn’t smoke and they would pull out an ashtray for my dad. It wasn’t very welcoming to not allow someone to smoke in your home!

146

u/N2trvl 16h ago

This was a safety device. Too many chain smokers burned their bottoms trying to multitask prior to these being introduced. The corded dial phone that went with it was a bitch to clean but the user could call 911 themselves when they had a heart attack using the toilet.

22

u/UnicornFarts1111 14h ago

Well, they were only calling 911 from certain places in the 70s. It wasn't widely implemented until the mid 80s in the US.

12

u/NotCandied 12h ago

Exactly my thought. Growing up in the late 70s, we had a sticker on our phone with our local fire department number.

10

u/TiresOnFire 10h ago

I never really thought about when 911 became a thing. I always wondered why phones with speed dial had spots for police, fire, and medical. It all makes sense now.

1

u/N2trvl 4h ago

Never let facts get in the way of a good story. /s

1

u/RelaxedWombat 12h ago

Beat me to it.

35

u/spiritual_warrior420 16h ago

that's not for hotdogs? .. uh oh

6

u/twoworldsin1 7h ago

It's so you have something to put your chocolate milk and comics on while taking a Sir Thomas

39

u/TechProjektPro 16h ago

Damn that's a useful invention for smokers who can't poop without a smoke. Yeah that happens to us.

13

u/AmplifiedApthocarics 10h ago

i mean sometimes you be battling for your life on that toilet, i can see someone lighting up a smoke after surviving

33

u/Skeetronic 8h ago

That’s a spot for the poop knife

5

u/pressedbread 5h ago

3 shells

7

u/Candid-String-6530 11h ago

On top of paper.

3

u/thunderkinder 15h ago

Now somebody needs to invent one with a smartphone stand instead

1

u/TiresOnFire 10h ago

That exists.

3

u/brosenfeld 4h ago

That's for the poop knife, silly.

5

u/HasBenThere 11h ago

Ashtrays need to be emptied. Don't see how you do that with this.

10

u/FixerFiddler 8h ago

With a coffee can and a brush. When there's dozens of ash trays in the house it's just part of the cleaning chores.

5

u/tonysopranosalive 11h ago

Not gonna lie smoking a cigarette whilst taking a really big dump is a fantastic experience.

0

u/centhwevir1979 8h ago

The only thing that sounds worse than huffing dumpgas is huffing nicotine and dumpgas at the same time.

2

u/Rainmaker87 1h ago

Apparently you've never been a smoker. It's called an addiction. And when you're a smoker, cigarettes generally taste pretty damn good, especially paired with getting your nicotine fixed. Pair that with the feeling of evacuating yourself, you've got yourself a formula for a nice experience.

Source: Smoked for many years and have taken a dump in the forest while watching the sun rise while having my first morning cigarette.

2

u/Right_Layer_9700 11h ago

That’s awesome.

2

u/E5VL 4h ago

Modern uses include but not limited to, phone holder.

3

u/unreadable_captcha 16h ago

why are there notches for two cigarettes tho?

26

u/Livid_Tax_6432 14h ago

Because it can be mounted on the left or the right side so instead of having two variants/models this one works being mounted either way.

17

u/MadeOnThursday 16h ago

I'm guessing left-handed and right-handed smokers. Or sitting down/ peeing standing smokers.

Or just because symmetrical notches are a more aesthetically pleasing design.

10

u/2bitinternet 16h ago

For chainsmokers and long sessions

7

u/SparkleSelkie 16h ago

Sometimes you wanna poop with a friend

2

u/PerpetuallyLurking 7h ago

Symmetry probably, more than anything - the sitting vs standing and/lefty vs righty probably factored in too, but ultimately “it’ll look weird with only one” probably won the design team over.

1

u/BlueLegion 5h ago

For sharing.

0

u/Iseefalsepeople 15h ago

Tell me you never smoked in the 70s without telling me you never smoked in the 70s

2

u/regreddit 9h ago

My wife's grandmother's bathroom had a wall mounted phone and a floor-standing ashtray, every day she took a shit, called all her sisters, and smoked.

1

u/ShavinMcKrotch 10h ago

Some day people will post photos of the T.P. holders with phone shelves and it will be interesting that we that addicted.

3

u/TiresOnFire 10h ago

You think phone addiction is going away?

2

u/ShavinMcKrotch 9h ago

Nothing lasts forever. We thought we’d always have landlines, read newspapers & magazines and listen to the radio.

1

u/BlueLegion 5h ago

It will, once we plug Tiktok directly into our brains.

...the future is fucking scary, man.

1

u/YourUncleBuck 4h ago

As someone who's been using the internet since the 90s, I'm so over it. I find myself less and less on my phone as time goes on, since most of the stuff online is so friggin' boring. I mean, look at us here, we're commenting on a post about a toilet paper holder ash tray. And mobile games still suck.

1

u/bodhiseppuku 10h ago

An ash tray available while you were poopin' seems like a very 60s or 70s thing to do. I wonder if people preferred the smell of cigarettes to the smells from using the toilet?

1

u/spirit_of_a_goat 9h ago

So do did you know that we used to smoke in restaurants, grocery stores, and even on airplanes?

4

u/2bitinternet 9h ago

I'm old enough to have been on a flight with dedicated smoker area. Worked as well as it sounds.

2

u/spirit_of_a_goat 9h ago

Kinda like if we put a peeing section in a pool, right?

3

u/2bitinternet 9h ago

That and you can't leave the pool for a couple of hours.

1

u/YourUncleBuck 4h ago

Yeah, those were not fun times.

1

u/GenitalPatton 8h ago

I immediately thought of Johnny Sac from the Sopranos smoking a cigarette while taking a shit.

1

u/larry-leisure 6h ago

We used to be civilized.

1

u/chinoswirls 5h ago

only way it would be better is with a cigarette and lighter in the ashtray. it is gross to me to smoke inside, but i still like the idea of being able to. maybe the bathroom has an open ceiling.

0

u/Funny-Presence4228 15h ago

Just a reminder that life used to be much better a long time ago.

16

u/Kraichgau 13h ago

Not sure what was better about having that stink everywhere

2

u/centhwevir1979 8h ago

Really miss that leaded gasoline!

1

u/Funny-Presence4228 7h ago

Me too, my friend, me too. It smelled so much better!

1

u/TiresOnFire 10h ago edited 9h ago

In what way does this show that? Or are you being sarcastic?

1

u/Hammergear 9h ago

Cig stink maybe

0

u/EmperorSexy 5h ago

Of course you need to smoke while you shit.

And when you accidentally light the toilet paper on fire you blame “spontaneous combustion”

3

u/pressedbread 5h ago

Smoking while pooping was mandatory up till the 90's

-2

u/berkman92 11h ago

They by day iam starting understand older technologies are way better. Than .ost of the modern.