Smokin' My Way Through the USA

I'm sorry to say I truly don't remember the first state-shaped ashtray that started my collection — what it was, where it came from, how much I paid for it. I only know that I was living in my studio apartment in Manhattan and had the idea that if I found all fifty states I could attach them to the wall like a huge sculptural map of the United States and wouldn't that look great?

Growing up, smoking was all around me, chain smokers were everywhere amongst the men and the women.  Hand-rolled cigarettes for my grandfather, cigars for his son and my cousin Bobby (even a pipe at times), Marlboros, Camels, Phillip Morris for my dad and Uncle John.  My mother didn't smoke but many of my aunts and certainly her women friends did with their dark sunglasses and that cigarette perched in their hands, in their mouths — they looked so cool, so sophisticato.

All those people with their cigarettes and all those souvenir ashtrays to buy and save while you were smoking your way through the USA. So many of those painted metal state-shaped ashtrays that everyone had — the older ones with the filigreed edges, the newer ones just stamped out and mass-produced.

Vermont dwarfing Alaska

My neighbor, once gave me a well-intentioned but surprising gift, a one-year subscription to The Ashtray  Journal - A Newsletter for Ashtray Collectors.  Filled with more types of collections than even I imagined — gasoline-related, casinos and gambling, and of course cigarette-themed ashtrays.  The state-shaped folks were on the pages but fewer and far between.

The idea of the map made of ashtrays quickly faded when my Vermont (sixth smallest state in area) dwarfed my other ashtrays in size.

Clearly there are series of these ashtrays..those touristy metal ones you've all seen (not very geographically accurate), and a ceramic series by "Annie Laurie."  Was this one person making them state-by-state and I just happened to find her Alaska and Maryland? Or were the Annie Lauries manufactured and sold in stores? And then there are the  ones that are unique to the state: Maine (The Lions Club), Ohio (radio station) and Arkansas (the Razorbacks are the football team for those like me who don't have a clue). 

Horizontal & vertical versions of Georgia

It's harder to find these ashtrays now.  You'd think that all these years later, decades in fact, that I'd have this collection complete, but I don't. In fact I have fewer than half!  This may be testament to the enormous shift in our culture away from tobacco and that is not a bad thing. [The Millennials are changing hearts and minds via the web: forgettobacco.com] Still I scour thrift stores, flea markets, antique shops, sometimes friends send them to me.  This can result in doubles (multiples of Florida, Nebraska, California) and in well-meaning state-shaped baskets (Louisiana anyone?), state-related items (a metal tray shared by New Hampshire and Vermont), and even cities and countries (Buffalo, Puerto Rico and CANADA?).

I'm sad to say I don't have my home state of New Jersey so com'on all you readers out there — be on the hunt!

State-Shaped Ashtrays I NEED [Update: I have crossed out those I have received since this post...thanks to the generosity of Stephanie and Julie!! Thanks you two! And thanks Liz! And also Nancy! And Jason!] 

ALABAMA * COLORADO * CONNECTICUT * DELAWARE * HAWAII * IDAHO * INDIANA * IOWA * KANSAS * LOUISIANA * MICHIGAN * MINNESOTA * MISSISSIPPI * NEVADA * NEW JERSEY * NEW MEXICO * NORTH DAKOTA * OREGON * PENNSYLVANIA * RHODE ISLAND * SOUTH DAKOTA * TENNESSEE * UTAH * WASHINGTON * WEST VIRGINIA * WISCONSIN * WYOMING

PS Though I loved this title, truly I smoked for less than five years total.