Razors Edge ★ Posted February 11, 2019 Share #1 Posted February 11, 2019 Luckily, my mom smoked, so I grew up with a dislike of it. She eventually quit, so that's good, and additionally, her smoking in the home gave me a tolerance to other folks smoking (like in bars or casinos or wherever). Anyone here still stuck addicted to those things? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maddmaxx ★ Posted February 11, 2019 Share #2 Posted February 11, 2019 Quit in 92 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bikeman564™ Posted February 11, 2019 Share #3 Posted February 11, 2019 I've never smoked a cigarette 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Green Grass Posted February 11, 2019 Share #4 Posted February 11, 2019 Smoked part of one cigarette on a...Sunday evening...in 8th grade. Have never understood how people took a second cigarette. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
groupw Posted February 11, 2019 Share #5 Posted February 11, 2019 My dad smoked. I never had the desire. I took 1 puff off a cigarette handed to me by Linda Skinner (she was a hot bad girl) when I was in 5th grade. Didn't get the appeal and never did again. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisL Posted February 11, 2019 Share #6 Posted February 11, 2019 I never did. WOChrisL’s parents both smoked so didn’t seem to care when she started smoking really young. When we started dating she didn’t smoke around me and when we started living together she rarely smoked but always had a pack if cigs in her purse. When she became pregnant she quit for good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parr8hed Posted February 11, 2019 Share #7 Posted February 11, 2019 Tried one in a bar in Okinawa called Fujiyama (sp?) Didn't take. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rattlecan ★ Posted February 11, 2019 Share #8 Posted February 11, 2019 Coming up on 42 years smoke free 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
donkpow Posted February 11, 2019 Share #9 Posted February 11, 2019 I smoked most of my life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parsnip Totin Jack ★ Posted February 11, 2019 Share #10 Posted February 11, 2019 I started when I was 14. Quit in 1988. Took up cycling as an alternative. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kzoo Posted February 11, 2019 Share #11 Posted February 11, 2019 I started when I was 18. I have no idea why now. I smoked off and on until I was 26. Off mostly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MickinMD ★ Posted February 11, 2019 Share #12 Posted February 11, 2019 Mark Twain said, "Quitting smoking is the easiest thing to do. I've done it a thousand times." I've been there and, knowing how hard it was for me and friends to finally quit smoking, it would interesting to hear HOW people here quit. I used to rationalize that I lived a relatively healthy life, medical capabilities were progressing, and my smoking wasn't a big health deal. By the mid-1900's, with two parents who were the youngest of large families whose siblings were getting old, I noticed that my smoking aunts and uncles died in their 60's and 70's and the older non-smokers had reached their '80's and were all still alive. Those were people closest to my body's genetics. I knew then I had to quit. I finally quit on Aug. 10, 1995, a couple months before my 45th birthday, after promising one friend I'd quit by the age of 30 and trying off-and-on for years. The biggest problem was I was always around family and friends who smoked. In Aug. 1995, a cousin and her husband living out in semi-rural country west of Morristown, NJ, had quit smoking a couple years earlier and needed help setting up six 2-foot diameter vertical cardboard tubes which needed to be level with each other at the top and equally spaced around something like a 15 foot diameter circle, into which concrete would be poured then, later, a gazebo trucked-in, mostly pre-assembled, and placed on top. They didn't know how to engineer it and asked for my help while I was on summer vacation from teaching. I recognized the week it would take as a perfect opportunity to quit smoking without constant temptation surrounding me. On top of that, they bought red wine - which I prefer - by the case, drank it frequently, and there would be plenty on hand to help me through the ordeal of quitting. So I went up for a week with some tools, string, line-levels, etc. to show them how to do the project and help dig the holes, etc. At 11:45 pm on Aug. 9, I walked out on to their outside deck (no smoking in house allowed) and announced, "This is my last ever cigarette!" I kept the last two packs of cigarettes from a carton in my glove compartment because I knew there's a big difference between quitting smoking because no cigarettes are available and quitting because you want to do so. I was cranky most of the week, but they were understanding - having quit themselves. But I made it. A couple weeks more and I knew I had beat it. A year later, I threw away those two packs of cigarettes in the glove compartment. My mother, sister and husband, brother and wife all quit for good within the next 8 months. My mother, unfortunately, developed a cough 6 years later that wouldn't go away and it was eventually diagnosed as stage-III lung cancer and she died in 2002. Because of that, a lifetime as a chemist in contact with lots of chemicals, and since my insurance requires no copays for tests, I get every applicable test I qualify for, including asking for chest X-rays every time I have a long-duration chest cold. I'll probably die of radiation! It's said that if you go 15 years without smoking, you have only 1/8 the chance of getting lung cancer as smokers do, but you'll always be twice as likely as those who never smoked. Those odds still are fantastic compared to smokers. If you still smoke, quit. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wilbur ★ Posted February 11, 2019 Share #13 Posted February 11, 2019 4 hours ago, bikeman564™ said: I've never smoked a cigarette Me neither.. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parsnip Totin Jack ★ Posted February 11, 2019 Share #14 Posted February 11, 2019 In response to @MickinMD request, on my 28th birthday I realized that, going forward, I would have more smoking days than non-smoking days in my life. Recognizing that this was not a good thing I resolved to quit. Family history played a part as well. Both of my grandfathers died in their 40's, stroke and heart attack, respectively. The woman I was dating didn't smoke and I never smoked around her. I could go a weekend without smoking, I just needed to keep going. In December 1988, I went to Ohio and met her family. I quit that week. It was stressful but I used the nicotine gum for about five days and then dropped those too. The hardest part was over but the first year was hard. After that, I don't miss them anymore. It's been 30 years. May 19 will be our 29th anniversary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randomguy Posted February 11, 2019 Share #15 Posted February 11, 2019 I am smoking two full packs as I type this. I am more macho this way. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dottleshead ★ Posted February 11, 2019 Share #16 Posted February 11, 2019 I'm almost 2 years now. Smoke 4 years, quit 4 years, smoke 4 years, quit 4 years, smoke 2 years, quit almost 2 years. Let's see if I can't break the pattern once and for all. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Razors Edge ★ Posted February 11, 2019 Author Share #17 Posted February 11, 2019 48 minutes ago, Randomguy said: I am smoking two full packs as I type this. I am more macho this way. That's what, $500 up in NYC these days? A regular Rockefeller! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randomguy Posted February 11, 2019 Share #18 Posted February 11, 2019 22 minutes ago, Razors Edge said: That's what, $500 up in NYC these days? A regular Rockefeller! Thereabouts. I figure that is worth to maintain the illusion of grandeur and manliness. I am smoking another two fresh packs now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Razors Edge ★ Posted February 11, 2019 Author Share #19 Posted February 11, 2019 1 minute ago, Randomguy said: Thereabouts. I figure that is worth to maintain the illusion of grandeur and manliness. I am smoking another two fresh packs now. Do you light each pack with a $100 bill? That says a lot, too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randomguy Posted February 11, 2019 Share #20 Posted February 11, 2019 2 minutes ago, Razors Edge said: Do you light each pack with a $100 bill? That says a lot, too! I also wear a monocle on one eye and a pirate eye patch on the other, just so people will know how rich and dangerous I am. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuzieQ Posted February 11, 2019 Share #21 Posted February 11, 2019 I went to Morocco and Spain this summer - as soon as you get out of the airport in Madrid you are hit by cigarette smoke. I love Spain, but hated all the smoking everywhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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