Wow. I wish I could write. Thank you. I stopped smoking 27 years ago. I remember the sweating eyeballs. Life's better without cigarettes. For everyone.
8
When I was a kid, an uncle of mine did me a great service: he stuck a cigarette in my mouth!
I guess he expected me to inhale and cough violently but I didn't do either and could never understand the supposed lure of smoking after that.
I still get pretty irate after doing a healthy workout at the YMCA, leaving, immediately smelling those telltale fumes in front of the building despite stringent rules against it.
Or walking to my bus stop only to find someone in the shelter smoking away happily.
My father never smoked as far as I know and my mother was able to cold turkey, except on Xmas Day and then, after awhile, she even gave that up.
I guess he expected me to inhale and cough violently but I didn't do either and could never understand the supposed lure of smoking after that.
I still get pretty irate after doing a healthy workout at the YMCA, leaving, immediately smelling those telltale fumes in front of the building despite stringent rules against it.
Or walking to my bus stop only to find someone in the shelter smoking away happily.
My father never smoked as far as I know and my mother was able to cold turkey, except on Xmas Day and then, after awhile, she even gave that up.
4
When I was first smokimg you got free cigs on an airplane, you could smoke them anywhere on that plane you wanted, there were free cigs in my c-rats boot camp gave you an actual rest break several times a day as a smokimg break, and a pack of cigs cost pennies.
When I started to work in the smoking field 50 percent of the adults in the US were addicted to tobacco.
Today less than 18 percent of the adults still smoke.
A remarkable public health achievement.
And there are days decades after I quit where I still miss them. I loved smoking. If only it was not such a major killer.
Nice article
When I started to work in the smoking field 50 percent of the adults in the US were addicted to tobacco.
Today less than 18 percent of the adults still smoke.
A remarkable public health achievement.
And there are days decades after I quit where I still miss them. I loved smoking. If only it was not such a major killer.
Nice article
27
Sorry but this glorifies a filthy suicidal addiction. Smokers inevitably poison people around them and don't care. I doubt if the people she? exposed to smoke share her fond recollections. She implies smoking was destructive, but then in equal measure makes it sound working class hero vs the yuppies. No, there is nothing good to say about that rotten poison. I quit this author, really, no ambiguity, smoking is a horrible disease, period, not fun, not cool, not fond recollections of youth, just a drug habit that turns people into addicts.
18
When I was in early grade school my older brother created a parlor trick by teaching me how to roll a cigarette. I didn't become a real smoker, though, until age 15 or so. Not clear where I became a two- or three-pack smoker, a usage level that lasted for decades. It is embarrassing to concede a fact I now comprehend only after much reflection -- that I would never have quit if so many others had not. Always had thought I was a maverick, just like the Marlboro Man.
5
I was smoking 4 packs a day in Vietnam. After my second round of bronchitis in less than a month, one of the doctors in the medical company I was assigned to said, "Glen, you can smoke 4 packs a day for the rest of your life, and the odds are you won't get lung cancer. But I guarantee you, you will develop COPD. And you will wish every day that you live that you had lung cancer instead." I quit on the spot, using the 3M crutch: the Marijuana Maintenance Method.
Cost-wise, pot was cheaper, too. Cigarettes were 17 cents (that's not a typo) a pack; Nam quality pot (good stuff) was $2 an ounce, and that lasted a week or more. 3 or 4 joints a day vs. 80 Marlboros; my lungs never felt better.
Back home, pot got more expensive and harder to come by; cigarets were still cheap. I settled into a cycle of a pack a day, sometimes 1 1/2 packs for 2-3 years, followed by a period of abstinence lasting 6-12 months before almost magically a pack of Marlboros would fill my shirt pocket.
When I quit for good in 1983 at the age of 36, cigarets sold for 75 cents (still not a typo) per pack. Knowing my history of smoking/not smoking, a lifestyle change was a necessity. Every time I wanted a cigaret, I peeled and ate an orange. I started to run, every day, no matter the weather. Within 6 weeks the "need" for a smoke was gone. I couldn't stand the smell. Within 2 years I ran a 10K in under 39 minutes. Before my knees said "No More," I ran 20 marathons.
It gets easier. Good Luck!
Cost-wise, pot was cheaper, too. Cigarettes were 17 cents (that's not a typo) a pack; Nam quality pot (good stuff) was $2 an ounce, and that lasted a week or more. 3 or 4 joints a day vs. 80 Marlboros; my lungs never felt better.
Back home, pot got more expensive and harder to come by; cigarets were still cheap. I settled into a cycle of a pack a day, sometimes 1 1/2 packs for 2-3 years, followed by a period of abstinence lasting 6-12 months before almost magically a pack of Marlboros would fill my shirt pocket.
When I quit for good in 1983 at the age of 36, cigarets sold for 75 cents (still not a typo) per pack. Knowing my history of smoking/not smoking, a lifestyle change was a necessity. Every time I wanted a cigaret, I peeled and ate an orange. I started to run, every day, no matter the weather. Within 6 weeks the "need" for a smoke was gone. I couldn't stand the smell. Within 2 years I ran a 10K in under 39 minutes. Before my knees said "No More," I ran 20 marathons.
It gets easier. Good Luck!
22
Started the weed @ 16 as senior in high school because it was so cool at the time. Continued the habit joyfully for the next 46 or so years (Especially in the Navy: 1 buck a a carton once my ship was beyond the three-mile limit).
In civilian life, later when family income was high, so great at cocktail time: A bourbon and and soda and a ciggie, usually a filtered Winston. My bride my faithful smoking partner.
In 1991, I was told to cool it by my doctor who said I had an excellent chance of both cancer and emphysema. Cut back, but still puffed. Three years later I figured maybe I should get serious, so I got a prescription for the gum in September 1992; 19th July 1993 I smoked my last Winston.
But my how I missed my old friend, constant companion, easier of my occasional anxieties.
1999 saw me diagnosed with COPD, but my xrays were still looking good with respect to any lung cancer. That was until 2012. Gotchya!
So, I've gone through the chemo and the cyberknife treatments and the other radiations. Worked for a year, but that was it. Cancer still alive and well in both lungs. Mild enough to be maintained with the very expensive Tarceva medication. PET scans every two months to see if it still works, so truly, at 85, on borrowed time.
There's more, but the story is long enough. Bottom Line: I quit smoking. Forty-six years too late.
Naf
In civilian life, later when family income was high, so great at cocktail time: A bourbon and and soda and a ciggie, usually a filtered Winston. My bride my faithful smoking partner.
In 1991, I was told to cool it by my doctor who said I had an excellent chance of both cancer and emphysema. Cut back, but still puffed. Three years later I figured maybe I should get serious, so I got a prescription for the gum in September 1992; 19th July 1993 I smoked my last Winston.
But my how I missed my old friend, constant companion, easier of my occasional anxieties.
1999 saw me diagnosed with COPD, but my xrays were still looking good with respect to any lung cancer. That was until 2012. Gotchya!
So, I've gone through the chemo and the cyberknife treatments and the other radiations. Worked for a year, but that was it. Cancer still alive and well in both lungs. Mild enough to be maintained with the very expensive Tarceva medication. PET scans every two months to see if it still works, so truly, at 85, on borrowed time.
There's more, but the story is long enough. Bottom Line: I quit smoking. Forty-six years too late.
Naf
34
Was it Mark Twain who said: "I can quit smoking anytime I want - I've done it hundreds of times."
I quit smoking cold turkey (2-1/2 packs/day) many years ago, after a few things happened that convinced me that I was mortal and that smoking was already damaging my body. One thought I learned from another person that helps me lead more of a healthy life is: My body is my friend doing the best job it can.
So do we want to help this friend or hurt it and hurt our selves?.
I quit smoking cold turkey (2-1/2 packs/day) many years ago, after a few things happened that convinced me that I was mortal and that smoking was already damaging my body. One thought I learned from another person that helps me lead more of a healthy life is: My body is my friend doing the best job it can.
So do we want to help this friend or hurt it and hurt our selves?.
4
I started grew up in Rye, NY and started smoking at the brook down the street from the train station where we could buy Marlboro's straight out of the vending machine for less than 2 bucks. I was 13, circa 1986. No plans to be an adult smoker but that's just what happened although I did quit for five years after I graduated from college. During that time I missed it every time something stressful happened, every time I had a drink, every time something nice happened. Last year at 40 years old I got bronchitis and couldn't breathe from coughing so hard. It felt like a glimpse of what it could be like to have something more serious and I got scared into quitting. For whatever reason I was able to quit cold turkey and not look back. It's been almost a year and I do not ever think of cigarettes or miss them. I am at a point that i never thought possible so for anyone thinking of quitting, try it and you might be surprised that after a few weeks, it's easier than you think.
5
Yes smoking has its benefits and it was good to read an article that gave a more realistic assessment of cigarettes. But, the article didn't discuss vaping. Why not? Simple not complete without the discussion of vaping.
3
I went from being a vehement anti-smoker to someone who smoked for 15 years. I don't know how many times I tried to quit. I have painful memories of flushing my cigarettes and matches in the toilet, vowing never to smoke again, only to drive to the store several hours later to buy cigarettes. I finally managed to quit by not quitting. I just told myself I'm not going to smoke today, so I didn't. I repeated it the next day. And so on. I always gave myself the option of smoking and not hating myself if I chose to do so. Thankfully, I never did. I forgot exactly how long it took, but it was at least a year, any cravings I had for a smoke completely left me.
Another trick is every time you breath in smoke, tell yourself you're leaving a residue of tar in your lungs. That definitely makes the experience unpleasant.
Another trick is every time you breath in smoke, tell yourself you're leaving a residue of tar in your lungs. That definitely makes the experience unpleasant.
13
As a 28 years old journalist I can't not relying on cigarettes and black coffee to kick start writing in daily basis. Nothing can do it other than my clove slim cigarettes BUT after reading this piece I feel like I can quit cold turkey right this second. my breathing is getting heavier. I'm scared. I'm surrounded by fellow millenials who smoke heavily in parties, concerts, social gatherings. Which makes it hard to quit. Sooo hard. I should quit, I know.
6
I'm 67 and finally quit eleven months ago. I really was the last smoker. I had been through numerous rounds of acupuncture, hypnosis, therapy, cold turkey, but I was an addict. Spent my life hiding my habit, smoking Luckies for most of those years because the butts were biodegradable--I'm an environmentalist, by inclination and professionally! Seriously kept it hidden from coworkers and colleagues, because I was seriously embarrassed. Nicotine is an incredibly addictive drug. Still I am grateful to existence for allowing me to retain enough lung capacity to ski all day and to still be able to climb mountains now that I'm retired. I will never forgive the tobacco companies that knew that this terrible and destructive habit would kill us, but still made money off of our slow suicide.
15
I smoked about a pack a day for 10+ years, starting in college. I was firmly addicted...I tried quitting probably 7-8 times, and finally gave it up a few years ago. It was very difficult to quit, though each successive quit attempt got a little easier (which, I believe, is supported by research).
I am a little younger than the author, but I get what she means about the nostalgia. Like many other aspects of the 90s, smoking is a dying (lol) aspect of our culture. Because we had to go outside to designated areas to smoke, you struck up conversations you otherwise wouldn't have, and met people you may never have known. There was a common ground you instantly had with someone.
Having said that, it's only a good thing that it is retreating into the past. There's enough bad stuff in the world than having people losing loved ones to a pointless habit.
I am a little younger than the author, but I get what she means about the nostalgia. Like many other aspects of the 90s, smoking is a dying (lol) aspect of our culture. Because we had to go outside to designated areas to smoke, you struck up conversations you otherwise wouldn't have, and met people you may never have known. There was a common ground you instantly had with someone.
Having said that, it's only a good thing that it is retreating into the past. There's enough bad stuff in the world than having people losing loved ones to a pointless habit.
9
I am a light smoker, started when I was 30 living in San Francisco. Back then the coffee houses were crowded from morning to night with people lighting up inside. 20 years later I never stopped smoking but never a lot, maybe one or two packs a month. Drinking beer triggers the urge but I am not a drinker so don't smoke a lot as a result. I can say I enjoy a cigarette and a drink once in a while. I enjoy food too but don't over eat.
8
Nobody needs to smoke anymore because now after meals and making love they have their smartphones to play with. A smartphone is about the same size as a pack of cigarettes, too!)
32
A self-absorbed and well-crafted piece was this essay. Clearly, it was from the perspective of a middle-to-upper class white person who overlooks the dark underbelly of smoking and tobacco in America's past. The obsession to smoke is a lure that masks the involuntarily servitude that smoking really represents. This highly readable attempt to glamorize it, share it with others, and to associate it with pleasurable places, times and conversations glibly denies of smoking's toxin-riddled death-rattling potential. Perhaps I am jaded: the pretty young pastor's daughter who first introduced me to smoking in a neighbor's garage died of leukemia at 25. Another friend of my past smoker life died of esophageal cancer inher late 50's. I know my redeemer and the center and love of my life is not a cigarette. What a false sense of priority and misplaced striving for well-being. With the steady drop in smoking in the U.S., the only sensible position to take is to advocate against the enslavement by the tobacco companies of the smokers. An addiction such as smokinglacks a fully consensual element to rise to a choice. The liberation is in finally quitting. I thank God, though I miss my friends of a more innocent youth, that I quit.
24
I am old enough to remember those commercials on tv which featured the dancing cigarette. I was young, but I still remember my mother saying smokers will not be dancing in the hospital.
I cannot even be near someone smoking outside. I get really ill. When someone starts smoking at a bus stop (it's illegal, but they don't care), I really want to clobber them. It's a real selfish habit. I wish people would wise up. It doesn't just affect their health.
I cannot even be near someone smoking outside. I get really ill. When someone starts smoking at a bus stop (it's illegal, but they don't care), I really want to clobber them. It's a real selfish habit. I wish people would wise up. It doesn't just affect their health.
11
I'm an alcoholic and quit drinking 31 years ago. I quit smoking 2 years ago, and every alcoholic I know has agreed it's much harder than quitting drinking.
27
It is harder to quit because the consequences are not as immediate or severe as those from alcoholism. No one ever had one too many smokes and got pulled over and nailed with a DUI. No one gets smoke muscles and gets in a fight at a bar. My analogy is being drunk is like walking to the middle of FDR drive in rush hour. Bad idea. A smoke is like walking with one shoe lace untied. I might trip and hit my head but the odds... Until your 75 and can't breath anymore.
7
Ha. There's a reason why you never believe anything an alcoholic tells you. I chain-smoked for twenty years and quitting was one of the easiest things I've ever done. (Thinking about quitting ... now that's hard).
4
Any kind of of addiction is an attempt to avoid how you feel. Addiction ending leaves you raw and exposed. You either walk through it or go back to the addition.
9
Such a sweet pocket of romanticism about smoking coolness from all the smokers in the Comments section. Must be nice to ease back in the calming pillow of nicotine, with the inflated confidence it gives, of being able to tell those around you to take flying leap. Such a nice cocoon to be in while you hurt the people around you with that cool cool smoke. What incredible romanticized self absorbed arrogance. A well written self-absorbed piece.
20
I smoked for two years when I was in my early 20s and another two years when I was in my late 30s.
I love smoking, but the cost is too dear, not just in the high price of cigarettes, but the health risks, the smell, and the fact that I woke up tired every day.
Years after I quit, an acquaintance asked me if I smoked. When I said 'No', he looked at me closely and said 'You look like you do'.
If there were no health risks or smells, I would start smoking again, as I miss it still, but alas...
I love smoking, but the cost is too dear, not just in the high price of cigarettes, but the health risks, the smell, and the fact that I woke up tired every day.
Years after I quit, an acquaintance asked me if I smoked. When I said 'No', he looked at me closely and said 'You look like you do'.
If there were no health risks or smells, I would start smoking again, as I miss it still, but alas...
13
Belgrade IS amazing right now. And everyone is still chain smoking, spending their evenings in heated discussions of whatever, with a drink at hand, some good grilled meat and in a haze of smoke. And a pack costs a couple of dollars. Maybe you should reconsider your next amazing move...
6
You live in a country that never stops making war.
Whether or not you smoke amounts to the proverbial hill of beans. There are children all over the world lining up to do your coughing and dying for you. No prob! Stay funny!
Whether or not you smoke amounts to the proverbial hill of beans. There are children all over the world lining up to do your coughing and dying for you. No prob! Stay funny!
5
I just want you to know that we Americans (most of us) do know where you're coming from saying this. Please understand, we have let our government get out of control. But we are really trying to take it back. Blessings.
12
How narrow was the author's viewpoint that smoking could be "the worst thing on earth"? Hadn't he heard of wars and genocide?
If we think that the world has improved, consider that an article like this one is now possible.
If we think that the world has improved, consider that an article like this one is now possible.
6
This reminded me of my life, as well as this poem:
Elegy for Smoking by Patrick Phillips-
It’s not the drug I miss
but all those minutes
we used to steal
outside the library,
under restaurant awnings,
out on porches, by the quiet fields.
And how kind
it used to make us
when we’d laugh
and throw our heads back
and watch the dragon’s breath
float from our mouths,
all ravenous and doomed.
Which is why I quit, of course,
like almost everyone,
and stay inside these days
staring at my phone,
chewing toothpicks
and figuring the bill,
while out the window
the smokers gather
in their same old constellations,
like memories of ourselves.
Or like the remnants
of some decimated tribe,
come down out of the hills
to tell their stories
in the lightly falling rain —
to be, for a moment, simply there
and nowhere else,
faces glowing
each time they lift to their lips
the little flame.
Elegy for Smoking by Patrick Phillips-
It’s not the drug I miss
but all those minutes
we used to steal
outside the library,
under restaurant awnings,
out on porches, by the quiet fields.
And how kind
it used to make us
when we’d laugh
and throw our heads back
and watch the dragon’s breath
float from our mouths,
all ravenous and doomed.
Which is why I quit, of course,
like almost everyone,
and stay inside these days
staring at my phone,
chewing toothpicks
and figuring the bill,
while out the window
the smokers gather
in their same old constellations,
like memories of ourselves.
Or like the remnants
of some decimated tribe,
come down out of the hills
to tell their stories
in the lightly falling rain —
to be, for a moment, simply there
and nowhere else,
faces glowing
each time they lift to their lips
the little flame.
34
yeah my husband smoked until he was 42. He died at 57 from lung cancer,
17
My wife died at 52 from lung cancer. She quit smoking 2 years prior to the diagnosis. She started again and smoked until she died.
4
When I was 10yrs old, I would sit on my Dad's lap and share his cigarette or pipe. I exclaimed when I grow up I'm going to smoke and cough just like my Dad. Then he said it's time to quit. Nicotine is addictive and smoking is allureing
I smoked for 15 yrs,Ouit ,ran long distance,swim, ride my bycycle and brethe....
I smoked for 15 yrs,Ouit ,ran long distance,swim, ride my bycycle and brethe....
3
About a third of us will die of heart disease, another third of stroke, and a final third of cancer--and that's whether we smoked or not. Nobody gets out of here alive. Smoking may affect the details of when and how, but dying seems to be a reasonably unpleasant experience for smokers and non-smokers alike.
I smoked on and off for 25 years and the last quitting was about 17 years ago. I liked smoking. It fit me. Of course I knew it wasn't a good habit, but then lots of things are not exactly healthy that seem imminently worth doing.
Quit smoking because it will free up a substantial amount of money. Quit smoking because food will taste better. Quit smoking because you will look, taste, and smell better. Quit smoking so you can run faster and longer. Quit smoking to be healthier. Don't bother quitting to avoid dying -- it doesn't work.
I smoked on and off for 25 years and the last quitting was about 17 years ago. I liked smoking. It fit me. Of course I knew it wasn't a good habit, but then lots of things are not exactly healthy that seem imminently worth doing.
Quit smoking because it will free up a substantial amount of money. Quit smoking because food will taste better. Quit smoking because you will look, taste, and smell better. Quit smoking so you can run faster and longer. Quit smoking to be healthier. Don't bother quitting to avoid dying -- it doesn't work.
67
Choire,
I love you! Thank you for this. I lived in San Francisco at the same time, at the same age and with the same attitude. And later moved to NYC too. What fun to read your article. I still light up just one most Friday nights, after my 3 mile run.
I love you! Thank you for this. I lived in San Francisco at the same time, at the same age and with the same attitude. And later moved to NYC too. What fun to read your article. I still light up just one most Friday nights, after my 3 mile run.
7
The single largest disease claim against smoking is for heart disease, not lung cancer. And their heart disease claims are based on ignoring the role of cytomegalovirus. "[T]he most striking finding of Simanek et al.'s study is that the relatively modest OR of CVD associated with CMV infection translates into an estimate of the population attributable risk or attributable fraction of CVD of ∼ 40%... What is striking about this 40% attributable fraction estimate is the implication that eliminating CMV infection would prevent as many CVD cases as the complete removal of smoking and almost twice as many as the elimination of either hypercholesterolaemia or hypertension from the population." (Commentary: Understanding the pathophysiology of poverty. FJ Nieto. Int J Epidemiol 2009 Jun;38(3):787-790.)
http://ije.oxfordjournals.org/content/38/3/787.long
Persistent pathogens linking socioeconomic position and cardiovascular disease in the US. AM Simanek, JB Dowd, AE Aiello. Int J Epidemiol 2009 Jun;38(3):775-87.
http://ije.oxfordjournals.org/content/38/3/775.full
The vitally important thing this couldn't evaluate is the age at which people were infected. An earlier age at infection, for socioeconomic reasons, would account for an earlier onset of heart disease, such as the anti-smokers blame on smoking. And every Surgeon General report is fraudulent because it ignores the role of CMV.
http://www.smokershistory.com/SGHDlies.html
http://ije.oxfordjournals.org/content/38/3/787.long
Persistent pathogens linking socioeconomic position and cardiovascular disease in the US. AM Simanek, JB Dowd, AE Aiello. Int J Epidemiol 2009 Jun;38(3):775-87.
http://ije.oxfordjournals.org/content/38/3/775.full
The vitally important thing this couldn't evaluate is the age at which people were infected. An earlier age at infection, for socioeconomic reasons, would account for an earlier onset of heart disease, such as the anti-smokers blame on smoking. And every Surgeon General report is fraudulent because it ignores the role of CMV.
http://www.smokershistory.com/SGHDlies.html
4
interesting. I had never heard about this.
Love it!
Like you, Choire, I smoked for 30 years. I quit nine years ago, and feel a bit smug when I finish in the top-third of my age and gender bracket in a 5K race. And I pass a LOT of 20-somethings!
I used to agree with your sentiment that I'd start smoking again someday, but now that I'm in much better vascular and aerobic shape, I can't imagine ever succumbing to the cigarette's hateful siren song.
And leaving the house without a self-inflicted patdown to check my pockets for smokes, extra pack, lighter (and maybe extra lighter) is so liberating!
Keep up the yoga, too. Flexible is good.
Like you, Choire, I smoked for 30 years. I quit nine years ago, and feel a bit smug when I finish in the top-third of my age and gender bracket in a 5K race. And I pass a LOT of 20-somethings!
I used to agree with your sentiment that I'd start smoking again someday, but now that I'm in much better vascular and aerobic shape, I can't imagine ever succumbing to the cigarette's hateful siren song.
And leaving the house without a self-inflicted patdown to check my pockets for smokes, extra pack, lighter (and maybe extra lighter) is so liberating!
Keep up the yoga, too. Flexible is good.
13
I've smoked a total of about ten to fifteen cigarettes in my entire life, the last one about five years ago. And yet, I still think about smoking a cigarette on occasion -- especially on a gorgeous spring day, driving, with the car windows open, the urge comes to me.
I stay far, far away from those insidious little suckers.
I stay far, far away from those insidious little suckers.
10
Congrats on quitting but don’t let yourself off the hook so easily. Not "every other Gen Xer, I learned to smoke...” You started smoking because you wanted to or because you did’t NOT want to start enough.
6
I understand that one of the attractions of smoking was it reinforced Sicha's teenage rebellion. So it's clear cigarettes affected how other's viewed the author. Sicha liked the way the smoking habit augmented the persona.
What we don't hear is what nicotine did for Sucha's brain and how it affected Sicha's moods and phyiscal well being,.
This distancing, intended or not, keeps me from understanding what the tobacco habit is like.
What we don't hear is what nicotine did for Sucha's brain and how it affected Sicha's moods and phyiscal well being,.
This distancing, intended or not, keeps me from understanding what the tobacco habit is like.
2
No middle or high school kid picks up a first cigarette and intends to be smoking thirty or forty years later but that's what happens all too frequently. One third of high school smokers predict they'll quit within five years but only 13% actually do. Even among those who smoke less than one cigarette a day in high school, 85% say they'll stop within 5 years but only half quit and nearly 40% go on to be regular smokers. Two thirds of high school smokers say they wouldn't have begun if they knew in advance how hard it would be to stop. What this says is that "experimenting" with smoking is a really bad idea because addiction happens really easily--big tobacco companies intend this to happen but young people don't.
10
I'm a satisfied smoker too, and I know my quitting date is barrelling down on me. This article hammered down the feeling to a T. T for tobacco (if we're gonna be like dad's we might as well joke like them right?)
7
I didn't start smoking until I turned 21, newly divorced, I thought it made me look sexy!! Fast forward to 1992, now happily married and with a daughter who calls and announces we were going to be grandparents for the first time. We lived in Colorado, she and her husband in Florida. I could hardly wait to have them come visit after the baby was born. Then the words, "we can't stay with you when we visit because you smoke". I was crushed, beyond belief that I would not have 24 hour access to my first grandchild when they came to visit. I called my sister, she had quit smoking with the help of "the patch", I relayed my story and asked for the name of her doctor. Two days later, I was in his office, telling him I wanted to quit smoking after 27 years and asked for a prescription for the patch. I stopped at the pharmacy, got the patch and smoked my last cigarette that night, July 22, 1992. No regrets, no looking back, and all five of my grandchildren have graced me with their presence in my home.
47
The easiest way I quit was realizing that my habit supported some of the worst Corporations out there. Supporting huge, heartless Corporations that essentially profit on addiction and death is Never Cool.
31
This article is brilliant. I'm an ex smoker of 25 years, and you my friend have hit the mark right on the head. Wonderful x
9
Great piece of writing. Brought it all back for me, and I've been off the butts since 1995. Two family members quit wih me then. One died of pancreatic cancer last February, the other has fatal brain cancer. Maybe I'll light up again after all.
7
I didn't notice one commenter mention lung cancer - currently causing the most cancer deaths and strongly linked to smoking. I started smoking as a teen and smoked for 21 years before quitting cold turkey (very empowering!) thirty years ago when I started to have stirrings of desire to become a parent.
1/2015 I was diagnosed with stage 3B NSCLC Adenocarcinoma which has progressed to stage 4. I feel sad when I pass so many people smoking on NYC streets. The enormous loss of lives and health care dollars is tolerated. Corporate interests once again trump citizen's.
1/2015 I was diagnosed with stage 3B NSCLC Adenocarcinoma which has progressed to stage 4. I feel sad when I pass so many people smoking on NYC streets. The enormous loss of lives and health care dollars is tolerated. Corporate interests once again trump citizen's.
40
Smokers become addicted to nicotine.
Cigs are defined by Jeffrey Wigand as a "nicotine delivery system."
Cigs are defined by Jeffrey Wigand as a "nicotine delivery system."
3
"Smoking is one of the perfect solutions to being a teenager, right up there with Manic Panic hair dye and murder. Teachers and counselors must have felt like the Hubble telescope, peering across a vast gulf at a gaseous planet. My exterior was an opaque blue-gray swirl of carbon monoxide. No one could even glimpse the human trash can within."
Brilliant!
Brilliant!
16
Reading the article and the comments, I feel lucky to be one of those people who didn't get much pleasure from the random cigarettes I smoked when younger. The part I get is the cig as middle finger, but there are a lot of other ways of doing that. It seems that nobody really knows what they're getting into when they start.
The fact that something SO destructive (but slowly) and SO addictive (rapidly) remains legal is amazing. Now is that because of smokers' love for their cigs or because of the corporate profits involved?? I believe it's mostly the latter using the former as an excuse.
The fact that something SO destructive (but slowly) and SO addictive (rapidly) remains legal is amazing. Now is that because of smokers' love for their cigs or because of the corporate profits involved?? I believe it's mostly the latter using the former as an excuse.
17
Don't be so sure those lungs will recover. My older sister smoked for 30 years and hasn't for the last 25. Yet she sleeps with an oxygen mask and copes with recurring congestive heart failure at 72. She looks great, though.
19
Well, aren't you a little bit of sunshine?
3
"...my lungs may end up as conch-pink as theirs."
Nope. This is more informed, magic thinking of yours, much like that which you describe throughout the essay.
Good writing though. Thank you for the honesty and insight.
Nope. This is more informed, magic thinking of yours, much like that which you describe throughout the essay.
Good writing though. Thank you for the honesty and insight.
15
It'll show up later - your body is a living history book.
3
"Humor" is not spelled "informed, magic thinking."
1
This Saturday is my two year anniversary of quitting smoking.
I loved your piece. Smoking is such an intimate love affair. I miss sitting on a porch on a sweaty summer night smoking my Parliaments, watching the blue smoke encircle the air. I daydream about it. But our punishment for smoking is strong: there is nothing more disgusting to this non-smoker than the smell of smoke. I literally get ill; yet I somehow want just one more...
I loved your piece. Smoking is such an intimate love affair. I miss sitting on a porch on a sweaty summer night smoking my Parliaments, watching the blue smoke encircle the air. I daydream about it. But our punishment for smoking is strong: there is nothing more disgusting to this non-smoker than the smell of smoke. I literally get ill; yet I somehow want just one more...
71
It will pass. Give it time. I think I dreamt of smoking for at least five years after I quit.
Is there a way out of these dreams? Almost everything I plan for future, I say to myself, I will smoke after that....
4
it sounds like you quit at the same age as my mother, after smoking as many years. 40 years later, she has COPD, which is just nice initials for emphysema. she has trouble breathing, sleeping and has to go to pulmonary therapy 3x a week just to stay of oxygen. one of her very close friends died recently from lung cancer, 6 months after diagnosis.
i hope that you remain unscathed. but doctors who tell you that quitting before xx age and that in xx years your lungs will be fresh and clean are not really being accurate. they don't know. it's a very steep price to pay.
i hope that you remain unscathed. but doctors who tell you that quitting before xx age and that in xx years your lungs will be fresh and clean are not really being accurate. they don't know. it's a very steep price to pay.
27
Anti-smokers falsely blame smoking for COPD that's really caused by cytomegalovirus. Those CD4+CD28null T cells they try to blame on 'smoke antigens' happen to be absolutely specific for CMV. Nothing else causes them, they arise during primary CMV infection, and they're found only among people positive for CMV. Poorer people are more likely to be exposed to it, and smokers are more often less wealthy, so that's how their scam works.
http://www.smokershistory.com/COPD.html
http://www.smokershistory.com/COPD.html
Wonderful essay!
The always-present cigarette pack has been replaced by the iPhone.
The always-present cigarette pack has been replaced by the iPhone.
24
I started smoking at 14 because it was cool. I started smoking heavily in college--staying up late studying, drinking coffee, smoking cigarettes. However, I knew it was bad for my health, so after college when I began working, I tried to quit. I tried five times, but after quitting for various lengths of time, I always slid back to smoking, often when drinking alcohol. So, I gave up drinking; then I gave up smoking. The sixth time held. It has now been 33 years since I quit drinking and smoking. The last time I had a chest x-ray, the technician said, "You've never smoked, have you? Your lungs are as clean as a baby's." I corrected him, but I was proud to have quit. A high school buddy who never quit is in a wheel chair with catheter bags and oxygen bottles.
22
That's because the technician can't tell any such thing, and is a fraud if s/he pretends to.
Smoking damage isn't reversible...its just that we have spare lung capacity which smoking eats into
1
A beautifully written piece!
I have never seen anybody romance a cigarette like that!
AMAZING!
I have never seen anybody romance a cigarette like that!
AMAZING!
12
You never watched me tamp, slowly open, withdraw one, ignite with a great in-breath, and treasure about 20% or the cigarettes I smoked. So happy to use the past tense, but the withdrawal was intense for awhile. The process was every bit as important as the nicotine!
1
I love this! So totally get it, and we had the same high school experience. Good luck, hang in there. Boring is the new cool.
11
"Boring is the new cool" thank you!!!! No one gets it...
2
The very fact of smoking - something so wonderful which also kills you - has always made me put credence in the notion of a cruel and retributive deity.
30
What a fantastic article. So well written. Made my day - thanks!
8
"Cigarettes were just another middle finger." Yeah, that's me. When I lit my first Kent, at 16, smoking was generally considered a habit one could just stop, like nail biting. I took to that cigarette like a flea to a dog. To this day, I find the smell of cigarettes "homey," as I did when I was a child, because it meant my father was home. And the anxiety of living with a disturbed mother, well, would go up in smoke. My father, a chain-smoker, died at 46. This did not deter me. In fact, I convinced myself that cigarettes provided a protective coating for my lungs, and that if I quit, I would be susceptible to all sorts of horrible diseases. As Mr. Sicha notes, we often shrug at "terror looming." I am now 13 years older than my father ever was. I do think about quitting, especially with NYC's usurious taxes. I often imagine what I would do if cigarettes were simply banned (a secret wish). I like to think I would then quit, but there's always the chance I'd resort to hanging out at the seedy "smoke-easies" that would inevitably arise.
8
That smoking is so connected to your identity, emotional architecture--connections fused throughout your development--is very tough. Allan Carr's book helped me. You can stay connected without the cigarettes. You can quit without losing any more of your dad, you can remain loyal without killing yourself. You have options he didn't.
10
As one who came of age and went of to university in the '60s, at the age of 17, I had more than a few good chuckles reading this piece. Having finally, as a never-smoker, seen my own frequency of throat and bronchial infections finally approach a tolerable near-normal level only six years after my parents finally quit that wonderful habit (at some licensed quack's request; mine were always ignored), it was a bit disheartening to end up having to change dorms mid-freshman year for the social 'crime' of NOT joining my 'peers' in the world of lung-smoke. Fraternities and corporate jobs after graduation were basically off-limits as well in those days (Where were all those 'non-conforming' protesters when they were REALLY needed?), but that turned out to be quite the blessing. As in being saved from a (probably shortened) lifetime of boring, expensive groupthink. Unfortunately, I couldn't be saved from having to deal with the fun and games of chronic asthmatic bronchitis from growing up in a smokehouse, along with a few bad asthma attacks and some heart damage. At least the medications are helpful at controlling all that, along with the reassurance (?) that had I taken up smoking I probably wouldn't have got nearly this far (I'm 66). 'Farewell, My Lovely Cigarettes'? More like the way the plot of the classic movie with the same name (minus the cigs) evolved. As they say in Germany, 'Pfui!'
6
I've honestly never been able to understand smoking something that doesn't get you high. on the other hand, smoking meth isn't sexy (in the end, that is...), so I guess cigarettes aren't that bad. compared to meth.
2
My mom, a non-smoker, died of lung cancer. She was married 32 years to my father, a chain-smoker. He is racked with guilt that his second-hand smoke caused her death. She died two years ago. And he's still smoking.
12
For those of you trying to quit, spend some time on whyquit.com There is support, lots of information and no ulterior motives.
7
Nicely written piece. Reminds me in flashes of the pleasure and satisfaction derived from smoking a simple cigarette at various points in my life.
I was only briefly a regular cigarette smoker. Once I noticed that my lung capacity had decreased whilst doing day-to-day activities, I quit; simple as that. However, I am now a decade removed from smoking regularly and I can tell that my lungs are still not at the level that they were at prior to smoking. I'm fairly certain that no amount of healthy living or intense cardio will bring it back. I don't really dwell on it at this point -- after all, it's not like I was unaware of the potential consequences, and there is nothing wrong with living in the moment. I enjoyed it for what it was, and managed to get out before any serious complications came my way (knock wood). It's just that like most things, the myth of smoking is far more glamorous than the reality of the matter. Here's hoping that more of us come to that realization sooner rather than later.
I was only briefly a regular cigarette smoker. Once I noticed that my lung capacity had decreased whilst doing day-to-day activities, I quit; simple as that. However, I am now a decade removed from smoking regularly and I can tell that my lungs are still not at the level that they were at prior to smoking. I'm fairly certain that no amount of healthy living or intense cardio will bring it back. I don't really dwell on it at this point -- after all, it's not like I was unaware of the potential consequences, and there is nothing wrong with living in the moment. I enjoyed it for what it was, and managed to get out before any serious complications came my way (knock wood). It's just that like most things, the myth of smoking is far more glamorous than the reality of the matter. Here's hoping that more of us come to that realization sooner rather than later.
18
Gerry, your lungs are not as good as they were before you smoked because you are a decade plus older. Happens to all of us. This is not from a smoker as I gave it up some 46 years ago and believe in giving up smoking for good health. At 73 I find running tougher than running at 63. I ain't pinning it on a bad habit of a half century ago.
1
I quit before I got to 40. I did miss my little white friends, especially when under stress. But its not a forever sort of thing, is it? Lung cancer is bad; death from COPD might make you wish you'd died of lung cancer. Like most fun stuff, the longer it goes on, the grimmer it gets.
17
A nutritionist I worked with said he had a lot of relatives that had quit smoking and the thing they all said to him "Why didn't you tell us we stank!"
19
Ha, I was in Evanston in the late 80's too, except as a student at NU. So many times I smoked my last-cigarette-for-real-this-time in the freezing darkness standing by the lake. Eventually I switched to chewing tobacco, which I have quit many times on the way to the depressing side of my forties. Most recently in January. Four months so far.
10
Good luck, Derek, I'm rooting for you!
2
I had low cholesterol and low blood pressure but, nevertheless, had a heart attack four years ago. The last thing I did before I woke up my husband to call an ambulance was have a cigarette. It was my last one. When I woke up after having a stent inserted, I asked the doctor I didn't know if I could go home. He told me I almost died and that if I hadn't smoked, I wouldn't have had a heart attack. He said some other heart-wrenching stuff, and I promised to stop smoking. I smoked for 50 years. I've now not smoked since April 20, 2011, and stopping is the most difficult thing I've ever done.
40
When my third son was born, my wife figured out that passive smoke was giving the little fellow ear infections. After a few weeks of freezing my fingertips smoking on the porch, I quit. That, and a frightening documentary about a happy family that was destroyed by the father's lung cancer, did the job.
I subsequently gained fifty pounds. I told a cardiologist I met in passing that I was considering smoking again as a weight control measure. He said, and I quote:
" You could gain a hundred pounds and still not do the damage you will cause if you resume smoking. If you want to have a healthy old age, don't start."
That was thirty-two years ago and now I am a healthy old man (so far).
Thank you, Doctor Pastore.
I subsequently gained fifty pounds. I told a cardiologist I met in passing that I was considering smoking again as a weight control measure. He said, and I quote:
" You could gain a hundred pounds and still not do the damage you will cause if you resume smoking. If you want to have a healthy old age, don't start."
That was thirty-two years ago and now I am a healthy old man (so far).
Thank you, Doctor Pastore.
49
Just so you know, the old joke about Astaire and Rogers comes from Bob Thaves's comic strip Frank and Ernest.
5
My father said the perfect thing to me. "If you want to smoke, fine, smoke in front of me. Just don't sneak around, because if I find out I'll break your neck."
He was a Marine, a body builder, and a former street smart kid.
The thrill of sneaking a smoke was gone, and having it "OK" made it no fun at all. Double wammy.
He was a Marine, a body builder, and a former street smart kid.
The thrill of sneaking a smoke was gone, and having it "OK" made it no fun at all. Double wammy.
19
I quit 8 years ago. It was cool. I was cool. I should have enjoyed it more, though. All the anxiety I have now robs me of any memory of pleasure. Just got the CT scan results - all clear.
4
If you think the nicotine was preventing the anxiety, why not try an e-cigarette?
1
Greta this is horrible advice to pose to a former smoker. There are much simpler ways to alleviate anxiety without involving nicotine.
2
As I was reading the article, I had exactly the same feeling as Reader Kilroy, of Jersey City NJ, that the author was a woman. Alas, he is a man.
I find the language of the article bad, full of jargon ephemeral pseudo-cultural allusions.
I started my smoking carrier with unfiltered cigarettes; switched to a pipe that covered in ash the typewriter's keyboard, requiring regular cleaning; back to cigarettes and pipe again; until finally settling on cigars, that are an excellent accompaniment to strong coffee.
To my mind, the no-smoking rules in restaurants are, at least in part, a manifestation of the Northern antebellum sentiment that still aims at breaking the backbone of the Southern agriculture (excluding the tobacco growing in Connecticut and Wisconsin). Legalization of marijuana in some states, where smoking of tobacco in restaurants is banned and tobacco products are heavily taxed, is a classic example of the hypocrisy and perversion of values in our society.
I find the language of the article bad, full of jargon ephemeral pseudo-cultural allusions.
I started my smoking carrier with unfiltered cigarettes; switched to a pipe that covered in ash the typewriter's keyboard, requiring regular cleaning; back to cigarettes and pipe again; until finally settling on cigars, that are an excellent accompaniment to strong coffee.
To my mind, the no-smoking rules in restaurants are, at least in part, a manifestation of the Northern antebellum sentiment that still aims at breaking the backbone of the Southern agriculture (excluding the tobacco growing in Connecticut and Wisconsin). Legalization of marijuana in some states, where smoking of tobacco in restaurants is banned and tobacco products are heavily taxed, is a classic example of the hypocrisy and perversion of values in our society.
7
Comments on the quality of the article are excellent, but the rest? What planet do you live on?
9
In Colorado you can't legally smoke marijuana in public. Definitely not in bars.
4
Wow, what a comment! Me, I loved this well-written article.
Why are you sad the article was written by a man?
Why are you sad the article was written by a man?
9
What a gross article! What many people don't realize is it is their addiction that makes people deceive themselves to think they like smoking, Ask Yule Brenner, Johnny Carson, Humphrey Bogart, Spencer Tracy and others how much they like smoking.
8
Nonsense.
I only smoked for a few years of my life, but I liked it then and still like it now.
There are many things people like that they choose not to do because it is bad for their health.
I only smoked for a few years of my life, but I liked it then and still like it now.
There are many things people like that they choose not to do because it is bad for their health.
I quit the day before Thanksgiving 1994. I had smoked for about 30 years and didn't really enjoy it. But I felt anxious when I didn't have any cigarettes. I looked up the effects of nicotine--that it has both a calming effect and a stimulating effect. I finally decided to quit when I developed some aches and pains that wouldn't go away. At first I ate too many lifesavers and chewed too much gum. Then I got panic attacks and was put on prozac by my doctor. I started seeing a therapist. But I was really glad that I had finally quit. I sometimes have dreams about smoking and feel guilty.
Years before I quit I used to resent people complaining about my smoking--I felt that it was my only bad habit; of course now I wish I had never started.
I enjoyed the article. I smoked Benson & Hedges --I entered a contest but won nothing. I tried to save money once by rolling my own cigarettes.
Years before I quit I used to resent people complaining about my smoking--I felt that it was my only bad habit; of course now I wish I had never started.
I enjoyed the article. I smoked Benson & Hedges --I entered a contest but won nothing. I tried to save money once by rolling my own cigarettes.
9
The entire time I was reading the piece I thought I was reading a woman. When I was done, I looked up the author. He's a he. Then saw the illustration with the guy. But the whole time, I thought I was reading a woman. Anyhow...
Good you quit the butts. Glib counts for very little in the cancer ward.
Good you quit the butts. Glib counts for very little in the cancer ward.
8
"They made me a hotter dude." might have been a tipoff about the gender of the author.
9
What does the author's gender have to do with anything?
5
Ten years ago, having just become a grandfather for the first time, I quit smoking. I did it as a present to my grandchild, so that I would not share my slow suicide with her lungs.
The other day, a guy down at the gym told me that I was breathing kind of hard while doing my workout. I just laughed.
The other day, a guy down at the gym told me that I was breathing kind of hard while doing my workout. I just laughed.
7
Your lungs will never be the conch-pink of a non smoker. It is no longer a fact that even after 20, 30, 40 years post quitting smoking, are your lungs the same as someone who never smoked. Pray you have good genetics and some luck. I quit at age 29 after quitting 30 years ago. Found I had a pulmonary nodule. Not a big problem as it's small, but needs to be followed. My advice to all currently smoking. Quit be the damage is done. Eventually you will have to quit or die or become disabled due to COPD.
8
Actually, even non-smokers' lungs these days will never be as pink as their great-grandparents' lungs. Autos and trucks exhaust, tires shed tiny bits of themselves, etc., etc., and our lungs embed all that as well as first-hand and second-hand whatever. I didn't start smoking until I was 36 and moved to NYC after a divorce; 36 years later I'm 72 and still enjoying a regular cigarette.
6
I taught myself how to smoke, in a Midwestern town, while spending the summer at my grandmother's house, in front of the public library. I purchased a pack of the cigarette "Eve" -- the one with the little printed flowers around the filter.
I can still remember the scene now; the sultry air, the sense of furtive determination, the sound of the town in the distance, and the smell of cigarette smoke.
I smoked for 15 years --- Eves' then Marlboroughs (reds), Old Gold, Pall Mall when out drinking, Camels, filter and no filter, Players --- sooo glamorous to take the odd bit of tobacco off my tongue with my little finger nail; I finally finished with Winston Lights. I quit in 1991. I had stopped drinking --- THAT addiction had started to clearly ruin my life, and cigarettes went next. It took me four tries, and finally I was free. When I started, cigs were .65 a pack. So glad I quit before they reached $2.50.
I can still remember the scene now; the sultry air, the sense of furtive determination, the sound of the town in the distance, and the smell of cigarette smoke.
I smoked for 15 years --- Eves' then Marlboroughs (reds), Old Gold, Pall Mall when out drinking, Camels, filter and no filter, Players --- sooo glamorous to take the odd bit of tobacco off my tongue with my little finger nail; I finally finished with Winston Lights. I quit in 1991. I had stopped drinking --- THAT addiction had started to clearly ruin my life, and cigarettes went next. It took me four tries, and finally I was free. When I started, cigs were .65 a pack. So glad I quit before they reached $2.50.
11
I kinda wanted to give up my sweet Camels. Maybe someday. I met my best friend for beers and our smokefest. He had gone to an acupuncturist and claimed to be cured. Yeah right. He said, 35 bucks, one treatment. Yup. We drank lots of beer. I smoked. He never even looked like he wanted a cig. Hmmm, what was that?
OK, what's $35. Check it out. Got off the streetcar cig in mouth, walked two blocks, tossed butt into gutter. Older Chinese lady takes my money and asked if I'd like a good deal with a dental cleaning after the treatment. Her son, a dentist, was upstairs. I'd consider it.
Ushered into a narrow room with an exam table, a wall of Chinese herbs at the end, and body maps with acupuncture dots, especially around the ears. Doc hooks me up to an electrical pulse device. A needle in each ear, in each calf and a couple somewhere else. I don't remember. A "tack" in my right ear he said to pinch if afterward I had an urge to smoke.
He looked at me and calmly like a dedicated monk with a deadly premonition, said, "You smoke again. Anytime. Treatment will not work." It was the voice of God telling me not to screw up. He turned on the juice and I felt mild electrical currents in otherwise silence. I wondered what the gorgeous jars of herbs were all about. He came in, pulled the needles. "You're cured." 20 minutes. I walk out with a strange buzz in my lungs and no desire to smoke, ever again.
That was 1987, I've never wanted or smoked a cig since.
OK, what's $35. Check it out. Got off the streetcar cig in mouth, walked two blocks, tossed butt into gutter. Older Chinese lady takes my money and asked if I'd like a good deal with a dental cleaning after the treatment. Her son, a dentist, was upstairs. I'd consider it.
Ushered into a narrow room with an exam table, a wall of Chinese herbs at the end, and body maps with acupuncture dots, especially around the ears. Doc hooks me up to an electrical pulse device. A needle in each ear, in each calf and a couple somewhere else. I don't remember. A "tack" in my right ear he said to pinch if afterward I had an urge to smoke.
He looked at me and calmly like a dedicated monk with a deadly premonition, said, "You smoke again. Anytime. Treatment will not work." It was the voice of God telling me not to screw up. He turned on the juice and I felt mild electrical currents in otherwise silence. I wondered what the gorgeous jars of herbs were all about. He came in, pulled the needles. "You're cured." 20 minutes. I walk out with a strange buzz in my lungs and no desire to smoke, ever again.
That was 1987, I've never wanted or smoked a cig since.
87
This is seriously good writing. Is there anywhere online to read more?
2
What a wonderfully written story about a life of youth and smoking and then smoking without the youth. A marvelous piece of writing - and journalism.
Smoked Benson & Hedges Menthol Ultra Lights for umpteen years, preceded (all menthol) by B&H Lights, B&H Menthol, Virginia Slims (brilliant and fabulous marketing), the long skinny brown cigarettes that looked like emaciated cigars (forgot the name), Kools, Marlboro Menthols (one pack only; they were horrible) and Marlboro (non-menthol), America's "patriiotic" brand which I started smoking because the guy in the ad looked so cool on his horse. Actually, I wanted him and his horse, his cigarettes not so much. Notice later he died of lung cancer. Not sure about the horse.
After 31 years, a doctor told me the reason I was so "winded" (what a marvelous euphemism that is) jusst walking down my driveway was the xray results showing emphysema. "How bad is it?" I enquired in my falsely calm voice. "There's no such thing as Emphysema Light," he quipped in response, knowing the brand I smoked. I quit the next day (acupuncture and herb tea) and wondered why on earth I had not done so decades earlier - or why I started in the first place.
That was nearly fifteen years ago and I, like the writer, still marvel at young people today puffing their brains out with no thought to it at all. It must be the "logic" of youth, that lung disease can't happen to the young. But it does.
Smoked Benson & Hedges Menthol Ultra Lights for umpteen years, preceded (all menthol) by B&H Lights, B&H Menthol, Virginia Slims (brilliant and fabulous marketing), the long skinny brown cigarettes that looked like emaciated cigars (forgot the name), Kools, Marlboro Menthols (one pack only; they were horrible) and Marlboro (non-menthol), America's "patriiotic" brand which I started smoking because the guy in the ad looked so cool on his horse. Actually, I wanted him and his horse, his cigarettes not so much. Notice later he died of lung cancer. Not sure about the horse.
After 31 years, a doctor told me the reason I was so "winded" (what a marvelous euphemism that is) jusst walking down my driveway was the xray results showing emphysema. "How bad is it?" I enquired in my falsely calm voice. "There's no such thing as Emphysema Light," he quipped in response, knowing the brand I smoked. I quit the next day (acupuncture and herb tea) and wondered why on earth I had not done so decades earlier - or why I started in the first place.
That was nearly fifteen years ago and I, like the writer, still marvel at young people today puffing their brains out with no thought to it at all. It must be the "logic" of youth, that lung disease can't happen to the young. But it does.
66
I smoked cigarettes for nearly 50 years. Then a young friend introduced me to e-cigs. I haven't had a cigarette now for 2 years. I still vape occasionally, especially if stressed, but days can go by without my even thinking about smoking. The process of cutting back was completely painless. Thank you, e-cigs.
37
I want to warn kids i see smoking, "My mother died from cigarettes!" She smoked three packs a day till she was 65, in the house, the car, windows up, smoked everywhere. The entire truth, though, is that she lived (albeit with COPD) to be 93.
11
Bet her COPD costs the taxpayers millions, but who cares? It was all 'free'.
I don't care if anyone smokes tobacco. Just don't go to a doctor when you are dying. Keep smoking right to the end. Virtually every train wreck in our health care system is or was a smoker.
10
Aren't you the sanctimonious one!! Will you allow grossly obese people to see a physician, or are they eliminated also in your rules of order?
JimF from Sewell
JimF from Sewell
18
I'm glad you quit, Choire. Both for you and for all of us who would otherwise have to breathe your smoke!
8
I quit cold turkey in 1989. Someone told me to drink water to replace the habit. After three days my wife said "you're sure drinking a lot of water!". This caused me to burst into tears (see "feelings tsunami"). For me, getting through those first three days was a big deal. Then, getting through three weeks was a big deal. After three months I sensed I had kicked it. As it turns out, I had!
54
I smoked Luckies for 30 years. I quit at age 45. During that time I used cocaine and heroin. Now I only drink occasionally. I don't think about drugs or crave them. I dream of cigarettes. I can still taste that morning drag. I have severe COPD. I will smoke again, right before hospice.
19
My father still dreamed about cigarettes almost 30 years after quitting. He said he had peaceful dreams about the smoke floating around the room.
I wish you strength and better health.
I wish you strength and better health.
8
I know exactly what you're saying...I also have severe COPD, quit smoking years ago, but obviously too late for my heath. I still dream of smoking and tell myself that when it really doesn't matter any more, I can have a Winston light.
5
Being inside "Mens Style" (and with the title "Farewell My Lovely), this article reminds me of my love of old movies and the prevalence of the cigarette as a fashion device in those films. Countless movies would seem somehow barren and naked without the cigarette as a prop and integral part of the action. Also, I'm amused when watching an actor who's just taken a languorous puff blow smoke into or near the other actor's face which is within inches, and how the other actor stifles a gag or cough somehow. Finally, the incidents of movie stars dying early from smoking-related illnesses at least mirrored those of general society back then. But humans are the only species that hurts itself on purpose: since around 1980 smoking has been replaced by obesity. And obesity is much less "stylish."
16
When you feel you might be on the verge of back-sliding, visit a rehab facility where they are treating folks with COPD.
16
This is some seriously good writing.
Not sure it has much to do with smoking--but who cares.
Not sure it has much to do with smoking--but who cares.
32
I recall with a chuckle being thrown out onto the streets of lower Manhattan on 9-11, the city in a panic as the towers burned, and frantically stopping in convenience stores with my friend to stock up on cigarettes before we trudged off to escape Manhattan and who knows what type of further attacks. Our first thought was not self-preservation, it was the anxiety of escaping with our lives and having no cigarettes.
35
I smoked a couple of cigarettes a day until I was 17 in August 1947 and then joined the army. I smoked little during basic but after being sent to Okinawa, and finding cigarettes at a dollar a carton, Camels, Lucky Strike, Chesterfield, et al., eights cents a pack, I became a serious smoker. Pack and a half a day for the next 35 years. A pack was even in the K rations we ate during a typhoon in the fall of 1948. I still remember not one of the cigarette company executives went to jail for lying to a congressional committee, saying nicotine wasn't addictive. I quit in 1983 and am still alive.
.
.
50
I had to dig deep to quit smoking. Even my mother dying in my arms, an early death from lung cancer, wasn't enough to stop me from following in her footsteps. But I finally figured it out. Sucking on a cigarette was like sucking on a baby bottle. I reassured the baby inside of me that life would be okay without cancer sticks and I grew up. That was a couple of decades ago. So far so good.
61
Dear Choire Sicha....I envy you're strength! I'm probably 10 years older than you & Marlboro Lights are my poison. I'm very easy to get along with & rarely complain, but back in 1977 when Marlboro decided to jettison the Micronite Filter from their Marlboro Light cigarettes I got out pencil & paper & wrote a furious note to the company promising I'd never smoke another one of their lousy cigarettes.........liar.....liar me!
I started smoking in January, 1974 to spite a roommate in college who I really wanted to kill with my bare hands. I heard him tell another dorm mate that the thing he hated worst in life was cigarette smoke...he barely got the smoke word out of his mouth before I was on my way to the Union to buy a pack of cigarettes....I think they were Winston Lites......in those days you could smoke in most college classes & I did....lots.
Today I'm trying to quit smoking for the 6th or 7th time since Sept. 2013. I can quit for a month & then suddenly find a burning cigarette in my hand. So far today I've smoked 4 cigarette butts found in my wife's ashtray & 2 & 1/2 whole cigarettes an inch at a time, I found them behind some books.....perhaps I hid them there....
I'm about to turn 60, I have hereditary diabetes, I've given up drinking, my sex life is long gone, Coke is a sinful pleasure as is good food & all I have is cigarettes. If I quit them for good I can be the next Pope...blah
But I will get up tomorrow & try to do better at not smoking. blah
I started smoking in January, 1974 to spite a roommate in college who I really wanted to kill with my bare hands. I heard him tell another dorm mate that the thing he hated worst in life was cigarette smoke...he barely got the smoke word out of his mouth before I was on my way to the Union to buy a pack of cigarettes....I think they were Winston Lites......in those days you could smoke in most college classes & I did....lots.
Today I'm trying to quit smoking for the 6th or 7th time since Sept. 2013. I can quit for a month & then suddenly find a burning cigarette in my hand. So far today I've smoked 4 cigarette butts found in my wife's ashtray & 2 & 1/2 whole cigarettes an inch at a time, I found them behind some books.....perhaps I hid them there....
I'm about to turn 60, I have hereditary diabetes, I've given up drinking, my sex life is long gone, Coke is a sinful pleasure as is good food & all I have is cigarettes. If I quit them for good I can be the next Pope...blah
But I will get up tomorrow & try to do better at not smoking. blah
32
i've been there! i was a heavy smoker, and i couldn't use e-cigs because of COPD. there are new strategies for quitting, which finally worked for me, notably to use 2 methods at once (i use lozenges and inhaler; some use lozenges and patch--there's a book on quitting in 30 days by a columbia university guy that is very helpful and explains). this is just one method. you can do it!!
8
Allan Carr is how to quit. Don't stop til the end of the book. He says to think of it as liberating yourself. You'll be proud to be free of them.
3
Talk to your doctor about Chantix. Lousy drug, but it's lousiness allows you to quit smoking.
3
My impetus to stop smoking after thirty years was a stroke, of course I drank to excess, overate,gambled and led a type A lifestyle to compliment my smoking habit.- It was a well deserved stroke.- I'm not sure which of my habits had the greatest impact om my life, but if there were some magic pill that allowed for my smoking without consequence I'd light up today.
32
Yes, Carey, such an insidious habit. When my twin sister got diagnosed with stage IV pancreatic cancer last October, the first thing she said was "Can I go back to cigarettes NOW?"
5
Witty piece but it didn't get to the heart of an addiction that some consider more pernicious and hard to beat than heroin dependency. The writer's charming words also awakened an old craving that once had me get up at dawn in the pouring rain just to get another pack of Marlboros. Doctors in decades past actually appeared in cigarette ads, promoting varied brands as healthy! Fortunately, my physician, himself a recovering tobacco addict, warned me that I could get emphysema and I so quit cold turkey after several failed efforts. He told me if I could get through the first ten days without the vile weed, it would be easier after that. It's been nearly 30 years since I last lit up. And I don't consider myself free of an infantile need.
35
This is the best thing I have read...maybe ever! You have captured my same existential crises, right down to the "khakis of existence." Man. Thank you. I am not alone.
47
i hear you! i quit 13 months ago after 45 years of smoking. i still love everything about it (the taste, the sensation, the ability to think; even glowering at those who shout at smokers while happily breathing in bus exhaust, many of whom drive cars, spewing far more poison than any smoker could generate) . but it's time! time to quit while you're ahead, before smoking has taken its inevitable toll, while you can still learn new ways to be cool.
hang tough--you'll make it!!
hang tough--you'll make it!!
30
Smoking is a frame to hang around a perfect moment. Thank you for this. It is a frame to hang around quitting.
19
Wonderful! I may quit this week after reading this.
16
If you say you 'may' quit, you won't.
2
Good for you! Your situation is proof of the power of nicotine addiction.
7
As a child, I was constantly sick. Coughs, colds, bronchitis, pleurisy, pneumonia (twice). Strange that when I left for college I was suddenly in perfect health (except around my smoker boyfriend, until I finally got away from him too).