Smoking

I just finished reading Scott's blog about smoking and realize Mary and I did a really good job teaching our kids just how disgusting a habit smoking is. Being a long time smoker who just happens to not have smoked for almost 18 years now I think I am qualified to comment.
I started smoking in grade school and by the time I graduated 8th grade I always had a pack of cigarettes available and they were usually non-filtered Pall-Mall or Camels. You have to realize that at that time, 1950s and early '60's, the only warnings you heard were that smoking would stunt your growth and turn your fingers yellow. When I graduated 8th grade I was 6'1" tall but only weighed around 90 pounds so I disproved that smoking stunted your growth. I did have yellow fingers though and was proud of it. Neither of my parents smoked cigarettes and they really didn't say much about me smoking. I didn't even have to hide my smoking from them, however I couldn't smoke in the house in front of them. My dad smoked an occasional pipe and cigars so the smell of smoke was already in the house so I didn't have to worry about that. When I got to high school I was on the swim team and decided it might be a good idea to quit for the season. I locked myself in a closet with a carton of Camels for about 6 hours and smoked until I was so sick of cigarettes, almost the whole carton, I couldn't stand the sight or smell of them, for about 6 months. By then swimming season was over and the nice weather of summer was coming and I was outside most of the time, so who was to know I was smoking again. In sophomore year of high school I developed chronic bronchitis and instead of the doctor ordering me to stop smoking he merely suggested I cut back and prescribed some cough syrup made of alcohol and codeine. Anyhow, I didn't try to quit again until I started Army basic training. The first 2 weeks the drill sergeants wouldn't allow us to smoke during duty hours and we were too busy cleaning things during off-duty hours to smoke. After the first 2 weeks they said if we had them we could smoke them and since this was the first privilege we got I had to smoke. As a private I only made $30 a month take home so I had to learn to role my own because I couldn't afford real cigarettes. The cigarettes that came in our C rations were packed before the Korean War. I had one pack with 1948 stamped on it. The cigarettes in C rations were in a little 4 pack and were so dry that if you did try to smoke them they burned so fast you could burn your lips. The thing the Army did to help smokers was give them ration cards for cartons of cigarettes from the PX. With the card a carton of 10 packs cost $.50 and we were allowed 3 cartons a month. I only knew a couple guys that didn't smoke in the Army and they would give me their ration cards so I could use their cigarette ration to help pay my apartment rent. My apartment cost $50.00 a month plus 2 cartons of Marlboro to the land lady. I could also give them as gifts to the Germans because American cigarettes were highly desirable.
When I got out of the Army and started working for the FAA smoking on position was allowed and I can only think of a couple people that I worked with that didn't smoke. This was the early '70s and reports that smoking was linked to heart disease and lung cancer were just starting to be argued. Even when the Surgeon General came out and said there was absolute proof that cigarettes caused cancer I thought of it more like, "Ya, just like they stunted my growth!". (I was now 6'4" and weighed 150 pounds) so Mary and I have 2 kids and she smoked through both pregnancies. We both smoked in the house and car with the kids so there were dirty smelly ash trays all over and lots and lots of second hand smoke for them to breath. We lived in Pierre, South Dakota and Granny and Grandpa were an 8 hour car trip away in Minneapolis. I did quit for around 6 weeks with hypnotism but I couldn't afford the follow-up so I tried one cigarette that someone had left at work and within a couple weeks I was back up to a pack a day. When we moved to Alaska in 1981 we drove 8 hours a day for 10 days in February. It was too cold out to even crack a window. Secondhand smoke was just starting to be an issue but I thought it was just people whining. The kids aversion therapy went on through the '80s. I did try stopping around 1986 using the new nicotine gum that was out by prescription only, but since the doctor that prescribed it didn't realize that it had to be used along with a smoking cessation program I just ended up chewing a lot of gum along with smoking a few cigarettes.
By now the proof that second hand smoke was as bad as first hand was pretty obvious so the FAA wouldn't allow smoking on position anymore. They gave us a little room in the back with big fans on 2 walls and allowed us 1 smoke break an hour. By 1990 I was smoking 21/2 to 3 packs a day. In 1987 I had been diagnosed with the beginnings of emphysema and was even prescribed an inhaler but I didn't really notice anything health wise because the doctor said I had over developed lungs and more lung capacity then most people. I attribute that to when I was a kid I would spend a lot of time under water because I didn't float since I really was just skin and bones. I finally quit smoking in July of 1990 when I was in Oklahoma City going to Automation Specialist school for the FAA. I used to take a walk during my study breaks and one day it was over 100 degrees and during my walk I couldn't get my breath. That was the first time I had noticed any trouble with my health. (the bronchitis had in high school disappeared when an Army medic said I couldn't have my alcohol/codeine cough syrup anymore, but that's another story) I saw an add on TV for a hypnotherapist so I decided to give that a try again. I swore to myself though that even if it didn't work I wouldn't smoke until I had gone the same number of days that her therapy cost that I would have spent if I was still smoking, which I think came out to about a month. The minute I got out of her office and got in my rental car to go home I wanted a cigarette but I stayed true to my vow and didn't smoke. I nearly killed some Mormons that came to my room preaching that weekend, but I didn't smoke. When I had free time I would go for long walks. When I woke up in the middle of the night wanting a cigarette I would get dressed and walk until I didn't want to smoke anymore. I got stopped once at 3am by the Oklahoma highway patrol looking for a white male who had just broke into a liquor store. When they asked what I was doing out at that time I told them I was trying to kick the smoking habit and they let me go. By the time I got back from Oklahoma City I was walking around a lake that was 12 miles around twice a week. I was pretty much over the worst of my withdrawals by the time I got home to Alaska. Mary was considerate enough not to smoke around me even though she still smoked for quite a while after me. I really hate the smell of smoking now and can not stand the smell of stale ash trays. At work they designated the door that was closest to my office as the smoking area so there were nasty ash trays on both sides of the door. It was probably to my benefit though, because I ended up parking about as far away from my office as possible and had to walk the extra distance all the time ato avoid the smell.
I still have not smoked since that day in Oklahoma but I still get an urge every now and then. I now understand though that I am a smoker that just isn't smoking at the present time and if I take even a puff I'll be back to where I left off in no time.
Scott mentioned in his blog that someone needs to come up with a pill for smokers. I don't think that would work. They already have nicotine gum that you can get without prescription and patches that are programed to ween you off nicotine but people keep smoking. Somehow young people have to be taught how bad smoking is for you and how disgusting it is to non-smokers. Young people also need to understand that once you start it is really, really hard to quit for good. If people start and then stop they need to realize no matter how long its been they are still smokers and as soon as they have one puff they will be an active smoker again.
Well this went on much longer then I hd planned. They say blogging is good for you mentally and I do feel better so more later....
UPDATE:
After posting and reading this post I realized I lost my track, again.
What I was getting at was that during World War II and until the 60s smoking was an acceptable social activity. I am pretty sure nobody thought, lets pack cigarettes in the GIs rations so they get hooked on them, get cancer and die young. Then we wont have to pay them Social Security or Veterans Benefits as long. I'm pretty sure they put them in their rations because a lot of people smoked and those that didn't could give theirs to their buddies that did. They also put fruit cocktail packed in high fructose corn syrup, milk chocolate and some kind of bread pudding that I remember using as a hockey puck in the rations we got and those items have been found to be bad for you now too. Except for the bread pudding unless it hit somebody in the head. The Red Cross, Salvation Army and a lot of missions handed out donuts to GIs during WWII, so maybe fat vets should sue them.
I just read that the current 30 something generation has a shorter life expectancy then the Greatest Generation because of increased smoking and stress. I suppose someone will claim the government didn't do enough to keep them from smoking. I suppose we could push for laws to protect us from anything that isn't good for us because we're to stupid be responsible for our own health. But then they would probably want to take my coffee away and probably even ice cream.
FROM MY COLD DEAD HANDS!