Smoking... the part I miss the most

[susandennis]

amw mentioned something in passing this morning that reminded me of a great loss.

I was raised in the heart of tobacco, in a city who's name was most known for two brands of cigarettes. Smoking cigarettes was 'shopping local'. A pack of cigarettes was $.20.

Yeah we knew they were bad but so was coffee and bacon and thinking impure thoughts.

I smoked cheerfully and skillfully for 40 years. And now I have COPD. I don't miss the expense. A pack of cigarettes, here in Washington State is now $12. I don't miss the mess.

I miss the friends. Even in the days when we could smoke inside, smokers gathered together. Instant friends. You could light up a cigarette anywhere in the world and before it turned into a butt you had one, two or maybe a gaggle of new friends who were strangers when you first lit the flame. It was amazing and marvelous and so easy and fun.

In the early 90's I worked for the head of an IBM software lab. He had a corner office on the top (third) floor with windows overlooking the courtyard where we were still allowed to smoke. He was not a smoker. But most of us on his staff were, so several times a day we'd head out for our smoke. It killed him to be left out. When we came back, he'd grill me about what we talked about. I never broke the smokers' pact BUT I will say, we got a lot of very productive business done while he watched from the 3rd floor.

I miss the smoker friends - the close ones and the casual ones. So much. I have zero smoking regrets.

Comments

[bill-schubert.livejournal.com]

The last time I tried to quit, with obvious success since it was the last time, the first thing I did was start walking around the block when I smoked rather than hang in the smoker's covered place. I recognized just what you said, that breaking that connection was critical. After I quit I kept walking around the block several times a day on smoke breaks, but without the cigarettes. But I never went back to the smoker's lounge.

I'm pretty sure that we were hanging out and smoking at Prudential when one of the guys said "you know, I used to be a Microsoft instructor". And I said, "Would you teach a group of us?". And so started my third major career.

Excuse me, I need to go not have a cigarette.

[susandennis]

That was another hard part. No cig breaks. I still struggle with that one now and again.

[letmesaythis.livejournal.com]

The office converted to non-smoking in stages. First smokers got ash trays that filtered the air. They were not effective. Then smokers got a smoking room with special ventilation to suck the smoke out of the building (or so Facilities claimed.) I had a brief history of smoking and that was my ticket to occasionally join the smokers in the smokers' room even though I didn't smoke with them. All that to say, I get it. Smokers that I knew were incredibly interesting and charming, for the most part. The third phase was to force smokers outside. I drew the line there but I still took time for smoker's breaks, it was only fair! The final phase, and the current phase as of the lock-down, was that smokers have to smoke outside and not within twenty feet of any building entrance. This is probably how it evolved in most cities. I wonder what the climate is like for smokers in Winston-Salem these days.

[susandennis]

I wonder what the climate is like for smokers in Winston-Salem these days.

Me, too!

Smokers that I knew were incredibly interesting and charming, for the most part.

By the time airlines moved smokers to the back of the plane, both my parents had quit BUT they always sat in the smoking section anyway because Daddy said "it's a better class of people". True story.

[carriea31.livejournal.com]

This reminds me of a 30 minute comedy show where one gal pretended to smoke for awhile because she was being left out of the business discussions that her boss and coworker were having outside during smoke breaks. It was made to be funny but I imagine there is/was so much truth to it.

I never tried a cigarette. I had a dream as a teenager where I tried to smoke a cigarette and I choked and felt like I was smothering and dying. It sounds ridiculous but it was a very terrifying dream (obviously, I guess, as I still remember it now), and really stopped any temptation at all that may have been lurking inside me to want to try a cigarette.

[alice-mccoy.livejournal.com]

Hi, pack of fags started at twenty dollars and went down to twelve..!
That sticks me as odd is there any particular rrreason why price dropped.

[susandennis]

when i was young a pack of cigarettes cost $.20 - twenty cents. not $20.

[alice-mccoy.livejournal.com]

Ahha sorry missed the point literally 😊

As a side I asked my hubby what he thought a pack of fags costs.. He guessed £8 and I guessed £10. Then I Googled it!! Average of £12!
I have never smoked cos my dad did and also I am WAYYYYYY too tight to pay out that sort of money

[richaarde.livejournal.com]

I never smoked because I thought it was gross, but I always noted the camaraderie of smokers. Sometimes I hung out with smokers while they were having a cigarette just to be part of it, back when I was a teen or early 20-something and out with friends.

[interes2012.livejournal.com]

only slaves smoke.
cigarettes - for losers and impotent
(https://ic.pics.livejournal.com/interes2012/25717847/1177490/1177490_original.jpg)

[rsc.livejournal.com]

A friend of mine was an on-and-off smoker for unexpended period in the late '90s, maybe into the early 2000s. During one of those periods, when I was trying to persuade him to quit (again), he said that one reason that he smoked was so that he could hear all the office gossip when the smokers went outside together for their break. (I didn't find this particularly convincing.)

[jwg.livejournal.com]

I smoked cigarettes for a few years many years ago. In my high school at lunch in the dining hall the 11th and 12th graders were allowed to smoke at the end of the lunch period when they flicked the lights on and off - and also out in the quadrangle.

For a year of two I rolled my own.

Then once I had a really bad cold and didn't smoke for a few days because it was painful. And then I did the "well I haven't smoked for n-days, let's try for n+1" method. It worked. I never smoked again except occasionally pot back in the '60s.

[texasts.livejournal.com]

I understand and identify with that smoking stuff.

40 years or so for me too. And the COPD. I hate being tethered to the O2 concentrator. And pulmonologist says I’ve had a minor exacerbation. I’m progressing.

[susandennis]

that truly sucks. so sorry.

[texasts.livejournal.com]

It does, but you know, I did this to myself. I hate the end result, but I'm over being angry about it. I can't change it now can I?

Things would be more tolerable if I had a little more money coming in.

[becomingkate.livejournal.com]

I can't believe they're $12 now! I smoked briefly in high school in the 90s and they were $3. It was the only way I could hang out with my friends during lunch because they all went to the woods to smoke and I didn't like hanging around all that smoke unless I was smoking too. I have some good memories of us having a good time talking, my boyfriend laying his coat out on the ground for me to sit on, my friends being totally shocked that I started smoking in the first place...There's an odd bond between smokers. And it would have been a good excuse to get more breaks during my cooking jobs. LOL

[susandennis]

Not only are the $12 here but it's actually kind of hard to find a place that sells them. Most have taken them off the shelves. Which is fine but still hard to replace those good old smoking buddy memories.

[becomingkate.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, I haven't even paid attention to if places are still selling them around here.