Smoking, while doing other things...

[Pink Elephant]

I don't have a memory of family flicking ashes all over, but I believe my friend did and, as much as I loved her, I flinched at this habit, which I found dirty and unkempt. How can you have a clean home with ashes all over? To this non smoker, her house always smelled of stale cigarette smoke.

In the big picture, I am very anti-smoking and have never tried to hide it. Smoking is very dangerous to a body an d causes early death in very uncomfortable ways with CHF, lung cancer (and this is second hand smoke ingestion too), respiratory problems, a smokers cough (my husband had one...it was awful. It's so great he doesn't have this alnymore), and it smells bad and permeates ones clothing and from my husband I don't think some smokers realize how bad it smells to others who don't smoke. I can't see any up side to smoking and don't think it's funny. I think they had Peggy Bundy with the cigarettes to show she was sort of trashy and dirty, which is the role she played on a very funny show.

I am happy that not only laws favor people with clear lungs but that smoking is not as "cool" now. I have a friend from high school I hadn't heard from in 30 years, but she decided to call me again and right away I could tell by her froggy, hoarse voice that she has been smoking all this time. You don't even have to ask. You can tell. That froggy voice can not mean anything good about the lungs or voice box. I find all long time smokers have this froggy voice.

Now I don't CARE if people smoke, as long as it' snot around me and as long as it isn't my kids (thankfully they don't), but I do think it is in every smoker's best interest to quit, especially after 50. Your quality of life is affected. Ys, there is always the odd guy who lived until 90 and was fairly healthy and smoked. But that really isn't the rule. And moms with kids....please don't smoke anywhere near those babies. It has been proven that children who live in smoking homes have more asthma and respiratory disease. Why do that to the littles?

Off the soap box!!!!!!

I agree, the smell is awful. Also hate seeing people with yellow fingers, or men with yellow mustaches.

I see no upside to smoking wither, but talking about topics such as these makes for interesting conversation.

 

[Pink Elephant]

My mom smoked until she and my dad got serious. Then she quit because he would not be with a smoker. My Grandpa on Dad's side died of a heart attack caused by smoking. His doctor told him that if he didn't stop, he would be dead before he finished the pack he was on. Even knowing that, Grandpa still insisted on smoking those last cigarettes. Of course he likely was at the end anyway, but it very much shortened the time he would have.

My brother and I had the upstairs of the house we had until I was 13. We both agreed that we did not want anyone smoking anything up in our area. My parents said this was reasonable. My aunt on my mom's side came to visit. Auntie was a smoker and if she wasn't cooking, she was smoking. My mother made her finish her cigarette before she went up to our rooms to see some changes. Auntie had a FIT about how rude it was for bro and I to insist that adults not smoke in our rooms. Mom told her she could be as upset as she wanted, but she could not go upstairs with a cigarette lit. Period.

I smoked for a short while, but never around my kids. It was a stress reliever and a break from them. I didn't do much besides read a book.

Years before, when young Wiz first saw my mother's best friend light a cigarette, he asked her, "Why are you setting yourself on fire?". She couldn't really give him an answer. About 4 years later I was visiting the same family friend with Jess while Wiz was in school. Jess asked her the same question. They had never seen anyone light a cigarette. The second time she had an answer. She flat out told Jess, "Because I am very dumb." and she put the cigarette out. It seemed like a good answer to give a 2 year old.

I couldn't eat after someone that was smoking while preparing food. That is just so not right.

Also, smoking around others while they're eating, especially those that don't smoke. Hated that as a kid so bad.

Sometimes I wish I had never started, because that way my oldest daughter possibly wouldn't have started. I've always blamed myself for that.

So glad your mom backed you and your brother up to not allow your aunt to smoke in your personal space.

When I was really young, mom would give us kids her empty cigarette packages so we could play house. I remember pretending to pull a cigarette out of the empty pack and light it. Candy cigarettes made us feel like we were really smoking, but that was the era back then, everyone smoked.

 

[BusynMember]

Not everyone smoked. I am 64. It is possible that I your neck of the woods had mostly smokers. A lot of my peers didn't smoke. It was certainly more prevalent then. Fortunately it has ceased to be so socially cool for most. It's dangerous. Now vaping is also getting health warnings. Bet we will find pot smoke is dangerous too. Smoke doesn't do good things to our bodies. Or those who live in homes where there is smoke from smokers even when they aren't smoking. It's unhealthy and it smells bad. My husband has noticed this only since quitting!!

 

[Pink Elephant]

Not everyone smoked. I am 64. It is possible that I your neck of the woods had mostly smokers. A lot of my peers didn't smoke. It was certainly more prevalent then. Fortunately it has ceased to be so socially cool for most. It's dangerous. Now vaping is also getting health warnings. Bet we will find pot smoke is dangerous too. Smoke doesn't do good things to our bodies. Or those who live in homes where there is smoke from smokers even when they aren't smoking. It's unhealthy and it smells bad. My husband has noticed this only since quitting!!

I beg to differ with you, SOT. MOST everyone smoked back in the 60's. Those that didn't smoke were the rarity.

 

[BusynMember]

Old Hand, I have no doubt where you were at they did but, out of curiousity, I just googled smoking percentage in 1960s. Because I know that in my area there were smokers and non smokers. Not everyone smoked. 46 per cent did, way more than now but not everyone!

 

[Pink Elephant]

Old Hand, I have no doubt where you were at they did but, out of curiousity, I just googled smoking percentage in 1960s. Because I know that in my area there were smokers and non smokers. Not everyone smoked. 46 per cent did, way more than now but not everyone!

I'm not here to argue with anyone, SOT, but look at any picture from back in the 50's, 60's, even 70's, or talk to any family from back in that era, and you're sure to find a smoker, and while 46% may be what records indicate as far as a percentage goes, I don't believe that figure for a minute.

 

[BusynMember]

I'm not arguing either. We lived very different types of areas, which matters a lot, and I think the statistic is about right.

Agree to respect and disagree.

 

[Nomad]

My parents were smokers.
Especially back in the day, it seems people smoked everywhere.
My mother never smoked while she cooked, but immediately when she finished.
Two things I noticevfrom photos decades ago...people were more slender and people often had cigarettes in their hands. But even non smokers seemed more slender.

Mom quit the very day she was diagnosed with cancer.
She died of lung cancer at age 49.
My father cut his smoking back by half immediately after her death and I think quit altogether perhaps a year later.
He too died of cancer, but he was 79 and it is hard to say if it was related to smoking. Unsure.

 

[Pink Elephant]

My parents were smokers.
Especially back in the day, it seems people smoked everywhere.
My mother never smoked while she cooked, but immediately when she finished.
Two things I noticevfrom photos decades ago...people were more slender and people often had cigarettes in their hands. But even non smokers seemed more slender.

Mom quit the very day she was diagnosed with cancer.
She died of lung cancer at age 49.
My father cut his smoking back by half immediately after her death and I think quit altogether perhaps a year later.
He too died of cancer, but he was 79 and it is hard to say if it was related to smoking. Unsure.

How heartbreaking loosing your mom at such a young age. Haunts me just thinking about it.

You're right, people were more slender back in the day. People have become much too heavy today, hence all of the health woes that plague society so chronically nowadays. Also, people don't work anywhere near as hard today, as they did back then, and our food has become much more unhealthy.