pretend that you are a smoker

[Alpo]

A friend comes up to you one day and informs you that they have decided to quit smoking.

 

 "I got about a half a pack left here. You want them?"

 

Would you take them? The odds of them being your brand are probably not real good. But nicotine is nicotine for an addict.

 

There was a young man - God, this has been 35 years ago. He came to visit, for the weekend. Decided to extend his stay for a week. Ran out of cigarettes. Bummed them from everybody.

 

Just about everybody we knew back then smoked generics because cigarettes cost so damn much money. And about Wednesday he called his mother and asked her to Western Union him some money, and she did and he bought some cigarettes. Marlboros, because "that's what I smoke". He was quite happy to smoke no names when he didn't have any Marlboro and he didn't have money to buy any. And he didn't offer to replace any of the cigarettes he had bummed over the past two days.

[Cypress Sun]

I quit a 2 to 3 pack a day cigarette habit just a shade under 6 years ago when I went in the hospital for 10 days with bacterial pneumonia in the right side lung. So I cold turkey on 10/02/19, the day I went in.

 

I smoked Marlboro 100's at the time and bought they by the carton (10 packs). A carton cost about $75 at that time. When I got out of the hospital, I had only smoked a half of a pack out of the carton. I gave them to a friend who, by coincidence, smoked Marlboro 100's. This friend would bum cigs from me 3 or 4 times a week but would buy a pack to give to me every once in a while, so it evened out I guess.

 

He was happy to get them and I was happy to get them out of the house.

 

Marlboro still sent me coupons for a couple of years after I quit. Most of the coupons were for $5 off two packs and several of them were $20 off a carton. I gave them to various people at the SASS matches that I knew smoked Marlboro. They stopped sending me coupons about three years ago.

[Blackwater 53393]

I smoked cigarettes for 37 years.  I smoked the same brand for all of those years. I seldom bummed a smoke and often gave a friend one of mine if they were out.

 

I can’t remember a time when I didn’t have money for cigarettes  or a cold drink because I always set money aside for those. I might have to skip lunch, but I wasn’t going to do without a cigarette if I could get to someplace to buy more.

 

I ran out one Saturday night while sitting at home, watching a NASCAR race and Schoolmarm was out playing bingo.  She always called when she headed home and I figured she could pick me up a pack or two on her way home, but she didn’t call and I fell asleep.

 

That was the last time I smoked a cigarette.

 

I’d always swore that I would never pay $2.00 for a pack of smokes.  I stopped at a restaurant the next day and cigarettes were $2.15 and I decided that that was it!

 

After a couple weeks of detoxing, Hatfield and Schoolmarm were talking about buying a carton and holding a gun on me ‘til I smoked ‘em all!!  

This time next year, that’ll be thirty years ago!! 

 

 

Edited August 23 by Blackwater 53393

[Blackwater 53393]

By the way!! When I started buying cigarettes, they were $.25 a pack out of the machine at the gas station on the corner, a half a block from the Junior High School.  I’d already been sneaking cigarettes out of my dad’s pack for a few years before that!! 
 

He bought me a carton of my brand and a new ZIPPO for my 14th birthday! Said he was tired of coming up short!

 

 

[MizPete]

I smoked 3 packs a day for 20 years.  One day (it was Lent, and it was her birthday) The Boss came in & said I'm quitting smoking.  I had just bought a carton ($15.00 here in NC - it was the early 90's) and I smoked them down to the last pack.  I placed that last pack and my lighter in a kitchen cabinet.  I kept that pack for a looooong time but I haven't smoked a cigarette since.

[Cypress Sun]

6 hours ago, Blackwater 53393 said:

I smoked cigarettes for 37 years.  I smoked the same brand for all of those years. I seldom bummed a smoke and often gave a friend one of mine if they were out.

 

I can’t remember a time when I didn’t have money for cigarettes  or a cold drink because I always set money aside for those. I might have to skip lunch, but I wasn’t going to do without a cigarette if I could get to someplace to buy more.

 

I ran out one Saturday night while sitting at home, watching a NASCAR race and Schoolmarm was out playing bingo.  She always called when she headed home and I figured she could pick me up a pack or two on her way home, but she didn’t call and I fell asleep.

 

That was the last time I smoked a cigarette.

 

I’d always swore that I would never pay $2.00 for a pack of smokes.  I stopped at a restaurant the next day and cigarettes were $2.15 and I decided that that was it!

 

After a couple weeks of detoxing, Hatfield and Schoolmarm were talking about buying a carton and holding a gun on me ‘til I smoked ‘em all!!  

This time next year, that’ll be thirty years ago!! 

 

 

 

I was a smoker for 45 years. Fortunately for my gal, and everybody else, the hospital kept me doped up on pain killers for the first 10 days. I had some nicotine gum after the hospital stay, but I'll admit it....I wasn't pleasant to live with for a while.

[Alpo]

I was smoking, basically, a carton a week. And one day I decided that it would be better to let the children eat that $10 bill, than for me to set a match to it. And I quit. That day, stopped. Never had any problems. Never had any nastiness exploding from me because I was kicking an addiction.

 

However, 3 years later I was still "smelling" really hard when somebody nearby me lit one up. It smelled good.

 

But something I realized many years ago. It's like they say at an AA meeting (I suppose they say this in an AA meeting - I've never been to one but I've seen it in TV and movies several times) --- hello. I'm Joe. I'm an alcoholic. I haven't had a drink in 2 years 3 months and 4 days.

 

Well, hello. I'm Alpo. I'm a smoker. I haven't had a cigarette in - that's where it falls apart because I have no idea when I quit. Sometime in the late 80s. These people that say that, "I quit on January 17th 1996" really blow my mind. Because stopping smoking was not important enough to mark it in my memory and always remember the date. I quit. That was all that was important. When I quit doesn't matter. I quit. The only reason I know that it was the late 80s was where we lived when I quit. We moved out of there in 91.

[Cypress Sun]

23 minutes ago, Alpo said:

I was smoking, basically, a carton a week. And one day I decided that it would be better to let the children eat that $10 bill, than for me to set a match to it. And I quit. That day, stopped. Never had any problems. Never had any nastiness exploding from me because I was kicking an addiction.

 

However, 3 years later I was still "smelling" really hard when somebody nearby me lit one up. It smelled good.

 

But something I realized many years ago. It's like they say at an AA meeting (I suppose they say this in an AA meeting - I've never been to one but I've seen it in TV and movies several times) --- hello. I'm Joe. I'm an alcoholic. I haven't had a drink in 2 years 3 months and 4 days.

 

Well, hello. I'm Alpo. I'm a smoker. I haven't had a cigarette in - that's where it falls apart because I have no idea when I quit. Sometime in the late 80s. These people that say that, "I quit on January 17th 1996" really blow my mind. Because stopping smoking was not important enough to mark it in my memory and always remember the date. I quit. That was all that was important. When I quit doesn't matter. I quit. The only reason I know that it was the late 80s was where we lived when I quit. We moved out of there in 91.

 

I am now to the point that cigarettes don't smell "good" to me anymore. I never realized how much smokers, and therefore myself when I smoked, stink until I quit. I can tell a smoker by the way they smell when I'm near them in public....the cigarette stink is strong on most of them.

 

We went to the Hard Rock Casino in Tampa about a year ago. Opened up the door to walk in, it was like getting slapped in the face by 100 dirty ashtrays, nasty smell. Didn't stay long.

 

I remember the night (10/2/19) I quit for weird reasons I guess. While watching the Tampa Bay Rays play the Oakland A's in a Wildcard playoff matchup, I started coughing up blood, lots of blood. My gal got scared, called 911 and I took a ride to the hospital in an ambulance. Finished watching the game in the emergency room. Rays won the game.

[Alpo]

I noticed, about a week after I quit, that I suddenly smelled like an old ashtray. I think that the smell in my blood just boiled to the surface.

 

I have had that happen with garlic. If I eat a lot of garlic over a, say, two week period, and then don't eat any garlic for a while, after about 4 days I will suddenly smell like garlic.

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

Winstons at first, then Winston 100s when the packs were first gold.  35 years with up to three or four packs a day.  I tried a few other brands, even went to a pipe for awhile, and a week or so smoking cheroots.

 

Quit cold turkey 25 years and 242 days ago.

[Chicken Rustler, SASS #26680]

I didn't quit yet but so far I've cut down to one every 25 years. 

For the original question, I smoked Marlboros in the red box, I could smoke Camels but most of the rest didn't seem as good so I didn't really accept much when anybody offered, usually whenever I gave a cigarette to somebody it was when we were out and it was people who only smoke when they drink. 

[Stump Water]

2 hours ago, Cypress Sun said:

 

I am now to the point that cigarettes don't smell "good" to me anymore. I never realized how much smokers, and therefore myself when I smoked, stink until I quit. I can tell a smoker by the way they smell when I'm near them in public....the cigarette stink is strong on most of them.

 

 

 

This ^.

 

One night in the late 90's we both ran out of smokes (Camille Marlboro lights, me Camel lights) we looked at each other and said, "This is stupid."  And that was it for cigarettes.  A couple of years later we made the mistake of bumming a Hav-A-Tampa at deer camp.  We smoked those casually, on the weekends and in the evenings watching the tube.  Then one day, like cigarettes, we just quit.  I don't even remember when it was.  Probably over 15 years ago. 

[Dantankerous]

Once upon a time I worked with an older guy who used to smoke but quit when the price hit one dollar per pack. What does that stuff cost these days? Ten dollars a pack? More?

 

He once figured out how much money he had saved by quitting smoking and treated himself to an early retirement. 

[Pat Riot]

For Alpo: No, I wouldn’t take them. If they want to quit, they will. More often than not they will bum a carton’s worth of cigarettes off of you because they gave you a half pack because they were quitting. 
This happened to me twice with 2 different friends. 
 

I quit smoking the hard way. I hit a car on my motorcycle on 7-17-17 (3 sevens. Bad luck, apparently.)

After coming home from the hospital I didn’t smoke. I did use nicotine lozenges. I kicked those things 50 days ago. For 5 years I only used the 2mg lozenges. I would cut them in two and I would use 5-7 per day. 
I quit them because I am having hip surgery on 8/25. The Doc said nicotine affects the healing and the body’s acceptance of the new hip. So, I quit the lozenges. 
 

Side note: Nicotine lozenges contain Aspartame. I did not know this until recently. I had some tests done and the doctors found I had a little build up in one artery near my heart. I found out that Aspartame can cause arterial build up near the heart so I had two really good reasons to quit the lozenges. 
The reason I continued to take them is in a study 10mg of nicotine daily helps to stave off Alzheimer’s disease. Every doctor I have told this looks at me like I am nuts. They did get off my back about nicotine lozenges, though. 
 

https://www.healthline.com/health/alzheimers-dementia/nicotine-and-alzheimers

[Dapper Dave]

I started smoking cigarettes in the navy back in '86, October of '86 to be precise. I never got to more than a pack a day, and when my son was born, with a non-working wife, money was a wee bit tight for smokes, so I quit...UNTIL my brother dropped by and offered me one, and back I was.

Flash forward about 15 years, wife STILL doesn't work, but loves spending my money, and I just can't justify spending money on cigs that are increasingly expensive AND smell bad. 
Enter a guy who offered me a pipe and some tobacco. That was it, cigarettes were gone. I can go several days without a smoke or just have one at the end of the day on the porch, or a couple of small bowls at work with my smoking sergeant. The doc says yes, still bad for you...not AS bad...but still bad. OK, Doc, thanks for the advice and the bar called, you forgot to pay your tab again. 

[Alpo]

16 minutes ago, Dapper Dave said:

UNTIL my brother dropped by and offered me one, and back I was.

There you go.

 

"Quitting smoking is easy. I've done it at least 10 times."

 

Quitting is easy. Staying quit - not so much. That's why you have to realize what I said a little bit up the thread. "I am a smoker. I choose not to smoke."

 

I will always be a smoker. I am addicted to tobacco. I just refuse to use it. If I started back - I know this because I've done it before. I smoke a cigarette today. Maybe tomorrow I only smoke one, but the day after tomorrow I will probably smoke two. And by the end of the week I will be back to a pack a day. Been there, done that, don't want to do it anymore. Hell, I got restarted one time because I would light my wife's cigarettes for her. Put it in my mouth, put fire to it, suck in one lungful, and hand her the lit cigarette. That took about 10 days before I was doing a pack a day.

[Subdeacon Joe]

5 hours ago, Cypress Sun said:

While watching the Tampa Bay Rays play the Oakland A's in a Wildcard playoff matchup, I started coughing up blood, lots of blood. My gal got scared, called 911 and I took a ride to the hospital in an ambulance. Finished watching the game in the emergency room. Rays won the game.

 

So, you coughing up blood is good luck for the Rays?

 

I've had half a cigarette in my life.  Tried it in my teens. Hated it,  and could taste it for days.  Early 20s and I took up a pipe - at Disneyland of all places.   The crowds were making me edgy, so my girlfriend suggested that I try a pipe. Used it 6 months,  maybe a year. Just once or twice a  week. Then I realized that it was the process, almost ritual, of preparing it, then holding it, gesturing with it,  that mattered. So I stopped buying tobacco. Kept the pipe for years. Used it as an adult pacifier. One day I dropped it and it broke.  I didn't replace it. 

 

I still like the smell of a tabacconists shop. 

 

One place I worked,  the owner would host a poker night for his buddies once a month in the upstairs area.  They all smoke cigars.  Place reeked of stale smoke for days. 

He used the delivery van for a week while his car was in the shop. Smoked cigars in it. After the first day of that,  and gagging during the drive, I brought some self-light charcoal and incense (Royal Carnation from Holy Transfiguration Monestary) and lit it in the ashtray. 

 

To the original question,  I  hear that brand loyalty is really strong in smokers, so I probably wouldn't if it wasn't my brand. 

 

[Dapper Dave]

My first wife was a smoker, quit about a year after we got married. My second wife never smoked a cigarette in her life, and knew I was a pipe smoker when we got married. She said I could smoke in her house and I said sweetheart, it would be very quickly ruined with stains and smell, I'll smoke outside. We even built a heckuva nice covered porch out front that also lets me grill in the shade.  

[Subdeacon Joe]

12 minutes ago, Alpo said:

 

I will always be a smoker. I am addicted to tobacco. I just refuse to use it.

 

Palomar and Mira Costa junior colleges had, maybe still have, a publication lecture program.  Back in the day, 1970s, it was free or maybe $2, to hear a 2 to 3 hour talk and question and answer period by people like Rod Serling, Thor Heyerdahl, Richard Leaky, Sir Bernard Lovell, Richard Feynman.

Anyway, Rod Serling, after about half an hour broke off what he was saying and said,  "Gawd! I have to have a  smoke.   Do you mind?" as he was reaching into his inside jacket pocket for the pack and lighter.  He took a few drags on it, held it up. "Look at the monkey on my back.   Look at the addict. I've tried to quit. I know it's gonna kill me,  but I just can't. "

[Dapper Dave]

Did it?

[Alpo]

 

 

But according to wiki

 

Serling was said to smoke three to four packs of cigarettes a day.[55] On May 3, 1975, he had a heart attack and was hospitalized. He spent two weeks at Tompkins County Community Hospital before being released.[2]: 217 A second heart attack two weeks later forced doctors to agree that open-heart surgery, although considered risky at the time, was required.[2]: 218 [56] The ten-hour-long procedure was performed on June 26, but Serling had a third heart attack on the operating table and died two days later at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, New York.[57] He was 50 years old.[5

 

 

[Dapper Dave]

Thankee kindly - I was 8 at the time. I remember his voice very well. I also remember the commercials with Yul Brenner, "Don't smoke, just don't smoke." 

[Stump Water]

2 hours ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

Then I realized that it was the process, almost ritual, of preparing it, then holding it, gesturing with it,  that mattered.

 

Same way with cigarettes.  How can you be taking a break if you're not having a cig?    A task can't be complete until you put all the tools away, sit down and have a smoke.  How can I "relax" without a smoke.

 

Have a cousin that was trying to quit.  One afternoon when she was over I put out some pretzel sticks to snack on.  She was "flicking the ash" off of a pretzel into the ashtray.  Had no idea she was doing it.  For lots of people it's a nervous habit like that.  Something... anything to do.  

[Cypress Sun]

1 minute ago, Stump Water said:

 

Same way with cigarettes.  How can you be taking a break if you're not having a cig?    A task can't be complete until you put all the tools away, sit down and have a smoke.  How can I "relax" without a smoke.

 

Have a cousin that was trying to quit.  One afternoon when she was over I put out some pretzel sticks to snack on.  She was "flicking the ash" off of a pretzel into the ashtray.  Had no idea she was doing it.  For lots of people it's a nervous habit like that.  Something... anything to do.  

 

After quitting, the time I wanted a cigarette the most was is when I get in my truck to go somewhere. Basically did that for 45 years...hard habit to break.

[Eyesa Horg]

With my morning coffee! Coffee just isn't the same, even after years.

[Grumpy Old Man]

My nicotine is snuff. I've tried to quit several times. Did not like my attitude.

[Subdeacon Joe]

36 minutes ago, Stump Water said:

 

Same way with cigarettes.  How can you be taking a break if you're not having a cig?    A task can't be complete until you put all the tools away, sit down and have a smoke.  How can I "relax" without a smoke.

 

Have a cousin that was trying to quit.  One afternoon when she was over I put out some pretzel sticks to snack on.  She was "flicking the ash" off of a pretzel into the ashtray.  Had no idea she was doing it.  For lots of people it's a nervous habit like that.  Something... anything to do.  

 

I had a job in which I carried a cordless drill in a holster. When I holstered it I would flick the Forward/Reverse switch like a safety.  When I carried it in my hand I had my trigger finger along the frame,  outside the trigger guard. Didn't notice until a coworker pointed it out.

Edited August 23 by Subdeacon Joe

[Stump Water]

53 minutes ago, Cypress Sun said:

 

After quitting, the time I wanted a cigarette the most was is when I get in my truck to go somewhere. Basically did that for 45 years...hard habit to break.

 

I've been known to say about ol' so-and-so that, "His truck won't go in gear until he lights a smoke."  😀

 

27 minutes ago, Grumpy Old Man said:

My nicotine is snuff. I've tried to quit several times. Did not like my attitude.

 

Chewed Red Man long before I ever smoked - as a teen working on the farm.  Then did the worm dirt (Copenhagen) while at University.  Never could stand any of the flavored chaw.

[Alpo]

39 minutes ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

When I carried it in my hand I had my trigger finger along the frame,  outside the trigger guard

I not only carry the drill with my finger off the trigger, but when I'm using it I don't do one long drill - ennnnnnnnnnnn. I do short "on and off" - enn enn enn enn enn. I'm doing triple taps. Dow dow dow. Dow dow dow. Dow dow dow. I've discovered I cannot hold the trigger down. I don't do mag dumps.

[John Kloehr]

1 hour ago, Cypress Sun said:

 

After quitting, the time I wanted a cigarette the most was is when I get in my truck to go somewhere. Basically did that for 45 years...hard habit to break.

I smoked in my old Chevy truck, and it was a garbage hauler to the dump as well as a hot rod toy. Little kiddo wanted to go to the dump with me, I spent 3 days cleaning out the truck. It was the last vehicle I was still smoking in and I have not smoked in a vehicle since. Quit smoking indoors much earlier when I noticed my clean clothes in the closet stank.

 

I still smoke (and assume I stink). And recall a post much earlier in this thread about a casino... Yeah, same experience for me in Reno when I was there for a dog show and car show. Sure, expected it on the gambling floor, but not to hit me in the face entering the hotel lobby.

 

Anyway, yes I still smoke. had migraines for most of my life and nicotine has helped more than any other pharmaceutical. It sucks, I was the most non-smoking anti-smoking kid you could have found. I've been robbing Peter to pay Paul on this for decades and know there is a price. Did finally find a source for "English" cigarettes again, the supply dried up during CoViD. Not saying they are safe cigarettes, but the average English smoker uses twice as much as the average US smoker, and the cancer rate is half of ours.

 

I'll skip a discussion of the difference in processing, just don't leave English cigarettes in your car unattended. They will not stay lit on a humid day, will nearly burst into flame on a dry day. They need to be cared for like fine cigars.

Edited August 23 by John Kloehr
Spelling Otto missed

[Subdeacon Joe]

2 hours ago, Alpo said:

 

 

But according to wiki

 

Serling was said to smoke three to four packs of cigarettes a day.[55] On May 3, 1975, he had a heart attack and was hospitalized. He spent two weeks at Tompkins County Community Hospital before being released.[2]: 217 A second heart attack two weeks later forced doctors to agree that open-heart surgery, although considered risky at the time, was required.[2]: 218 [56] The ten-hour-long procedure was performed on June 26, but Serling had a third heart attack on the operating table and died two days later at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, New York.[57] He was 50 years old.[5

 

 

 

It was probably '72 or '73.  Had to have my mom drive.

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

10 hours ago, Dantankerous said:

Once upon a time I worked with an older guy who used to smoke but quit when the price hit one dollar per pack. What does that stuff cost these days? Ten dollars a pack? More?

 

He once figured out how much money he had saved by quitting smoking and treated himself to an early retirement. 

I figure I saved enough to buy a new Tacoma.....but I spent it other stuff like guns, knives, books, food, etc, so Im driving a nine year old Chevy  Impala.

[Badlands Bob #61228]

I was in the grocery store yesterday and saw the Marlboro lights are now $9.00 a pack.  I gave up full time smoking about 17 years ago.  I had a few short term relapses over the years but I think I'm over them for good now.  I no longer dream about them.

[Eyesa Horg]

2 hours ago, Badlands Bob #61228 said:

I was in the grocery store yesterday and saw the Marlboro lights are now $9.00 a pack.  I gave up full time smoking about 17 years ago.  I had a few short term relapses over the years but I think I'm over them for good now.  I no longer dream about them.

Over $12 around here!

[Alpo]

The last time I paid attention to cigarette prices was about 5 years ago, and it was because they were on sale in the sale flyer that week. Marlboro Red box $7.50.

 

Wow.